00:00In August 2003, 22-year-old Katie Sepich was brutally attacked outside her New Mexico home.
00:06She was raped, strangled, and her body was later set on fire and abandoned at an old dump site.
00:12But during the attack, Katie fought back. Under her fingernails, investigators discovered skin
00:18and blood belonging to her attacker. They created a DNA profile and entered it into Cody's.
00:24But there was no match. For months, the killer remained unidentified.
00:30Then everything changed. A man named Gabriel Adrian Avila was arrested for an unrelated
00:36burglary. His DNA was collected and entered into the database. And then came the chilling result.
00:43It matched the DNA found on Katie. When confronted with the evidence, Avila confessed to her murder.
00:50But Katie's story didn't end there. Her parents turned their grief into a campaign for stronger
00:55DNA collection laws, helping inspire Katie's law. A killer thought he had escaped justice.
01:02But the evidence he left behind had been waiting for him.
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