In that case, many people speculated that the victim's husband, Harold Whitlock, was responsible for the murder. His alibi was he was at a bachelor party that night, and he told police he found his wife's body in the hallway when he came home at about 4:30 a.m.
He was never arrested, but the rumors about his involvement eventually forced him to move out of the area. He died in a car crash in Oregon in 2001.
In 1999, Scott Avery Fizzell confessed to the murder and was sentenced to 31 years to life. An informant called the police and told them he knew the whole story. He was moved to finally share the information he kept for 11 years because he was reminded of what he knew every time he saw a poster asking for information in the Whitlock murder, Jackie Peterson said.
"That's why we have to get these posters into every pizza parlor and on every pole," she said. "Maybe someone will finally call police and spill their guts about who really took Laci."
A different ending.