Stephanie Ramos

Three blood samples came from someone else.

One was found on a baseboard in the dining room, one was taken from the door to the kitchen, and one was discovered on the back door leading to the yard.

And crucially, these three samples all matched DNA that had been found on Leslie Preer's fingernails.

Whoever's DNA this was, was likely the person Leslie had struggled with right before her death.

And that person could be her killer.

On June 18th, detectives got a warrant to take samples of Sandy Prier's blood and hair, which would be analyzed to see if they were a match with the blood found at the crime scene.

Investigators waited, and then the results finally came back in late July.

State's attorney, John McCarthy, again.

and it was not Mr. Prear.

This information changed everything.

Investigators had been laser focused on Sandy Prear for weeks, but this crime scene DNA belonging to an unknown male was not in fact from the number one suspect in the Leslie Prear case.

And if it wasn't Sandy's DNA, whose was it?

This is Leslie's boss, Brett Reedy.

Sandy and some of Leslie's relatives found it odd, even suspicious, that Brett had turned up at the Prier's house the day Leslie's body was discovered.

Remember, when Sandy mentioned Brett back in his second police interview in May, detectives had been skeptical.

Now, a few months later, the Brett Reedy theory sounded a lot more interesting to them.

Soon, the DNA would reveal to investigators whether Brett was somebody who cared or somebody who may have killed.

And Brett wasn't the only person detectives were taking a closer look at.

For the rest of 2001, investigators cast their net wider and wider.

They interviewed Leslie Prier's former colleagues and friends.