Dr. Timothy Stryker

But after three years' time, nobody had been brought to justice.

So Lynn's family stepped in and did the only thing they could.

In 1996, Lynn's mother, Marguerite Rafuse, filed a wrongful death suit against the man she always believed killed her daughter, Dr. Tim Stryker.

The suit charges Dr. Stryker, quote, willfully, wantonly, and maliciously killed Gowdy by strangling her, unquote.

It's a scathing accusation against a man who's never been criminally charged with Lynn's murder.

If I think about what I would do if my daughter died, and if I suspected that somebody else may have killed her, then I could see how I would have an agenda to try to bring somebody to justice.

But they obviously are blaming the wrong person.

It's a civil case, not a criminal case, so it's easier to win.

But Lynn's family still wanted the DA's file containing all the evidence against Stryker.

And that turned into a long, drawn-out legal tug of war.

The DA's office considered this an open case and refused to turn over the file.

The family wanted to prove their case.

The prosecutors wanted to protect theirs.

It went back and forth for nearly 10 years, but Lynn's family and their attorney, Michael Altman, kept up the pressure to get Stryker in front of a jury.

Our feeling was, you do it or we'll do it.

And it should not be, nobody does it.

And finally, in 2006, 13 years after Lynn's murder, her family won the fight.

How are you doing this morning?

A court ordered the DA to turn over the criminal file.

And armed with that, the Rafuses were ready to do what prosecutors could not, confront Tim Stryker in a court of law.