Juju Chang

Wow.

Absolutely.

There was literally a pad of paper with a list of names.

One of them was a young man named Alvin, and it was one of those, you know, obviously the investigators are looking at everybody, her boyfriend, her family, everybody, but...

They zoomed in on this guy because he had had contact with her in the days before the murder.

And he went up to them and talked to investigators, and he was a registered sex offender.

And so then they focus on his...

Somebody who dropped him off, his friend named Maurice Dixon.

And he became the center of a lot of intense scrutiny because at one point he said something about duct tape, which was what was used to bound her body.

And so the investigators, again, more alarm bells, more alarm bells.

And mind you, this is in the early days of DNA.

And Maurice seemed to test positive.

So the police arrested him.

Exactly.

And it really changed the shape of his life because ultimately he was cleared.

And Maurice, you know, is African-American, did not fit the profile of the person that they said, one witness said they saw near her house.

And yet at the time, don't forget, this was like on the heels of the OJ Simpson verdict.

Right.

on the heels of the L.A.

riots.