Chapter 35
They were on to something. Miranda knew it.
Now, they just had to connect the dots and find the man who fit the profile—and then see if he was the man they were after, all along.
She had a list of the top one hundred potential suspects—Pierce had narrowed them down years ago, and she’d found his work still fit their new parameters.
They were just in the phase of narrowing it all down.
Somehow. If they could get one hundred names down to ten or twenty, that was a start.
Military records cross-referenced resulted in forty men who had in some way crossed paths with the Gibsons.
Their church was the largest in the area—twenty of the forty attended church with them.
Four were fathers of teammates or classmates of Cruz.
Six were fathers of kids Terra had come across.
Three were contacts of Hailey in some way.
Of the one hundred in the general list, eight were dead.
That did not rule them out, but she sat them aside.
They would have to be traced in a different way, if needed.
Original evidence had resulted in inconclusive on the DNA profile; but Dani had texted earlier that Kelly Compton thought she could isolate enough of a sample now.
It would be compared to known suspects—once they identified some.
And PAVAD had recently hired a genetic genealogist who specialized in using DNA results and ancestry to identify possible suspects in homicides and sexual assaults.
She was supposed to transfer to PAVAD next week.
Seventy percent of her time would be assigned to Cold Case.
Miranda couldn’t wait to see what that woman could do.
But in the meantime, they had potentials to go through.
Dani was going to get started on the death records once Miranda and Knight got her a slightly shorter list to work from. All of the one hundred names Pierce had amassed through the years would be cross-checked, but…Miranda knew.
The profile was not wrong now. They were looking for a connection of the Gibsons who had been in the military several years before the murders, who had been divorced or was divorcing at the time, and who had lost a daughter in some way. Most likely…death.
They just had to keep narrowing. She finally felt like they were getting closer to answers.
She was going over that list when her phone rang. “Hello?”
“Dr. Talley. This is Bryan Stenson. Owner of the Gibson house.”
“Hello, Mr. Stenson, how can I help you today?”
“I am thinking of selling that house. Putting the money back. I got four college educations to pay for. Sooner than I want to think about it. And…well…I need to know what to do with the rest of it?”
“I’m sorry. The rest of what?”
“Their belongings. Aimee and Derek, and the kids. I just…shoved it all in the garage and left it. After…the crime scene clean up guys were done. And well…It just never felt right to sell their things. Not with their killer still out there. I tried to get ahold of Asher, but…I guess he’s busy.
And I got a realtor coming in two days to talk. ”
“Would it be okay if I came over and looked at what you have? Just…to cover all the bases?”
“I suppose so. I…will be here all day. Fixing trim in the bathroom and things. Just…come whenever you want.”