Alvin Melleth

She hounded El Paso PD to solve the desert murders.

At first, police treated the victims as runaways, unconnected to each other.

But Detective Johnny Guerrero told us that it was Marcia who pushed them to see the connections.

It was Marcia who told them to interview kids at Desi's middle school, which eventually led them to David Wood.

I tell Marcia that it's possible that if not for her, this case would never have been solved.

Marsha bats this idea away.

She says she was just persistent.

In any case, she did turn out to be crucial in key decisions about David Wood's punishment.

Marsha wanted the death penalty.

But the El Paso DA's office was struggling to get him on all six murders.

One day, Marsha says she got a call from the district attorney of El Paso himself, a guy named Steve Simmons.

He asked Marsha to come to his office.

Remember the orange fibers police found at David Wood's apartment?

They'd found similar-looking fibers near Desi's body, too.

It was the only physical evidence that tied David Wood to any of the crime scenes, and it linked him directly to Marsha's daughter.

Meanwhile, Marsha kept advocating, not just for her rights, but for the rights of all crime victims and their families.

For a time, she ran the El Paso chapter of a national group called Parents of Murdered Children.

This was the heyday of the victims' rights movement, which fought for family members to get on the stand at trials and give victim impact statements, and even to witness executions.

That last part is important to Marsha, because ever since David Wood was convicted, Marsha has planned to be there when he's put to death.

Marsha admits she was naive back then.