The longtime investigator attempts to answer a three-decades-old question: Who killed Sarah De Leon?
After playing an instrumental part in identifying the Golden State Killer, retired investigator Paul Holes is now turning his attention to lesser-known stories, helping to bring closure to these unsolved homicides with his new Oxygen series, The DNA of Murder With Paul Holes.
"We're not here to tell a story, we're here to solve this case," Holes says.
Each week, the series follows Holes as he dives into a new cold case, analyzing the physical and emotional “DNA” that’s been left behind. The first six episodes will see him putting to use his unique forensic and behavioral skill set that previously helped put Joseph James DeAngelo behind bars last year. Joining him as he travels around the country are local investigators and experts Loni Coombs, Yolanda McClary and Laura Richards.
In the third episode, "Taken in the Night" premiering Saturday, Oct. 26 at 7 p.m. ET, Holes turns his attention to the 1989 killing of Kansas teenager Sarah De Leon. According to NBC News, the 18-year-old vanished on Dec. 29, 1989, "after leaving her boyfriend's house in the early morning hours. Her body was discovered along railroad tracks in Kansas City, the next morning. She had been stabbed multiple times and had suffered a head injury, authorities said."
The case went cold for 20 years until authorities reopened the investigation. In 2016, Inside Edition reported that police arrested 48-year-old Carolyn Heckert for De Leon's murder, but "the charges were dropped six months later when a judge ruled there was insufficient evidence to tie her to the crime."
Now, after three decades, Holes and McClary attempt to answer the question: Who killed Sarah?
In ET’s exclusive preview of the episode, Holes wants to understand just who Sarah was before she was murdered to get a better understanding of the case -- and it quickly becomes clear she did not deserve to die so young. “She was a sweetheart. Sarah was our second child and she just was a well-behaved kid. I didn’t have any trouble with her growing up,” her mother tells Holes. “She smiled a lot. She was a happy girl.”
The DNA of Murder With Paul Holes airs Saturdays at 7 p.m. ET on Oxygen.
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