That's another one of the odd occurances that puzzle me. A woman's body on the floor, and the cops only spend 2 hours and 22 minutes investigating? They spend more time on shoplifters and petty criminals in most jurisdictions.
They briefly looked over Terri, didn't see any blood, bruises or other outward signs of anything amiss, and that was that. They did not follow up -- this shocks me -- and get a medical report on Terri from the doctors and ER personnel. Perhaps they were unaware that bruises and other marks from violence may not show up for two days; that half of all strangulations leave no marks at all; that emergency rooms have an absolutely dismal record of detecting domestic violence; that Terri may have suffered internal injuries; that Terri's blood tests might reveal indications of violence (in fact, they did), and so on. In other words, these two policemen wrapped up their "investigation" before it was even possible to have any idea what occurred.
The cop's investigation was faulty and inadequate, his not even bothering to interview Terri's brother who was on the scene first after Mikey did whatever he did. But the cop did the right thing and referred it to Homicide where it remains as a Cold Case. At the time, it was not a homicide, just unfinished business.