The Murder of Nancy Bennallack | Bloodline Detectives with Nancy Grace | Forensic Files

[INTENSE MUSIC] NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Sacramento, California-- October 26, 1970.
Police respond to an emergency call to discover the mutilated body of 28-year-old Nancy
Bennallack. ANNE MARIE SCHUBERT: To have a woman home alone in her bed who was basically butchered to death, stabbed over 30 times,
and virtually decapitated, speaks volumes to the horrific nature of that crime scene.
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): The brutality of Nancy's murder astounds neighbors and even law
enforcement. Many simply want revenge. I wanted to meet this guy, but for all the wrong reasons--
slit his throat, just like he did hers. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Who is the killer?
Why did he target this young woman? Will he strike again? I hate to say it, but you suspect
everybody because who would want to do something like that? NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): 50 years later, investigators
turn to new groundbreaking forensic technology-- investigative genetic genealogy.
ANNE MARIE SCHUBERT: If we did not have this tool, forensic investigative genetic
genealogy, this case would not have been solved, no doubt about it. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Now criminals
who have hidden in the shadows for years discover there's no way to escape a powerful forensic science.
I'm Nancy Grace. This is "Bloodline Detectives." [THEME MUSIC] [PLACID MUSIC] NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Sacramento, California, 1970--
Nancy Bennallack, 28, is a young court reporter working at the State Capitol. It's a great stable job, and she also
enjoys spending time with her friends, her family, and her fiancé. That group includes her sister, Linda,
Linda's husband, Tom, and a fellow court reporter, Jack Moncrief. LINDA COX: My sister and I rented
the apartment on Bell Street. And Tom was in the army. And then when he came home from Vietnam, he and I got married.
Tom and Nancy were a lot alike. They watched "Perry Mason" and solved all the mysteries.
And we lived there for probably a year or two. TOM COX: It was a package deal because Nancy
and I just hit it off instantly when we met. And I played tennis with her. She showed me how to play tennis.
I went to law school because of Nancy. She thought I should be a lawyer because I argued too much.
So I went to law school for a couple of years. And so the loss of Nancy still haunts me.
I met her through my mother. And my mother worked with Nancy. They were both court reporters.
And I happened to just really like Nancy's personality. She was very vivacious and very attentive.
You know, she looked you in the eye when she talked to you. She didn't look over your head.
And we became really good friends. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Nancy is engaged to a courthouse lawyer, a public defender, Farris
Salamy. LINDA COX: Nancy was dating Farris at the time when we had the apartment there.
The four of us went together a lot of places, and we were just pretty inseparable.
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): October 25, the night before Nancy is murdered, she and fiancé Farris go on a date.
They had gone out for your typical evening. They went to dinner. They came home.
Nancy was in an upstairs apartment. And then he left, and he left the slider open,
I'm assuming because it was probably a nice night. And so then he left, and everything seemed to be fine.
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): The next morning, Nancy doesn't show up for work. My mother called.
And I looked out the window. And I said, well, Nancy's car is still here. So let me go up there and see what's going on.
And went and got the apartment manager and explained the situation. So he got his master key, and we both went up there together.
I went in and obviously called her name out. And there was no response, so I went down the hallway.
Nancy's bedroom was off to the left, so I just sort of turned the corner and knew immediately it was bad.
There was blood on the ceiling, and there was blood everywhere. And then I looked down, and there
was Nancy lying face down, with just ghastly injuries. It's funny-- your body goes into sort of a fixed state.
And I just simply turned around, and I walked back to the apartment manager. And I simply said, go call the police, Nancy's been murdered.
When the police first arrived at Nancy's apartment, this is a very brutal crime scene.
They're going to want to be very careful to preserve the scene to make sure that photographs are taken of the apartment,
of the body, collect any potential evidence that is on the body, near the body. But in Nancy's case, this was a really
brutal crime scene for first responders to walk into. There were some clothing lying around,
probably clothes that she took off. But she was found dressed as her fiancé had said when he left her, just in a pair of white panties.
But she wasn't on the bed. She was found on the floor right next to the bed. One of the detectives--
and I'm not sure who it was, but I recognized him from the courthouse. So he and I, we went out into the back sliding door.
And we could see a blood trail leading from her back porch. She was on the second floor, but we
could see the blood trail through her porch and over the banister. And then a trail of blood leading out the back
of the apartment complex. A trail of blood? That's highly significant, and it could be an important clue
to identify the killer. When a victim is stabbed as many times as Nancy Bennallack is,
the killer can often be injured as well during the stabbing. Therefore police hope this trail of blood is from the killer,
and they take samples for testing. MICKI LINKS: There were two prints found in the area where it looked like he
probably got up to the balcony. They did casts of those to save the print itself.
I did tell Nancy that I was disappointed with her leaving her back sliding door open ajar for her cat.
And I did tell her. I said, Nancy, I know you live on the second floor, but I don't think it's that safe.
And I think he got the best of her before she could really put a defense up. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Nancy's body is sent for autopsy.
The medical examiner theorized that Nancy was murdered sometime between 1:00 and 5:00 that morning.
She had been stabbed in excess of 30 times. Many of the stab wounds were around her head and neck area.
Some of them were so severe and deep that she had been nearly decapitated. This was a very, very brutal killing.
MICKI LINKS: Nancy was a fighter, and we could tell that. The pathologist during the autopsy
found several defensive wounds on her hands from the knife and also on her leg, like possibly
she was kicking at the suspect. It doesn't appear that Nancy was sexually assaulted
by the person that killed her. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Nancy Bennallack's family
learns the terrible news. Tom came home, and he told me what had happened. And so he drove to Grass Valley to tell my mom,
who never got over it ever. I couldn't probably tell you what we even said or what was said.
I just wanted to get through the day to help my mom get through that day. She was the best big sister.
She loved her family. She did everything for me. She was just such a great person.
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Some of Nancy Bennallack's friends are convinced her fiancé is the killer.
Investigators suspect him, but they keep an open mind. That's next on "Bloodline Detectives."
[INTENSE MUSIC] [INTENSE MUSIC] NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Sacramento, California, October 25, 1970--
a young court reporter, 28-year-old Nancy Bennallack and her fiancé, Farris Salamy, finish
a date night at Nancy's home. Some time after Farris leaves, Nancy is brutally attacked and murdered.
Police immediately suspect the boyfriend, Farris, since he's the last person to see her alive.
Naturally the first person that police are going to consider as a suspect is the fiancé,
those that are closest to the victims. But then there was sort of another element
or another layer to it, because her fiancé worked as a public defender. And his responsibility as a public defender
is to represent some of the worst of the worst criminals. He was an attorney for people that did not-so-great things.
So naturally, people had to wonder, was this somehow connected? Was his work as a public defender somehow connected
to what happened to her? A lot of people did ask us about Farris. I couldn't believe that he--
I couldn't believe why he would want to do that and that he would do that, but we had a few people that really
suspected him, which a lot of times you watch stories on television and, you know,
it ends up being something like that. All that nonsense that they were talking about,
but it was just nonsense. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Police clear the fiancé, Farris Salamy.
He is no longer a POI, Person Of Interest. They now focus on the evidence found at the crime scene.
Some of the evidence included several pieces of tape that law enforcement later discovered
was used by the perpetrator to conceal his fingerprints. We are in the era that fingerprints
were probably one of the best methods of identifying people. So it tells me that this person premeditated
this crime, that he prepared himself to try not to be identified. I think what it spoke to them is this is somebody
that didn't want to get caught. The tape was wrapped around itself and, number one, our main concern
was trying to get fingerprints from those. There was some ridge detail, but not enough to get a print,
so that was unfortunately not useful. Evidence at the crime scene does not directly point to a suspect.
So investigators must try another strategy. They now look for similarities in other cases.
One in particular rings bells of alarm-- the murder of another young woman a few months earlier.
Judith Hakari had been murdered just a few months before Nancy. And both victims shared a lot of similarities to one another.
They were both young females, working professionals. Judith worked as a nurse. Nancy worked as a court reporter.
They were both last seen near their apartment complex. They also lived within only a few
hundred yards from one another. MICKI LINKS: If you stood on Nancy's balcony where the suspect entered, you could look across the field
and see the apartment complex where Judith Hakari lived. So the investigators at that time, with good reason,
started to assume that those two cases were linked. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Detectives
canvassed the apartment block where Nancy Bennallack lives. The way Nancy was found and the ensuing
trail of blood, you would think someone would hear something. And I never heard anyone mention the fact that, you know,
they heard screams or anything. That was surprising, I have to admit. That was surprising.
There were only, I believe, 25 units in this complex. So they canvassed the complex and spoke
with everybody that lived there that they could talk to. They also canvassed a lot of the other apartments in that area,
more so because of the Hakari connection. And during that canvas, they spoke with a woman who
told them that she had noticed a guy, you know, hanging around, loitering in the complex.
It made her a little nervous. COURTNEY FRETWELL: They described him about 5 foot
9, weighing 170 pounds, seen in the area. So the cops decided to have a sketch made of this individual
seen in the complex to see if anyone else had seen the man or possibly even recognized him.
But when the sketch was created, it didn't really bring any new information to Nancy's case.
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Detectives keep the family informed, but they don't have much progress to report.
LINDA COX: They contacted us often to ask us some questions. And you go over everybody and everything.
I mean, you think, where did we eat? You know, where did we do this? Where did we do that?
And we just went over and over and over. TOM COX: I had to go through all the interrogation
and everything because the guy was pretty athletic. They thought he was ex-military.
I was retired from the Army, so I was built in such a way that I probably could have climbed up on a balcony
without a problem. So they just-- first I was a suspect. And then I became an ally.
And they became allies of me. After they vetted me and they found out what was going on,
they suggested that we get a protection dog because I didn't want Lynn to be trained.
I could be coming home late. I was going to law school. I was coming home late. And if she got frightened, they said, she could shoot me.
I said, well, let's go with your plan, because I don't want her to shoot me. And so we just lived with it.
It was an adjustment. We just kept throwing adjustment after adjustment after adjustment.
And we were in touch with-- the police was terrific with us. As a matter of fact, they found our protection dog for us.
And we went through training so that the dog was trained to protect Lynn. And that's the way it was.
I-- I think I was trying to just put it behind me, because I had a very responsible job.
As a court reporter, that required a lot of concentration. And I just could not dwell on anything of that magnitude.
COURTNEY FRETWELL: The case eventually into Nancy's murder went cold as soon as the tips and information seemed
to have dried up, which was about five years after her murder. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): In time, Farris Salamy
moves on with his life. He forms a new relationship. He marries. He raises a family.
We stayed in touch with Farris and his kids, and we tried to just make a transition.
We tried to do what we thought Nancy would have wanted us to do, because she was a very forgiving person.
In 2004, over 30 years after Nancy Bennallack is viciously murdered, a new cold case unit revisits the case,
hoping forensic science can zero in on DNA samples found at the murder scene. When I was the supervisor of the sexual assault unit,
we started a cold case unit. And one of my duties was finding cases, reviewing case files,
to see if we still had the evidence and if the evidence was eligible to be tested for DNA.
It started a lot with the older ones, because as you work these cases, the older they are,
the more difficult they are, number one, to solve-- but also to prosecute, because most of your witnesses have passed away,
or your CSI officers who have collected evidence may not be around. And so you need all of those people to prosecute a case.
In 2004, when we were really beginning to use DNA in our cases, the blood trail from the balcony around to the parking lot, one
of those samples collected during the crime scene investigation was analyzed for DNA.
And the lab did get a male DNA profile, which was uploaded at that time into the state
and national CODIS databases. Detectives pinning their hopes on an emerging investigative tool.
Can remarkable advances in forensic science provide new hope for investigators tracking down Nancy's killer?
We find out next on "Bloodline Detectives." [INTENSE MUSIC] Sacramento, California, 2004--
34 years after 28-year-old Nancy Bennallack, brutally murdered in her own home, a cold case unit
from the Sacramento County Sheriff's takes over the case. Investigators sent a sample of blood left at the crime
to CODIS, a national database of DNA, DNA belonging to convicted criminals. Law enforcement was able to determine that the DNA
belonged to an unknown male. So finally, after a good amount of years, they had a usable DNA profile.
CODIS is our national DNA database, and it is a system that is incredibly important for law
enforcement because it stores thousands of DNA profiles from individuals all across the country.
So when law enforcement collects DNA at a crime scene, they're able to take that DNA, upload it into CODIS,
and essentially compare it to all of the known profiles in the system, potentially looking for a match.
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): This DNA profile is unique to the suspect. But unfortunately, it does not match any names
in the CODIS database. Four more years go by. Then investigators take a look at that profile again.
Well, in 2008, in California, we started what's called a Familial Search Program
at the California Department of Justice, which would then allow you to look for any family member
in the convicted offender database that might be related to your killer. In a familial search, you're looking at very, very close
relatives of convicted offenders, so a father-son, maybe, maybe a first cousin, maybe an uncle-nephew,
but it's got to be a very, very close relationship. And that's limited. I mean, there have been cases that
have been solved through it, and it's a great tool for law enforcement. The fact that four searches were done
speaks volumes to the importance of this particular case. And ultimately there was no matches from
that familial search as well. So that's where we were at that time. Once again, Nancy Bennallack's murder case goes cold.
Remember how investigators all the way back in 1970 looked for similar homicides to garner possible clues?
Well, now it's 2019. Investigators apply the same strategy. This time they look at the forensic science
used to catch the infamous Golden State Killer a year before. During the middle of the Golden State Killer
investigation, when forensic investigative genetic genealogy was being done, when I realized that this could potentially
work in solving the biggest serial killing case in California perhaps, my brain and other people's brains
were like, what's next? What other case-- if it works, what's next? And we had a list because we knew all the cold cases.
We had the Norcal Rapist, we had the John Doe rapist, we had Robin Brooks, we had Nancy Bennallack.
So that thought process really pretty much started in early 2018. MICKI LINKS: I think we'd had success with forensic genealogy
on other cases, big cases. So we thought this would be a perfect case, as long as our DNA was probative for a SNP profile.
You have to remember, this is a 1970 case. And although they preserved evidence as
well as they could back then-- you know, it's going to deteriorate after time-- but we were lucky enough to find a couple samples
that they could use to do forensic genealogy and get us a profile. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Gene By Gene
is one of several labs specializing in investigative genetic genealogy. They work with law enforcement by combining
old DNA samples with new family heritage databases. Gene by Gene was a critical part of this team
because the DNA sample from Nancy's case was sent to them to do this specialized kind
of testing called SNP testing. So they played a crucial role in developing the profile that we needed to be able to do
family tree building. DR. CONNIE BORMANS: Gene by Gene is a private biotechnology company located in Houston, Texas.
Right now the majority of our work is primarily in the genetic genealogy and research space.
And we do smaller amounts of clinical testing. Initially we got a call from law enforcement,
and they were describing the case to us. They said it was a sexual assault and homicide.
So Nancy Bennallack was found in her home stabbed over 30 times. So this was a very violent, very horrific crime.
We reviewed all of the evidence that they had, the DNA evidence. And we decided that it was a good candidate to move forward
with microarray testing. Microarray testing has been around for a very long time.
Think of it as, if you have a book, a full book, we're not trying to read the entire book.
We're only taking maybe the 20th word from every sentence in that book. And that creates a snapshot of the entire book.
And using that snapshot, we can kind of find out what books are more similar to other books.
When we completed the testing for the Nancy Bennallack case, we got a very good SNP profile that was able to be
uploaded into the database. What you're doing with that DNA sample is you are identifying somewhere in the neighborhood
of 700,000 to 1 million sites on the DNA chromosome. And what that allows you to do is to then take that profile
and you have so much more data in that profile because it's 700,000 to 1 million.
That's what allows you, then, to get more and more relatives when you upload that to a genealogy site, such
as GEDmatch or Family Tree DNA. DR. CONNIE BORMANS: After you get that list of genetic relatives, what the genealogists do
is they use a combination of the predicted relationships-- because all of the genetic relatives based on the amount
of DNA that they match with the SNP profile will get what's called an estimated relationship.
Obviously the closer related you are, the more DNA that you will have in common.
And as you go further out, it gets less and less. And we have ranges for all of the relatives
that you can have based on the amount of shared DNA. The amount of DNA that you share is given by a number,
and the unit is called a centimorgan. For example, a parent-child relationship, on average,
will have shared DNA at the 3,500 centimorgan range. And it decreases as the relationship
gets further and further apart. That team was critical because they spent, I think,
close to almost three years or so developing this family tree and ultimately providing the answer
to who killed Nancy Bennallack. For this case, we provided the access to the Family Tree DNA account, and law
enforcement took it from there. And they did the genealogy, and they built the family tree.
And occasionally, especially with cases that take so long, we will touch base with them.
Hey, have you had any progress? Is there anything we can do to help? And I believe we heard still working on it,
still working on it, still working on it. And we didn't hear otherwise until they let us know.
They sent us an email saying, we notice, we got it. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): The genealogists
come up with a name. It's a huge breakthrough. But now police must establish whether that name
has any links to the murder victim, Nancy Bennallack. MICKI LINKS: We identified a person
named Richard John Davis who lived in Sacramento at the time. We did some research on him and figured out
where he worked, was he married, did he have children? And while we're gathering up all this intel, I've always heard,
you know, go back to the case file and see if the guy's in there. And the first thing I did was went
to the roster of the people that lived in that apartment complex, and he lived in apartment 23.
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Next on "Bloodline Detectives," who is Richard John Davis?
Is he the killer of Nancy Bennallack? [INTENSE MUSIC] Sacramento, California, 2019-- almost 50 years
after the horrible murder of 28-year-old Nancy Bennallack, new forensic science has given investigators
a name, the name of a suspect, Richard John Davis. He had been interviewed. We looked and saw that he had been interviewed
a day or two after the murder. But it was very vague. You know, reports are a lot different now
than they were back in 1970. But it didn't have identifying information for Richard Davis.
It didn't have his middle name. It didn't have a date of birth. It just had an age--
which matched, but we had to confirm, is this the guy that we think? But he lived with another guy at that time.
And I was able to actually find that guy and talk to him. I asked him a few things about his roommate,
and he had been arrested a couple of times for driving while under the influence.
We figured out where he worked. He worked at a grocery store. He was a clerk. He had been in the military, married a couple of times,
had a child. But during the time that he lived there, he just lived with this roommate.
I kind of look at him as a line-of-sight killer. He's somebody that probably lived within just a line
of sight of Nancy Bennallack. I believe he was 28 years old. He didn't have much of a criminal record.
I think he had a drunk driving arrest. And ultimately, he died in, I believe, 1997 from something related to alcoholism.
MICKI LINKS: Very disappointed that he was deceased. One of the things that bothers me
is that these murderers get to go on and live their life. And they've taken that away from somebody.
And they live their life for years. Unfortunately we weren't able to arrest him and bring him to justice.
But we still wanted to confirm that we had the right guy, so we found a close relative of his
that was willing to help us. And that person was gracious enough. Didn't want to be involved, obviously, to find out
that their relative was involved in a crime like this, but thought of the victim and their family and said,
I'll help you. And that person gave us their DNA, and we were able to confirm that he is our suspect.
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Once Richard John Davis is absolutely confirmed as Nancy Bennallack's killer,
retired detective Micki Links must contact her family. MICKI LINKS: You just don't want to give them false hope.
So we waited till we had the confirmation, and then I was able to call Linda and Tom, who are--
Nancy's parents are deceased, but they're the closest relatives and have always been a champion for finding
out who did this to her sister. Tom and I had just pulled into Auburn and made a stop in a parking lot.
And the phone rang in the car. We hadn't even got out of the car. And that's when Mickey told me, right then and there,
that it's all figured out. We solved it. I'm so grateful to her. We had no clue who did it.
We never had seen this guy. He moved into the complex after we had moved out-- I think after I moved out.
I'd never seen him. We knew a lot of the people in the apartment complex. From what little I found out about him,
he was obviously a very troubled man. Do I think he's a bad guy? I think what he did to my sister-in-law was horrendous.
And anybody that knew Nancy, I couldn't imagine anybody wanting to hurt her. DR. CONNIE BORMANS: As a company,
we are extremely proud of the work that we're doing. We believe it's the right thing.
And just to hear the stories from either the victims or the victims' families about how relieved they are that they
know who did this, they know that if they are alive still they're going to pay for this, they get justice,
and they have told us through the investigators multiple times, they feel that they never have to look
over their shoulders anymore. They know that their nightmare is over, and they know that it's not going
to happen again by this person. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Now investigators suspect Richard
John Davis also murdered Judith Hakari, a young nurse murdered in Sacramento in 1970.
Even though they try so hard, they struggle to find definitive proof linking Davis to the murder of the young nurse.
There is a great chance that Nancy is not Richard Davis's only victim. Based on how brutal the murder was,
there's a real good chance that there might be other victims out there. We'll only know is if there was DNA left behind perhaps,
or some other conclusive evidence that he committed more crimes. The fact that he put tape on his fingers
in an era when fingerprints were the most significant piece of evidence tells me that he went
in there to do what he wanted to do in an effort to not be caught. The best way to describe him is vicious, violent killer.
Richard John Davis's death leaves so many questions unanswered for Nancy Bennallack's relatives,
for police, and for those who were so much a part of her life. That's next on "Bloodline Detectives."
[INTENSE MUSIC] Sacramento, California, August 2022-- sheriffs announce the killer of 28-year-old Nancy
Bennallack, 52 years before, is Richard John Davis, now dead. The news is too late for her former fiancé Farris Salamy.
Once a suspect, this innocent man was the last person to see the victim alive beside the killer.
Farris Salamy, Nancy's fiancé, had unfortunately passed away from cancer in 2014.
And he died without knowing what happened to the person that he was supposed to marry.
As any case like this where a woman is killed and she has a boyfriend or a fiancé or a husband,
usually that's the first person that investigators look at. And so he was looked at.
I think that was sad that he wasn't alive to know that we solved this. I know he went on and got married.
But he had children from before, and they know that it was solved. But knowing that you're probably under suspicion
all the time but you know you didn't do it, that had to be tough. It was never resolved.
I think in a lot of people's minds that he was not implicated. I think he had to live with that the rest of his life.
It would have really helped Farris if the perpetrator had been caught when Farris
was alive, that's for sure. It would have absolved him of a very heinous situation.
It would have really absolved him. And I think it may have cut his life short, because he lived with it.
You know, this case, like all of them, you get so involved in the case. And you feel like you know the victim,
and then you learn-- you get to know their families. And so that was good to know that we can still go back
and solve some of these cases. I think it's good for our department and the community
to know that we're investing time and money and effort into these cases. You know, I always say that the case that happened
40 or 50 years ago is not any less important than the one that happened yesterday.
And that's kind of how I feel about staying working with these cases. I think that's one of the greatest things Sacramento has,
is seeking to resolve these cold cases for the simple reason that it gives the families, the grieving families,
some peace of mind. And it's very effective. And I'm so glad we have it. And Micki-- you know, she's retired.
And she looks upon this as her assignment. This is my assignment. I'm going to hunt these people until I find them.
And she's that type of woman. She's going to keep hunting. ANNE MARIE SCHUBERT: I think perhaps what
I'm most proud of is the fact that even though it was 50-plus years old, even though many people probably suspected
the killer was dead, as a prosecutor or a public safety official, we owe it to families.
We just owe it to them. Golden State Killer may have been dead. I had so many people say, quit wasting your time.
To me, the answer is the answer. And it's our obligation to find it, no matter what the outcome.
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): The tragic murder of young Nancy Bennallack is finally solved.
She will always be remembered by people who knew her and loved her, and of course the investigators who worked
tirelessly to crack the case. TOM COX: Nothing can remove Nancy from our heart. She's there forever.
Everybody that I knew that knew her loved her. I loved her. I used to tell Lynn, if she didn't
quit misbehaving and being Linda, I'm going to marry your sister. So we used to tease each other about that.
She was just a super gal. Lynn is adjusted as well as she's ever going to adjust.
She will never, ever, ever forget what she's gone through. We've been good for one another for a lot of reasons.
We've been through tragedies, losses of parents and friends. And so we just lean on one another
anytime there's a problem. And that's golden, as far as I'm concerned. If I didn't have her, I don't know what I would have done.
We got a little girl named Nancy that reminds us, though. She was having a great time in her life, 28 years old,
going to get married, had a great job. She had traveled and had fun early on in her younger years
and was ready to settle down. Had great friends and had amazing family. Her sister and brother-in-law were amazing.
So she was in a good place, and that's what makes it so sad. LINDA COX: She would love it here.
We say that almost every day. She would be out there with those horses and the cows and the dogs.
Her favorite song when she and I would drive to Grass Valley or someplace, she'd say, let's sing
"Don't Fence Me In." And we'd sing that song. And it's about, give me a lot of land and don't fence me in.
Breakthroughs like investigative genetic genealogy are amazing. But they're only as good as the dedication and hard work
of investigators who carry on tirelessly, sometimes for years, to catch a killer.
They even continue their work after they're retired. It's a real inspiration to everyone seeking justice.
I'm Nancy Grace. Thank you for joining us here on "Bloodline Detectives." [INTENSE MUSIC]

October 1970, Sacramento, California. 28-year-old Nancy Bennallack is found in her apartment stabbed to death. Police try in vain to solve the case, but it would take over 50 years and major advancements in forensic science to solve Nancy’s murder.

Now in its fourth season, Bloodline Detectives is the leading true crime series that explores how police departments harness genetic genealogy to solve crimes that were once considered "unsolvable," bringing long-awaited answers to victims' families.

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Brief Summary

Nancy Bennallack's 1970 murder is solved 50 years later through genetic genealogy, identifying Richard John Davis as her killer.

Key points

Brutal Murder Shocks Community. Nancy Bennallack, a 28-year-old court reporter, is found brutally murdered in her home.
Investigation Turns to Forensic Technology. 50 years later, investigators utilize groundbreaking forensic technology to solve the case.
Fiancé Cleared as Suspect. Police clear Nancy's fiancé, Farris Salamy, as a person of interest in her murder.
Cold Case Unit Revives Investigation. In 2004, a cold case unit revisits Nancy's murder, hoping for new leads.
Familial Search Program Launched. California begins a Familial Search Program to find relatives of convicted offenders.
The Name of a Suspect. Investigators identify Richard John Davis as the suspect in Nancy Bennallack's murder.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It's funny-- your body goes into sort of a fixed state.

A witness describes their reaction upon discovering Nancy's body.

5:42WatchMay 31, 2024

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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