[tense music]
- Oh, Talina.
My cousin was amazing. We was like sisters.
Where you see Talina, you see me.
- Jaleesa kept calling me.
Talina never picked her up.
♪
I guess it was a mother's intuition.
I think I kind of just blacked out.
♪
- I walked into her room.
What you saw in front was a cut-out floorboard.
- There's some stuff here.
It's more serious than just a missing person.
♪
- We knew these two undercovers
who would be perfect for the job.
♪
- I was the drug dealer, who somebody had stolen from me.
So I got to make an example of these guys.
- - We get a call one day.
A female discloses that she has information
about Talina Bryant.
- Nobody commits a murder and doesn't tell somebody.
[knocking]
You got something to go on now. Let's go.
[tense bassy music]
♪
- Anonymous interview, take one, mark.
Can you tell us why you chose to not show your face today?
- I'm doing this interview anonymously because
he chose to use a coward way of getting someone
to murder a young, innocent girl,
and I'm not sure what he's capable of.
[tense music]
- Each year, over 13,000 people
were reported missing in New York City.
Thankfully, nearly all of them
are quickly found or return home.
[indistinct radio chatter]
But the case of missing 21-year-old Talina Bryant
would be unlike any our detectives
had experienced before.
♪
- That day, I was working.
I came home, and Talina was supposed
to take her baby sister, Jaleesa,
out to get her hair done that day,
and Jaleesa kept calling me,
saying that Talina never picked her up.
I said, "Talina never showed up?"
She says, "No."
I felt like a sharp pain in my stomach.
This is not like her.
- The last time Talina's mother saw her
was on Sunday, September 3rd, five days earlier.
- So when I got off of work, I said, you know,
"I'ma go to our house. I'm just gonna go."
- My aunt called me and was like, "Well,
Talina was supposed to have met her."
And she can't seem to find her. So I'm going over there.
So I went with my aunt over there.
♪
- It was a basement apartment.
It was a house. It was a private house.
She had a side entrance.
I didn't have the key to get in,
so I knocked on the door.
[knocking]
But she wasn't there.
I guess it was a mother's intuition,
but something just did not feel right for me.
♪
I went to the police department.
I started telling them the story,
and they sent me upstairs to some detectives.
- I was working that day, and Talina Bryant's mother
came into the precinct to report
that her daughter was missing.
Talina's mom was very, very worried about her daughter.
She could not understand why her daughter
is not getting hold of her.
How come there's been
no communication between the two?
- I spoke to Detective Rice,
and I told him what was going on.
He took me serious.
He says, "OK, we're gonna go up there."
- After taking the statement,
Detective Rice is joined by his colleague,
Detective Leonard Golino.
[soft dramatic music]
- We go there, and it's a freestanding building.
It's a private house amongst all tenement buildings.
♪
- So when we got there, the window was loose.
When they went to jimmy, they just pushed it open.
- I believe there was three apartments downstairs.
It was one bathroom that they shared,
and there was also a small kitchen area that they shared,
and it was just like a college dorm.
- The first bedroom we came to was Talina's room.
The room next to it was a vacant room, nothing in it.
I walked into her room.
What you saw in front of the bed
was a cut-out floorboard,
completely cut clean,
right through down to the floor joists.
[tense music]
The rug and the plywood to the flooring was cut out.
♪
And you could visually see, like, sawdust from the plywood
that was cut, like a saw or something of that sort
that would cut the wood.
- The sawdust suggests a cut could be recent,
but that's not the only clue detectives spot.
- In a closer examination now,
you could see some blood,
just small droppings on the bed,
on the floor.
- So we know that there's definitely
something not right here.
- They asked me to step outside,
and that's what I did. I went outside and just waited.
In my heart, I knew something was wrong.
♪
- You get crime scene to respond.
They do a luminol test.
Now, once the blue light shows up, it's blood.
♪
It leads down the hallway a little bit,
and there's, like, a slop sink.
- They luminol the sink,
and that lit up like a Christmas tree.
♪
It was at that point, we knew there was
some type of crime that was committed
and something very suspicious here.
♪
- I was the Lieutenant Commanding Officer
of Bronx Homicide Squad at the time of this case.
The 52 squad said, "Listen, you know,
"there's some stuff here that kind of makes it
look like a missing G case." G meant gone.
It's more serious than just a missing person.
You treat it like a homicide,
as if you had found a body in the apartment.
♪
- And it just became a crime scene,
you know, helicopters.
All type of cops were there.
I just broke down and started crying,
didn't know what was going on.
I knew for sure something happened,
did not know what happened, but I knew something happened.
- We explained to her that we've gotten certain evidence,
blood samples that were found on the floor
and from Talina's toothbrush,
her comb, and other evidence,
and we have submitted them to the police lab
to see if we can match up any DNA.
- And I'm asking them questions,
but, you know, at that time,
they didn't really give me much answers,
and then I went home,
and I just waited for them to call me.
- While Talina's mother prays for good news,
back at the scene,
detectives canvassed the neighbors.
- You really want to figure out,
did any of these tenants have anything to do with it?
But the lady down the hallway was an older woman,
and there was another woman down the hallway,
and they didn't really have anything to add to the case.
♪
- There was a tenant that lived upstairs on the first level.
♪
Stated that he heard loud music coming from downstairs,
and he also heard a circular saw
or a jigsaw of some sort. Well, I'm a carpenter.
There's no question that it was a saw.
- The neighbor says the noise occurred
the day prior, Thursday, September 7th.
- We talked to the landlord,
and he was saying that the apartment was a loud apartment,
that there was always loud music playing
at all hours of the night and day,
and it was always just a very busy place.
We went across the street.
We canvassed the buildings across the street.
The whole block was canvassed.
♪
Nothing.
- There's something here.
This is a homicide, or the person
was at least definitely assaulted.
Most of the cases where the body disappears
from the apartment, you know, usually
they turn up either alive someplace
or not so good, they're dead.
♪
- Talina's mom, you know, a very, very beautiful person.
You could just feel her pain from the minute
that you interviewed her.
- Talina was beautiful, funny.
She loved her family. She loved her siblings.
- Oh, Talina, that was Miss Diva.
My cousin was so pretty.
She liked to have fun. She liked to shop.
She liked to stay fly, OK?
[somber music]
- Before moving into her own apartment,
Talina had lived with her cousin, Claudette,
and Claudette's son, Dashawn.
- We was living together like big sister, little brother.
So whenever my mom go out,
that's my babysitter right there.
I used to run wild in that house.
Talina went to college on Monroe University.
I believe she was studying business.
- Talina would always go to school.
I could tell you that.
She was always a good student.
She loved to work.
She loved to work and make her money.
- She was a sales clerk at the time.
It was in Manhattan.
I want to say it was on Sixth Avenue.
- In early 1999, Talina decided
to strike out on her own.
- She was getting her own place.
You know, Dashawn was getting big.
She wanted her privacy.
- I was kind of sad 'cause I'm like,
my big sister is leaving, so I'm all by myself.
♪
- So Talina got an apartment in the Bronx.
That was actually her first apartment she ever had.
She was really happy about it.
- Talina was very happy. It was like, that's her home.
You work hard to get here. You earn that.
- In a city like New York, with sky high rents,
even tenants with money find themselves
in cramped conditions.
So if you really want a good deal,
it might cost you some privacy.
- It was a single occupancy.
Everyone had their own room where they rented,
and then the bathroom area would be shared.
- As police continue to sweep to Talina's apartment,
detectives speak with her close family and friends,
hoping to establish a timeline.
- So the first one of the witnesses we interviewed
was Felicia, a friend of Talina,
and the last time she'd seen her was on September 5th.
- She walked her to the bus to go home,
and that was the last time she saw her.
- This sighting of Talina, on Tuesday, September 5th,
three days before she was reported missing,
makes it the last time anyone saw her alive.
Felicia tells us that Talina was getting
some harassing messages from a former boyfriend,
somebody she dated shortly, Hassin.
[phone ringing]
And after Talina hasn't gotten back to Hassin,
Hassin started calling and leaving her messages
and harassing her.
So once we learn his location, we go to his residence.
[tense music]
We knock on the door, and there he is.
He opens the door.
- Immediately, there's something
about Hassin's appearance
that raises questions for the detectives.
- Hassin had a scratch on his face.
♪
Now this even makes it more suspicious for this guy.
♪
We have this missing person case with blood
all over the apartment.
Did it get physical? Maybe.
Hassin is our guy.
♪
Maybe it's somebody we got to look into more.
♪
- Coming up...
- He's like, "I can use a knife."
And I said, "Yeah, that's perfect."
- All right, tell us what you know,
everything, including where's the body?
- I tried to jump across that thing and get him.
♪
[tense music]
♪
- It's been one day since 21-year-old Talina Bryant
was reported missing.
When detectives tracked down her ex-boyfriend, Hassin,
they observe a large, suspicious scratch
across his face.
- Now, that becomes a key element,
knowing that it could be possible DNA,
blood, thinking that we want to get
some DNA or something that we can match
or we could exclude him.
♪
So at this point, we bring him back
into the precinct.
He comes in voluntarily, no problem at all.
He tells us about his relationship with Talina,
you know, not exclusive,
dating for a little while, on and off.
You know, they have arguments like any,
you know, couple have and that, you know,
all the calls and things he was making
really was kind of like a joke.
- We ask him, "Hassin,
how come you have a scratch on your face?"
He says "Oh, I got into an argument with my girlfriend
yesterday, and she scratched me."
- So the last question I had for him was,
"Would you be willing to give us any type of DNA samples?"
And he was very forthcoming, absolutely.
This guy gives us everything, prints, DNA.
- He said he worked for the Foot Locker,
and that gave us the ability to now check his alibi,
and he was there at the times that we were looking at.
♪
- The discovery clears any suspicion around Hassin
and leaves detectives searching for new leads.
- I start doing computer checks,
a host of different databases that we use in the NYPD,
and I did come across a complaint report,
which was filed by Talina,
of harassment against her landlord.
♪
- Detectives head back to the house where Talina lived.
- I walked towards the rear of the driveway,
and I noticed a carport,
and I noticed in one of them, there was sawdust on the floor
adjacent to a car, which clearly looked
like the same sawdust that was used to cut out the floorboard.
♪
It's now raising my level of suspicion against this guy.
♪
- So for the second time, Detective Golino
meets with Talina's landlord outside her residence.
- The first thing I noticed about him was his demeanor.
♪
It was just very defensive,
guarded almost,
cocky at the same time.
I said, "This sawdust here
"looks like the sawdust that was in--
can you tell me about that?"
And he explained it as, "Oh, I was doing
"some body work on a fender of a car,
and that's from sanding the car."
I said, "Well, I've never worked in an auto body shop,
but that's not sawdust from a car, OK?"
He goes, "Well, maybe you never did auto body work,
but that's sawdust."
♪
But I didn't want to go too deep because I knew
at some point, there was going to be
some more questions coming down the line for this individual.
So I said, "Leave it alone,
and I'll just take that statement from him."
And that's what I did.
So we ask about this harassment complaint,
and his description to us that, yeah,
she filed a complaint against me
because she owed me money.
He's complaining about her knowing she's not supposed
to have people over, having people over,
not paying my rent, playing loud music.
- The landlord didn't like her to have visitors,
especially men visitors.
If she had a male come over,
he would knock on the door, bang on the windows,
and tell them they have to leave.
One memory I had is we went to a club,
and we went back to Talina's house.
He came banging on my cousin's door,
talking about we got to leave. No, we don't.
We don't got to go nowhere. That's her room.
That's when she made the police report.
- He says she was doing all the things she wasn't
supposed to do, you know? That's why she did it.
She wanted to get back at me, type of attitude.
That's why it's the victims-- he's the victim here.
♪
- Detectives may have a new lead,
although landlord-tenant conflicts
are commonplace in New York.
So back at the precinct,
they continue searching Talina's file,
and something else catches their eye.
- In the computer searches that we run,
we learned, back in 1999, Talina had filed a complaint
and got an order of protection against a former boyfriend
of hers, James Moore.
♪
- We got his address from the DMV.
We went there.
- And we asked him about his relationship with Talina,
and they did date for a while,
and he said that, basically, you know,
the temporary restraining order really wasn't serious.
It was just something that was, you know, just misunderstood
and that it was eventually dropped.
♪
We asked him if he's willing to take a polygraph.
And he says, "Fine, no problem."
- We set up an appointment with James Moore
with a polygraph expert from the NYPD out in Brooklyn.
♪
He was gonna meet us there.
We waited for three hours.
He never showed.
♪
[tense music]
♪
- After detectives learned
that Talina Bryant's ex-boyfriend,
James Moore, was previously arrested
for assaulting her,
he jumps to the top of their suspect list.
But after he agrees to take a polygraph test,
James goes MIA.
♪
- It seemed that, every time we scheduled something,
he was not available, to a point almost,
where now he's dodging us.
- We called the house, and a male answered,
and he gave the phone to a female.
I said, "Listen, that was James.
Can you put him back on the phone?"
The girl puts him back on the phone.
James tells me, "I reached out to a lawyer,
and he told me not to cooperate with you guys anymore."
♪
- So now the question comes,
why would you say you're not taking it?
Why do you have an attorney?
Why are you telling not to take it?
So now our suspicion level goes even higher
with this individual.
So it is at this point, I asked him,
"Are you willing to take a DNA sample?"
- James Moore wouldn't take the polygraph test,
but he freely gave us DNA.
♪
- Six months after Talina's disappearance,
the forensic report comes back with DNA results.
All of the blood and DNA from Talina's apartment
belong to her alone.
There were no traces of DNA from anyone else
in the apartment, including her ex-boyfriends,
James and Hassin.
- Now the leads are dwindling down.
We don't have really enough at this point to do anything
with the landlord, certainly not enough
to warrant any further investigation against him.
This case is now at a point where it turns
what they call cold.
♪
- I was hoping she knocked on the door.
You know, "Mommy, I went here. I went there."
I would have been upset,
but I would have been happy to see her.
- It was hard 'cause it's like,
we didn't know if she was alive,
if she was kidnapped.
We didn't know how to go about it.
If it was bad news, just give us some answers,
just let us know,
then we could just clear that void.
- I was hoping for the best, but I think
I was prepared for the worst.
- 2001, our investigative leads
were about exhausted in this case.
Around the same time, I got transferred
to the 47 precinct in the Bronx.
It's always frustrating to leave a case
that doesn't have, you know, a closing to it,
but if any tips come in,
the detectives in the 52 squad are going to pick that back up.
♪
- So it's a year now or so that we've been
working on this case,
and it doesn't mean the case is closed.
It's just, like, put on the back burner
because, you know, you have to understand
there are ongoing cases that are coming in to us
that we still have to work on.
- The one thing here during that period,
we also had 9/11,
where every day, two detectives
from that squad were going out
to the landfill in Staten Island
and the temporary morgue in Brooklyn,
so that took the manpower.
♪
- In the summer of 2002, nearly two years after
Talina's disappearance, a new detective
brings fresh eyes to the case.
- Talina's mother, she was persistent,
and she wanted to know, "Hey, is there
any updates on my daughter?"
And then I took the case, the missing person case,
and I was just going through it.
The only detective that was left from the original case
was Detective Lenny Golino.
He agreed we should look this over
and get a new set of eyes on it.
♪
All the leads have been exhausted.
I mean, they interviewed ex-boyfriends.
She had an expired order of protection
against another ex-boyfriend.
Everybody had verifiable alibis,
and it just didn't pan out.
♪
- With no new evidence, the investigation
seems destined to remain unsolved.
Then a witness comes forward with a story
that could break open the case.
- A female discloses that she has information
about the murder of a Talina Bryant.
♪
- One of the detectives takes the report,
and he gave it to us because he knows myself
and Lenny are looking at this.
♪
- You get perked up. There's no question.
So now, we have new hope.
- I told Lenny, "I think things happen for a reason.
We're gonna solve this case."
♪
[tense music]
♪
- Two years after Talina Bryant
mysteriously disappeared,
an informant comes forward and claims she was murdered.
- Myself and Detective Golino interviewed
a couple of days afterwards.
- The woman claims that a local man she knew
had been paid to carry out a hit on Talina.
His name was David Mundo.
- David Mundo is a 20-something-year-old male,
real street guy.
He's not a choirboy.
- The informant had bad dealings with David Mundo
and just told me what she knew about what happened.
- This female tells us, back in the summer of 2000,
David Mundo tells her, "Do you know anybody
that can help me carry out this hit?"
- Mundo probably thought he needed a hand,
and she just threw out a name, Danny, to him.
- And she introduces Danny to David.
- After introducing Mundo to Danny,
the woman says that Mundo
even took her on a scouting run.
- The girl's in the car with David and Danny,
and they're driving around the neighborhood,
and they're kind of like trying to execute a plan,
and they actually go past Talina's house.
- And Talina Bryant was outside.
And David Mundo turned around and said,
"Oh, that's the girl I have to hit."
♪
After Talina Bryant went missing,
David ran into the informant,
and he had all scratches on his face.
And he goes, "Well, we did the deed with that girl,"
and she actually put up
a good fight before she died.
- Now we know we got a murder,
and we know who did it.
- The informant has handed investigators
explosive information, but there's a catch.
- In New York State, you can't be
solely convicted on the statements of a co-conspirator.
Even though they didn't charge her,
she was with them in the car.
She knew what he was gonna do,
so technically, you could say
that she could be a co-conspirator.
- That means the NYPD will need to gather more evidence
against Mundo and Danny.
- We had to go to work now, finding a Danny in the Bronx.
With the use of different databases and information,
we narrowed the list down to about six people,
and we presented those six photos to the informant.
She positively identified Gilberto Adamas as Danny.
- As it happens, Danny, AKA Gilberto Adamas,
is already sitting in Rikers Island
on an unrelated charge.
[door buzzes]
- Gilberto Adamas is also a young man in his 20s,
more of a follower, maybe not so hardcore as David
in that look and that evilness.
- But ironically, his status as an inmate
causes new problems for the detectives.
- You're doing time. You're not gonna say nothing.
And plus, I would need a waiver from the attorney
for him to even talk to us.
- So investigators hold off on Danny
and focus on David Mundo.
- So now, at this point, me and Detective Christo
will now have to come up with a plan.
How are we gonna get David Mundo?
♪
- This is one of those cases.
You have to think outside the box.
And I asked the informant,
would you introduce two undercovers?
I'll have them pose as drug dealers needing
a hit done in Brooklyn.
And the informant agreed to make that introduction
to David Mundo,
but now I need two undercovers.
♪
- When Nick Caruso contacted me,
he goes, hey, Rich-- the old guy,
he used to call me Gonzo. "Gonzo? I got this case."
Ra, ra, ra, and he told me
that the girl was missing, you know?
And they have someone they would introduce
to the possible killer.
As soon as he said that, I said, "I'm in. I'll do it."
- Richie can be very charismatic,
and he can talk anything out of anybody.
- I said, "You want me to bring Jimmy along?
I can use, you know, a partner."
He says, "Oh, sure, sure. That'd be great."
- Me and Richie worked together for a long time,
and we worked basically investigating
robberies in Brooklyn.
I agreed. I said, "Let's do it."
The guy was really a bad guy,
so we wanted to get him off the street.
♪
- We make this arrangement where we go to a local diner.
♪
- The Land and Sea Diner was on the corner
of 131st Street and Broadway.
- I remember, you know, talking maybe with the owner
and saying, "Hey, can we have a specific table?"
Where there were windows. We can film.
- We had a brief discussion with the informant,
that she's gonna introduce us. We're two drug dealers.
♪
And we went right to the diner.
♪
You're dealing with a cold-blooded murderer.
We don't know what's gonna happen
when he walks into that diner.
- We really only got one shot at this,
and if we don't get the result we want,
we're back to where we started from.
[bell jingles]
♪
[tense music]
♪
- 2 and 1/2 years after Talina Bryant went missing,
an NYPD sting operation puts detectives
face-to-face with one of her alleged killers, David Mundo.
- Jimmy sat, I sat, and then the girl sat.
And he sat across from us.
- Me and Detective Christo are sitting in a van
watching this and listening to this.
- And then we start conversation.
We order some drinks.
- That's when Detective Gonzalez
spins his cover story.
♪
- I was a drug dealer,
who somebody had stolen from me,
so I got to make an example of these guys, you know,
that this is what's gonna happen to you.
- So we eliminated right off the top,
listen, I don't want him shot.
I want him straight up clean cut.
- And he's like, "Oh, well, you know, yeah,
I can use a knife." And ra, ra, ra.
And I said, "Yeah, that's what we want.
That's perfect."
- And that's when David Mundo turned the story on himself,
and he started talking about the Talina Bryant case.
- He said that they set up the floor with plastic bags,
and they shut the light and just waited for her.
♪
And as soon as she walked in,
they grabbed her back and cut her throat.
♪
- I never met anyone evil like that before.
The way he spoke, the things he said,
I still think about it,
just how cold this guy was.
- The undercover detectives agree to a price
for the bogus hit and then arrange to meet Mundo again.
- So we meet back up on April 8th
at the same diner, same location, same booth.
It was at that time the arrest teams swarmed in
and arrested David Mundo.
- We took David Mundo into custody,
and we all went back to the 52 squad.
♪
- And he's denying everything.
I don't know what you're talking about.
I didn't do nothing.
- We returned back to the precinct.
We went inside,
but this time, we have our shields sticking out
of--you know, on our chest, and he was in there.
And as soon as he saw us, his face dropped.
♪
- And he knew he was in trouble,
and he wanted to cut a deal,
and he said, "If you don't give me the death penalty,
"I'll tell you everything that happened,
and I'll even bring you to the body."
- I look at Nick. Nick looks at me.
I say, "We'll be right back."
We told him we're gonna call the DA's office.
- So I called up Paul Rosenfeld,
and I said, "Paul, I know the Bronx
"don't have the death penalty.
"Can I accept the agreement that he will not get
"the death penalty, but he'll give me a confession,
and he's gonna tell me where the body is?"
He goes, "Are you kidding me? Take that deal all day long."
♪
- All right, we convinced the DA,
no death penalty.
Tell us what you know, everything,
including where's the body?
He did. He confessed to everything.
♪
- Now, David said it was Danny doing all the stabbing,
but that's not what David told the informant,
which would be consistent
because David had all the scratches
all over his face.
David did say she put up a fight,
and then eventually, she died.
- They bound her hands and feet with duct tape.
They wrapped her up in plastic.
- I asked him, I said, "Who cut out the floorboard?"
He goes, "I don't know."
He goes--they left, and they dumped the body.
♪
And then, that's when I said, "Will you take me to the body?"
And he goes, "Yeah."
♪
- The next morning, David Mundo
leads detectives to Talina's body.
He took us to a section of the Bronx River Parkway.
- We go to the area he directs us.
What we see is a gruesome discovery,
hard to make it out completely,
but we know it's skeletal remains.
♪
We know it was a rug.
♪
We see duct tape, and we see plastic.
We know that was our recovery.
And through the use of dental records,
positive identification was made
that the body recovered was that of Talina.
♪
- I was happy. I was happy I found Talina.
She can lay in peace.
And I was happy for the mother.
She could finally get closure.
♪
- I get a phone call, and it was the ADA.
He said to me, "Oh, can you come over?
I would like to talk to you about some things."
I said, "Sure, no problem."
So I went to the courthouse on 161st Street,
and then he said to me, "I have some news."
And that's when he said to me that...
I believe they just found your daughter...
that she was buried...
Behind a bowling alley.
And I think I kind of just blacked out.
I mean, I didn't hear nothing he said.
[somber music]
- I remember, you know, kind of passing her
the tissue box and her crying and kind of breaking down,
because I think at that point, she had to finally
come to grips with the fact
that her daughter really was dead
and had been murdered.
- When they got the word, the information,
it traveled like wildfire.
I thought she was still alive.
I swear to God, I thought she was--
I thought my cousin was still alive.
But finding out that way, it was, like, devastating.
♪
- Investigators now know
what really happened to Talina,
but the question remains,
who paid Mundo and Danny to kill her?
♪
- When I interviewed David Mundo,
I said, "OK, let's start from the beginning."
How did you come across Talina Bryant?
- So David tells us that he would
go hang out at this bodega,
and he says he was approached if he could do a hit.
- According to Mundo,
the person who ordered Talina's murder
was someone in their crosshairs years ago.
- In the back of your mind, you're saying,
"I'm gonna get you."
♪
You know, I want to find something.
I'm gonna get you.
♪
[tense music]
♪
- After David Mundo confesses to Talina Bryant's murder,
he tells police who contracted the hit.
- David tells us, the person who wants to do this hit
is a landlord...
who wants to put a hit
to kill a tenant, Talina Bryant.
♪
- They were locking horns, her and the landlord,
and she stopped paying rent to get even with him.
♪
David said that he plays softball on a team,
and his team would go to a bodega,
and the landlord was always hanging out at that bodega.
He would now start talking to David Mundo,
who can't stand this one of his tenants.
I wish he was gone. She owes me money.
- Mundo says that he and Talina's landlord
then made a deal.
- David Mundo tells us he would pay him $8,000 to do this hit.
- And David Mundo said that he was given the keys to the gate
to the entrance of the driveway,
the key to get inside,
and he had the key to the vacant apartment
that was next to hers.
♪
- Detectives fully believe that Talina's landlord
was involved in her murder,
but they faced a giant obstacle.
Even though they were convinced by Mundo's confession,
it's still not enough for the state of New York.
- In this case, all they had was
a statement from David Mundo,
and you cannot convict someone or charge someone with a crime
based upon the statement of a co-conspirator
without corroborating evidence.
♪
- I wanted to do one last ditch effort.
And I told David Mundo, I said, "Hey,
"If I bring the landlord and put him in a cell,
do you think you can get him to talk?"
♪
- Investigators' last chance to obtain evidence
against the landlord now rests with David Mundo.
They bring the landlord in on an unrelated charge.
- When he first saw David in the cell...
♪
He didn't even flinch.
So David starts talking to him, you know,
trying to get him to say something, whispering.
Immediately, the landlord says, "Detective, Detective,
"I don't know this guy. He's talking to me.
I don't want to talk to him."
He shut him down the second he opened his mouth.
My heart fell to the ground.
And that was the only thing we had left
to get this landlord.
♪
- Despite the fact that the detectives
tried to get additional evidence,
there was no paper trail.
There was no physical or forensic evidence connecting
the landlord with the case.
So without those things, you have no evidence,
and you need evidence.
♪
- David stated that the landlord
paid them to get rid of her,
and he didn't get anything. He just got a pass.
He's still out there, and I'm not sure what he's capable of.
- Danny was in Rikers on an unrelated charge,
so we didn't have to chase him down.
It's just to take him out, tell him you're being charged,
and put him right back in.
He wasn't cooperative at all.
- David Mundo and Danny
AKA Gilberto Adamas,
plead guilty to murder and conspiracy,
and both are sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.
♪
- The last day that we all ended up in court,
it was a little crazy.
- I tried to attack them in the courthouse,
and I almost got arrested.
I tried to jump across that thing and get him.
I wanted to see him dead, like my cousin.
How can you live with yourself?
How can you eat? How can you sleep?
How can you dream?
And I hope when he dreams,
he see her face each and every day.
I hope she haunts him each and every day.
He's just evil, both of them.
- To give closure to the family,
you know, that's what this was about.
So you're happy in a sense that you were able
to do what you set out to do,
but still, the family has to grieve.
And to be part of that was one of the reasons
why I was a New York City detective.
It's still tough. It's still tough.
- For Talina's loved ones, her senseless death
still weighs heavy on their hearts.
- Not a day go by.
You know, sometimes I just go into a daze
and think and wonder, what would she be doing now?
But it's not easy. It's not easy.
- I just wish she was here.
I wish I could be with her.
You're taking people away from people,
you know, that people really love, you know?
It is sad. It's so sad.
- If she was still alive, she'd have been
owning her own business,
probably would have had, like, two or three kids.
Who knows? There's a lot of what-ifs.
But I wish she was still here though.
I wish.
She played a big role in my life.
I want her to know that.
- Of course I miss her. I will always miss her.
But we will meet again, I'm sure.
It's a place for me there one day,
and we will meet again, for sure.
[somber music]