A young dancer from the Midwest
leaves her hometown
to chase her dreams in the big city.
We knew it when we saw Catherine.
We knew what she could be.
She realized that maybe
this talent could take her to Broadway.
But just three years later, she is found brutally murdered
in her Upper East Side apartment.
I had never seen a homicide to that extent.
She was stabbed approximately 15 times.
And as the case turns into a media frenzy,
the team of detectives begin to wonder
if the person who discovered the body...
Knows more than they're letting on...
The obvious is usually the obvious.
Or if there was more to this homicide
than initially thought.
He felt like she might have been being stalked by someone.
Why didn't you call the police?
Why didn't you do anything?
He was believing that he could possibly go to jail
for a crime he didn't commit.
It's something that you'll never forget.
[dramatic music]
♪
[siren wailing]
People come from around the world
to make it big in New York City.
It's a city that makes you feel anything is possible.
In 2002, a 17-year-old
moves here from the Midwest
with dreams of dancing
on a Broadway stage,
but just a few years later,
her dreams and her life
are brutally cut short, and in our quest
to seek justice for her heartbroken family,
New York's finest were consumed
by this investigation.
This case really sticks with me because the teams
sifted through evidence over and over again
until it came down to finding
that one missing piece of the puzzle.
Investigators were sadly aware
that they were retracing the victim's final day
at a time she should've been celebrating,
as this tragic story begins,
ironically, at the start of the New York holiday season.
♪
On November 27, 2005, just a few days
after New York City's annual Thanksgiving Day parade,
we received an alarming 911 call.
[siren wailing]
You could hear on the call that he repeatedly
kept on trying to get her to wake up,
not realizing that she was hurt severely.
[siren wailing]
Detective Goetz and his partner
rushed to respond to the scene,
an area which doesn't typically receive
this type of 911 call.
When the patrol unit got on the radio
and said that it was a homicide,
I remember saying to my partner,
"Did he just say 'homicide'?"
Homicides rarely occur on the Upper East Side.
[siren wailing]
The building was located on East 86th Street,
and it was the typical Manhattan walk-up.
The detectives didn't see any forced entry
when they arrived to the location.
[indistinct chatter over police radio]
The apartment was small.
There was one bedroom with a living room and a kitchen,
so there wasn't a lot of space,
and the bedroom was just a mess.
The mattress was moved from the bed.
It appears the mattress has been moved off the frame
during a possible struggle, and the way its positioned,
the mattress is obstructing the doorway
of the victim's bedroom.
When EMS responded to see if they could possibly help
this woman, the doorway was blocked,
so they actually pushed the mattress up on the wall.
The entire bedroom was just covered in blood,
and the victim was lying on the floor on her back
in the bedroom of the apartment.
You could immediately see
that she was the victim of a violent crime.
She was stabbed approximately 15 times
and then also had deep lacerations to her neck.
It was so brutal, I remember saying to myself,
"I can't even tell what nationality the victim was."
And at that time,
our detectives know of only one other individual
who has access to the apartment besides the victim.
The person who called 911 was David Haughn,
and when I arrived at the scene,
he was in the hallway when I got there.
Detective Goetz speaks with the 23-year-old
and learns that the victim is 20-year-old Catherine Woods.
When I entered the victim's apartment,
my first observation was--
you could tell a lot of force was used.
A lot of rage and aggression was against her...
as opposed to maybe a robbery,
where I'm just trying to get away,
so I just cut the victim so I can make my escape.
This is a kind of a thing
you see when there's a rage already there.
As more of our officers begin arriving,
a team from the NYPD's revered Crime Scene Unit
starts processing the apartment.
So the Crime Scene investigator at the scene
observed a boot print
that was on the sheet of the bed
and that was on the back of her shirt.
Apparently when her neck was cut,
she bled forward.
It appeared to be a struggle.
With the spraying of the blood,
this more leads to the rage theory,
that whoever did it let go without thinking.
When you stab someone, normally it's either
a boyfriend or a girlfriend, a wife or a husband
because it's a close and personal type of homicide.
While speaking with David, the mysterious 911 caller,
Goetz also learns of the complicated relationship
between him and Catherine.
He tells me that they were once boyfriend and girlfriend,
that they were living together,
but they were in an on-and-off relationship,
and they originally lived in Ohio.
Our police department reached out to the Columbus, Ohio,
police department,
and they actually made the notification to the parents.
♪
So I don't know the exact moment that I found out.
I just can tell you that I wouldn't wish that
on any family or any parent.
Catherine's father was the director
of the OSU marching band,
and in this town, it's an important thing.
Jon Woods was an iconic figure
in the community,
and Catherine was his oldest daughter.
[marching band music playing, cheers and applause]
♪
[dramatic music]
I knew her from the time she was three,
when she was just a little girl
with pink ballet shoes.
I met her back in high school.
I remember the first time I saw her.
I was so jealous of her because she was just gorgeous,
and then she was just so sweet.
She was very dedicated to her dance,
and you could just feel
how strongly she felt when she talked about it.
We knew it when we saw Catherine.
We knew what she could be.
And I think she realized
that maybe this talent could take her to Broadway.
[horn honks, indistinct chatter]
So, in May of 2002, at just 17 years old,
Catherine decided she would chase the bright lights
all the way to the big city.
New York remains the promised land
and the only place that Broadway lives,
so the call is very strong for a dancer.
♪
Catherine found an apartment and settled into the Big Apple.
She really spent most of her time in New York
just taking acting lessons as well as dance lessons,
trying to get her break.
The getting up, the going to endless auditions
with hundreds and hundreds of people
who are every bit as good as you are.
Sometimes we're better dancers, and we don't get picked.
It can be soul-crushing.
Even though Catherine was busy pursuing her dreams,
she still managed to carve out time for trips back home.
She would come back to Columbus to see family
and see friends here and reconnect.
In fact, that's where she met David Haughn,
when she came home one weekend.
David Haughn had a very different
kind of an upbringing from Catherine.
He grew up a little rougher around the edges.
He was interested in music. She was interested in dance.
They shared that commonality, but I think she found
some simplicity in him and some openness.
And she asked David to come with her to New York,
and they lived together.
- Give us some New York energy! - Whoo!
He was an aspiring rapper, although he was working
as a doorman, you know, just like Catherine,
trying to find a way to make ends meet
while he was trying to make his dream come true.
♪
But after more than two years of dating,
Catherine and David's relationship
started deteriorating.
During the conversation with the police, David says
they agreed to no longer have a fully romantic relationship.
They did agree for necessity and familiarity
to continue to reside in the same apartment.
[dramatic music]
By 2004, despite her personal troubles, professionally,
Catherine finally seemed to be hitting her stride.
I heard she got an audition with the Rockettes.
A teacher, I believe,
said that she had a good look for Fosse's style.
She had good technique. I heard good things.
Catherine may not have been booking
all the jobs she wanted,
but she was getting in front of the right people,
and things were looking up,
but just over the three-year mark
of her big move to New York...
Catherine is found dead in her Upper East Side apartment
by her former boyfriend and current roommate
fellow Ohioan David Haughn.
And for our detectives, he is the first person
they'd like to speak with.
He kept on saying to us over and over again
that he didn't do it, that he would never hurt her.
♪
The obvious is usually the obvious.
And David is caught in this conundrum of being the last guy
in the apartment that we know, having access to the apartment,
and this young woman is dead,
so David immediately became a focus,
and he's starting to hit the check marks off
as somebody that, yeah, could be our guy.
♪
Coming up...
The boot print that was found at the scene was also a 10 1/2.
He finally tells the interviewer
that there's another boyfriend involved.
♪
[dramatic music]
[siren wailing]
As NYPD officers process the apartment
of homicide victim Catherine Woods,
back at the 19th precinct,
her former boyfriend turned roommate David Haughn
is being interviewed at length,
all the while maintaining his innocence.
The intensity started to increase where we got a point
where we actually accused him of committing the murder.
Now, at that point, he became upset.
His demeanor was very distraught.
He just kept on saying over and over again
that he doesn't know
how something like this could've happened to her.
But he had a steadfast denial.
He says, "I'm telling you I didn't do this; I loved her."
Back on the Upper East Side, Catherine's apartment
building becomes an expansive crime scene.
Every neighbor who was willing to talk
gave a statement about what they may have heard or saw.
Neighbors said they heard
crying, thumping, furniture moving.
[woman crying, shrieking]
But no one said that they say any suspect
at all leaving the building.
I remember they interviewed one of her neighbors
right after she was killed, and he was saying, "You know,
"well, I heard all this fighting and shouting.
It sounded like somebody was getting killed up there,"
and I remember screaming at the TV,
"Why didn't you call the police?
"Why didn't you go knock on the door?
Why didn't you do anything?"
When pressed about his whereabouts
during the time of Catherine's murder,
David presents detectives with his timeline.
So David and Catherine were in the apartment together.
She had to get ready to go to her job,
so what he would normally do is leave the apartment,
so get the car, and drive her to work.
While on the way to grab his car,
David says he also stopped to see his coworkers
for a few minutes at a nearby building
where he works as a doorman.
He told us that he often did this,
and he said he was with coworkers
for the time that the crime supposedly happened.
There's just one problem.
According to the timeline that David had provided,
he left the apartment at 6:40 p.m. to get his car
and had returned to discover Catherine by 6:59 p.m.
when he called 911, less than a 20-minute window of time.
The timeline was extremely razor-thin,
and in some detectives' minds,
his alibi made him seem more guilty.
The timeline that David provides
also conflicts accounts from several ear-witnesses
who live in the building and said they heard commotion
coming from the apartment around 6:18 p.m.
[woman shrieking]
So the times that he was allegedly out of the apartment
definitely needed to be cleared up.
In addition to David's murky timeline,
there are also pieces of evidence
that aren't doing him any favors.
So they asked David what shoe size was he?
He said that he was a 10 1/2.
The boot print that was on the bed sheet and the boot print
that was on the back of her shirt was a size 10 1/2.
While the evidence is stacking up against David,
he continues to insist
that he would never have hurt Catherine.
They were interviewing David for over 20 hours,
and towards the end of their interview,
he finally tells the interviewer
there's another boyfriend involved.
He said to me that there was this person
that Catherine had been seeing,
and the person's name was Paul Cortez.
♪
Catherine had left David for Paul Cortez.
David was aware of the relationship
and was unhappy about it,
but not so unhappy that he would go back to Ohio.
[siren wailing]
Detectives wonder if Paul's presence in Catherine's life
may have been a motive for David
to kill his one-time girlfriend.
But, you know, even though
David was the number-one suspect,
David consented to fingerprints,
pictures of his body
for any types of injuries that may have occurred if he,
in fact, was the one that committed the crime.
And they took his nail scrapings in case her DNA
was underneath his nails.
The next morning, some of the team gets to work
on verifying David's alibi and timeline
while others track down Paul Cortez,
the guy David says Catherine has been seeing.
Sergeant Panuccio and I were asked
to go to his apartment.
We knocked on the door.
The door opened, and there's Paul Cortez,
big, handsome guy, long flowing hair.
He knew about Catherine because he asked right away
if we caught the guy who did this.
We informed him no.
The investigation is still ongoing.
I said, "We really need to speak with you
about your relationship with Catherine,
and we need you to come back to the precinct."
Paul was very cooperative,
and he seemed like your average 24-year-old.
You know, he didn't come in and ask for a lawyer.
He didn't have defensive posture.
But she was his girlfriend, and understandably, you know,
he was depressed.
He put his head down.
Paul tells investigators that he and Catherine
had met in August of 2004
and that they'd been dating a little over a year.
Paul and Catherine both shared a love
for performing arts and the theater and for dancing,
and I could feel their chemistry.
It was very, very palpable.
Both her and Paul were really into each other.
And like Catherine, Paul had dreams
of making it on the Great White Way.
In the theater world, you call someone like Paul
a triple threat.
You can sing, you can act, and you can dance.
He was a really, really talented guy.
Maybe what Catherine was looking for was not David.
David is the old life. Paul Cortez is the new life.
I'll use a cliché: a little more New York.
I remember Paul saying that David
was like the ex-boyfriend who she feels sorry for
so she's allowing him to stay on the couch
because she wanted to, you know, make sure he's okay.
As Paul's interview continues,
the detectives press him for his whereabouts
for the time of Catherine's murder.
Paul told me during that day he was out shopping.
And then his alibi for that evening
was that he went to watch football with friends.
After watching football, he went back to his apartment.
Paul tells detectives that he had spoken to Catherine
only once briefly that afternoon
and that he had tried calling her multiple times later on
but grew concerned when he couldn't reach her.
♪
Towards the end of his interview,
Paul Cortez drops a bombshell.
As a struggling artist in the city,
Catherine had a variety of part-time gigs,
and at one of those jobs,
Catherine was the target of a possible stalker.
Somebody put something in her drink one night, drugged her.
She felt like she might have been being stalked by
or followed by someone at the club.
♪
[dramatic music]
♪
As our detectives look into the brutal murder
of 20-year-old aspiring dancer Catherine Woods,
they learn of a potential new lead
involving a possible stalker
who frequented the downtown club where she worked.
Paul mentioned that there was one night
that Catherine had been involved in an incident
in a nightclub downtown where she was working.
She called him,
and he soon found out that she was found passed out,
I believe, in the women's bathroom,
and Catherine had told Paul
that she believed that she had been drugged,
that somebody might have slipped something in her drink.
♪
According to Paul, Catherine was never able to find out
who the culprit in that incident was,
but he does mention the name of someone he knew
as an admirer of Catherine who often went to her club.
Paul mentioned that it was a Joe or Joe something,
so we got that information,
and we had to follow up on that.
Like the other man in Catherine's life, David Haughn,
Paul was also extremely cooperative
during his police questioning.
Paul was asked to do the same thing as David was asked,
to look at his body to see if he had any injuries.
He just had one little injury on his finger.
He said it came from the gym.
One of the weights pinched his finger,
but he had no scratches, no bruising, nothing.
He was answering the questions.
He seemed to be, like, a very calm, easygoing guy.
Paul was interviewed for a few hours.
During that time, he did give a verbal statement
as well as a written statement about where he was,
which is very important.
He was released voluntarily.
♪
[siren wailing]
Even 24 hours after the murder,
despite maintaining his innocence,
David Haughn is still being questioned and viewed
as the main suspect in Catherine's murder,
and as their investigation continues,
the NYPD also attempts to reassure
Catherine's loved ones back in Ohio.
This was pre-social-media days,
so we couldn't just see what was happening,
other than she was killed in New York.
[somber music]
She came to New York to fulfill a dream
and was on her way,
and then this happened,
and I just cannot get over it.
♪
I remember calling Catherine's father,
and I said to him
we would do our best to solve the case.
Catherine's father, Jon,
told me that he had great confidence in us.
[siren wailing]
Back at the 19th precinct, Detective Goetz works to verify
if Paul was telling the truth about Joe,
the man who frequented the downtown nightclub
where Catherine worked.
Catherine's cell phone information was subpoenaed,
and Joe's cell phone number was within Catherine's call detail.
Not only is it true that Joe is a real person,
but according to her call logs,
Joe had called Catherine at 8:55 p.m.
the night before she was killed.
Detectives wondered if Joe could be the potential stalker
from the club whose fixation turned deadly.
So we had to speak to whoever this person might be
and find out, like, A, if it ever happened,
B, you know, who this person is,
run background checks on him
and check them out to see what their deal is.
[siren chirps]
We reached out to him.
He voluntarily came into the 19th precinct for an interview.
We asked Joe to give a statement
and also fingerprints, which he did.
He told us that he had met Catherine
at the nightclub downtown one night,
and I believe they had gone out on maybe one date.
I believe that was the only time
that they seen one another.
Joe continues to cooperate with the NYPD.
He turns over numerous e-mails
that he and Catherine had exchanged,
which verified the details of the single date
they went on a few weeks prior,
and when detectives gained access to Catherine's
cell phone voicemail,
they also discovered that Joe had left her a message
when he called her the night before she was killed.
He merely wanted to wish her a happy Thanksgiving,
and there was no evidence to suggest that he was
the person who allegedly drugged Catherine at the club.
So Joe was a patron at the nightclub
where Catherine worked, and that's it.
It was nothing serious.
We felt that Joe had no involvement in this crime
whatsoever after interviewing him.
Meanwhile, a few days into the investigation,
the 19th precinct now has
an onslaught of new issues to contend with.
[tense music]
At that point, it was a full-blown media stakeout
from one end of the block to the other.
Catherine's murder devolved into a complete media circus,
which various city papers portraying Catherine's story
as a love triangle between her, David Haughn, and Paul Cortez.
So when you're working these cases in New York City,
the tabloid press can be brutal.
They're looking to sell papers.
But New York's reporting of this case
is in stark contrast to the coverage
in Catherine's hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
This was a tragedy,
and it was covered here as a family in grief.
Columbus was reporting it as one of their daughters
of the city was killed, and it held true.
Less than one week after her murder,
Catherine's loved ones gathered to say goodbye.
Her funeral was standing-room only,
and news cameras were lined up across the street,
just filming everything.
Every member of the Ohio State University
marching band showed up in uniform.
[somber music]
I had never had anybody close to me killed
in such a tragic way, let alone murdered.
I just remember being so angry about how the tabloids
in New York kind of dragged somebody you knew
and somebody you cared about,
and it was kind of eye-opening for me.
[dramatic music]
Over the next several days,
our detectives continued to focus their attention
on their prime suspect, David Haughn.
Catherine's former boyfriend
continues to firmly maintain his innocence
while the NYPD works to zero in on recovering any evidence
that can tie David to the murder.
You always want to look for things you might have missed.
And within the next few days,
after conducting more of the investigation,
it was discovered
that there was more evidence inside the apartment.
♪
About a week into their intense investigation,
the team continues to focus their attention
on Catherine's hometown sweetheart, David Haughn.
While Goetz's team works on corroborating David's alibi,
the crime-scene unit returns to Catherine's apartment
to do a sweep for anything additional physical evidence.
It's not rare for the crime-scene unit
to visit the scene of the crime several times.
You do your initial investigation,
collect as much evidence as possible,
and then obviously, the crime scene is sealed off
and secured.
Crime scene did respond back there several times
a few days after the homicide was committed,
and it was discovered
that there was more evidence inside the apartment.
When EMS initially responded to the scene,
they lifted Catherine's mattress
and put it up against the wall
in order to be able to access the bedroom.
♪
However, when CSU returns and moves the mattress,
they uncover something previously unseen.
♪
There was a partial palm print
on the wall of the bedroom.
No one noticed when it was originally processed
because of a mattress that was pinned up against the wall.
This bloody print was actually preserved
because they actually pushed the mattress up,
and that actually prevented anybody from touching walls
or anything like that, which happens in crime scenes,
so by doing that, they actually covered that print
and preserved it, so it was--
that was a good piece of evidence.
So they cut out that piece of Sheetrock
and sent it into the lab so it could be enhanced.
Over a week into the investigation
and with New York City
press coverage of Catherine's murder in full swing,
pressure is mounting for the detectives of the 19th precinct
to make an arrest.
It puts a lot of pressure on you
to try to solve the case,
but of course you want to do it the right way.
You want to follow procedure the work as a team.
While our detectives wait on the lab results,
the team of officers assigned to follow up
on David Haughn's alibi meet with his work colleagues,
listening closely for the smallest of inconsistencies.
We spoke to the people that David claimed that he was with,
which was coworkers,
and they corroborated his story about him being there.
The colleagues also help clarify
David's initial razor-thin timeline.
David gave 6:40 as the time of him
heading to go get the car and talk to his coworkers,
but his coworkers sort of narrowed it down
and said that it wasn't that late.
It was about 6:20-ish when they had a conversation with him,
and they spoke for approximately 10 minutes,
and it was also before the time frame
when the neighbors said that they started hearing commotion
and crying and so forth.
And he was still talking with his coworkers at that time.
♪
So the coworkers gave him an alibi.
David's colleagues appear to be forthcoming and honest
in their interviews.
So that kind of makes David a less likely suspect
when you have people that can corroborate
where you are at the time of the crime.
If the murder happened in the time frame
the neighbors said it did,
then it couldn't have been David inside that apartment.
Adding to David's newly clarified timeline,
the results from the forensics lab arrive.
David consented to giving his fingerprints,
and they compared his fingerprints
to the left index finger
that was recovered at the scene.
♪
And they were not a match.
With David seemingly off the hook,
our investigators take another look at the other man
in Catherine's life,
but when it comes time to compare Paul's fingerprints
to the partial print found at the scene,
they encounter a roadblock.
During the interview with Paul at the precinct,
after obtaining a statement from him,
it was determined
that Paul possibly had nothing to do with this crime,
and we failed to obtain his fingerprints
or ask him to give us his fingerprints at the time.
Unfortunately for detectives, when they circled back to try
and bring him back to the station,
Paul's family intervenes.
So after he left the 19th precinct and went home,
his family hired an attorney,
and then we weren't able to obtain his fingerprints.
Detectives now wonder if Paul has lawyered up
just as a precautionary measure,
or is there a bigger reason for the pivot?
It was time to re-examine Paul's story.
His alibi for that evening
was that he went to watch football with friends.
Detective Ryan calls the alleged football buddy
to see if Paul is being truthful.
His friend called back. He says, "We did.
"We were all at game, watching football,
"but, you know, it was kind of strange
because he's not really a football fan."
"Paul is not someone who I sit with every Sunday
"and we root on for our favorite teams.
It what a little strange."
With the friend's peculiar statement,
detectives wonder if Paul was simply
in need of a convenient alibi for that evening.
Over the next few days, we realized
that Paul may not have been totally honest with us
about where he was the day of the crime.
Now all of a sudden, whatever his alibi was,
he's got a problem,
and he knows he's got a problem.
- Coming up... - I was there with him,
so would I have noticed if something was off?
Yeah, I would've noticed.
He lived 30 blocks away
from where the victim's apartment is,
but those phone calls were hitting cell sites
a block away from the victim's apartment.
♪
[dramatic music]
[siren wailing]
[car horn honking]
After ruling out their initial prime suspect,
David Haughn,
detectives Ahearne and Sergeant Panuccio
reviewed notes from their interview with Paul Cortez
and recall him mentioning that in addition
to his many other artistic endeavors,
Paul is also the front man of a local rock group.
Paul fancied himself to be
an up-and-coming rock star.
He was very active with the band.
Paul's band is called Monolith,
so in an effort to learn more about Mr. Cortez,
a few detectives go and meet with his bandmates
and, in speaking with them,
get much more than they bargained for.
We learned that he was supposed to be
at a band practice that he didn't show up for,
and he was, like, the lead singer,
so, like, the star is not here.
According to Monolith members,
Paul was due to attend rehearsal
on the night of Catherine's murder,
but they never heard from their front man that evening.
If Paul's bandmates are telling the truth,
holes are clearly beginning to form in his story.
Paul, during that day, told me that he was out.
I believe it was one of the supermarkets or something,
and after that, he told us--
I think he went to go watch the Jet game
later that evening.
He claimed that after watching football,
he went to bed and turned his cell phone off
and woke up in the morning to find out
actually from his mother that Catherine had been killed.
♪
Paul's story is starting to get a little bit mixed up
as to where he was supposed to be
at certain times on that evening.
In order to help get clarity on Mr. Cortez's
whereabouts from that day,
our team is eager to gain further insight
from Paul's cell phone usage.
One Paul Cortez's cell phone records
were obtained through a subpoena,
it was determined that Paul called Catherine
several times on the day of the murder.
[cell phone ringing]
In his interview, Paul had, in fact,
admitted to calling Catherine throughout the day,
but that wasn't what stands out to our detectives.
The way that cell phone sites work is that they can tell you,
depending on the carrier, within a block,
maybe 1,000 feet, something,
where your phone was when a call was made or received.
Paul claimed that he was actually home
when he was making all of phone calls
around the time of the murder.
Paul lived 30 blocks away
from where the victim's apartment is,
but those phone calls were hitting cell sites
a block away from the victim's apartment.
And there was also another element of the cell phone logs
that raises a few eyebrows.
He had made numerous calls to Catherine
on the day of her death.
The peculiarity of it was that calls ceased
at approximately 6 p.m. that evening.
No calls were made to her phone after that,
which is kind of a complete switch from the persistent,
constant calling.
The questions in Paul's alibi
along with the alarming cell phone information
raise red flags, but this new information
still does not tie him to Catherine's murder.
And without his fingerprints to compare
to those found at the scene,
a week into the investigation, things appear to have stalled.
Usually after the first couple of days,
if you don't have any really good leads by then,
the case starts to go cold, as they say,
and that's exactly what happened.
We were angry. We were mad. We wanted justice.
Watching "Law & Order" where they have everybody tried
and convicted by the end of the episode,
and that's not how real life works.
So we were watching how this was unfolding,
and people were hoping that the Woods family
was going to get justice for this terrible loss.
For the detectives assigned to the case,
the determination to get justice
for Catherine and her family
continues to motivate their investigation.
She moved to New York to follow a dream,
and then she's a victim of a violent murder,
and she's taken away from her family,
not able to fulfill her dreams.
I think Catherine, I think about her family,
and it's something that you'll never forget.
♪
[somber music]
Seemingly fed up with detectives and the barrage
of media attention, in the weeks to follow,
Paul keeps a low profile at his friend's apartment.
When Paul told me that he was a suspect
and that people were questioning him,
that just added a whole other layer
of shock and surprise.
And I was there with him,
so would I have noticed if something was off?
Yeah. I would've noticed.
Was I looking for something? Not exactly.
Our detectives were in dire need of a big break,
and almost one month into the investigation,
that's exactly what they get.
A woman voluntarily came forward.
She had seen the story on the news,
saw that Paul Cortez was involved
and told us a story of an incident
that occurred with her involving Paul
that had happened the prior year.
She had claimed that she was assaulted by Paul Cortez,
and she believed that it was important to come forward
so that something like this
didn't happen again in the future.
The young woman's bravery in coming about her own ordeal
is a game changer
and a way to bring Paul Cortez back to the NYPD.
We had received a call from our special victims unit,
and they had picked up and arrested Paul Cortez,
so at that point,
I walked into the room where Paul was being held,
and Paul had a look on his face like the Grim Reaper
just walked through the door.
I looked at him, and I went, "I'm here to print you."
♪
[dramatic music]
♪
Almost one month into the investigation,
Paul Cortez's fingerprints have finally been acquired.
Armed with this potential new lead,
detectives Ahearne and Ryan race to compare his prints
with those found at the crime scene.
The detectives from the latent-print section
came over, looked at it.
And he says, "Yeah, that's your guy."
Paul's print are a positive match,
but detectives want
more evidence to strengthen their case.
We really didn't have any video evidence
to make an arrest.
Certain companies request a subpoena,
and back in 2005, you didn't get this stuff instantaneously.
But eventually, their persistence pays off.
There was video surveillance obtained
from a commercial premise close to the crime scene
that showed Mr. Paul Cortez
was wearing a pair of Sketchers boots.
We knew he was size 10 1/2.
That matched up precisely with a boot print at the crime scene
that was, in fact, made by a Sketcher boot
and that was also size 10 1/2.
For the detectives of the 19th precinct,
it is more than enough evidence to prove they have their guy,
and on December 19, 2005,
almost one month after Catherine's killing,
Paul is charged with murder in the second degree,
and the detectives have their theory
on what transpired that night.
I believe that Paul wanted to see Catherine that day.
I think Catherine didn't want to be with him anymore.
He was trying to call her...
[cell phone ringing]
And she wasn't picked up the phone.
He showed up at the apartment,
and I think that he saw David leave,
and that was his opportunity to go upstairs
and speak to Catherine,
and when he went inside the apartment,
I believe that there was an argument.
I think he didn't like the rejection.
I think she wanted him to leave.
That anger overtook him, and ultimately,
Catherine was killed.
♪
The initial charge
in connection with the assault allegation
from the young woman is dropped by the district attorney,
but just over two years after his arrest,
on February 15, 2007,
a jury finds Paul Cortez guilty of second-degree murdered
and sentences him to 25 years to life.
However, Paul never provided a motive
or explained what happened that day,
and he continues to maintain his innocence.
Paul's actions ruined many lives.
He took a life away from a family,
and then his life was taken away
by ultimately being arrested and convicted of this crime
because even though you want conviction,
you see the sadness in Paul's family.
You saw that that day when he was convicted,
and it's something that you'll never forget.
As for Catherine's former boyfriend turned roommate,
not much is known of his whereabouts today.
I do not know what happened to David Haughn.
You know, he went through not only the trauma
of discovering this woman,
who he still loved, in such a brutal way
but then being named the suspect.
I can't imagine how he ever really got over this.
[somber music]
For Catherine's friends and family,
nothing will ever fill the void of their devastating loss.
They continue to mourn her and are forever haunted
by the beautiful young dancer's unimaginable end.
I'm not sure that any parent would ever get over
that kind of a loss.
Years later, Jon Woods got dementia,
and I remember thinking to myself,
"I hope he forgot.
"I hope he has distant memories of her as a child
and can't remember the way her life ended."
I just remember her being a beautiful person,
just absolutely beautiful inside and out.
And Catherine Woods' legacy
remains a part of the fabric of her beloved hometown.
The family had formed
a Catherine Woods Scholarship Fund
for deserving students who wanted to study dance
at the Ohio State University
and to this very day, that scholarship continues.
She wasn't allowed the opportunity
to have a full life, so the scholarship
provides opportunity for another soul...
♪
To hopefully achieve the dreams
that Catherine wasn't able to.
♪