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FRESNO, Calif. — An upcoming episode of 20/20 is set to shed light on a haunting cold case that has perplexed Central California for years, unveiling new evidence that has never been made public before.
“It was a terrifying time with a murderer roaming freely in the Fresno area,” remarks Juju Chang.
ABC correspondent Juju Chang takes viewers back to the tragic 1996 murder of Debbie Dorian.
RELATED: ABC’s Juju Chang discusses the upcoming 20/20 episode on Debbie Dorian with Action News
Dorian, then just 22 and a fresh graduate of Fresno State, was discovered lifeless in her northeast Fresno apartment by her father. It took authorities 23 long years to finally identify her killer.
Despite the lengthy investigation, detectives like Vince Zavala remained dedicated and relentless in their pursuit of justice.
“Even after he retired from Fresno law enforcement, he stayed on unpaid to continue to follow leads. In fact, he was there the day that they arrested Nickey Stane,” Chang said.
In Friday’s episode 20/20, you will see the moment Zavala’s hard work paid off, as he connected the dots and identified Nickey Stane.
RELATED: DNA match solves murder of California woman after almost 3 decades
Exclusive body-cam video will show you the moment police arrested him.
“Well, you’ll see Vince Zavala roll up onto this fast-food restaurant in a mall that Nickey Stane is working at, confront him, and then you see additional surveillance video of the interrogation…” Chang said.
As investigators closed in on Stane after decades, he tried one last time to throw them off.
You will hear what he said.
“It was a fascinating cat and mouse game that was going on from the very moment that Vince made contact with him all the way through the interrogations in the interrogation room…” Chang said.
RELATED: Debbie Dorian’s killer Nickey Stane sentenced
You will also meet one of Stane’s survivors. She and others were sexually assaulted by him in Visalia years after Debbie’s death.
She’s only ever been identified as Jane Doe #1, but now she’s revealing her identity.
“‘Survivor’ is exactly the right word, given how incredibly feisty she was. She had a gun pointed at her, and she told the perpetrator, ‘You’re not going to get away with this.’” Chang said.
With Stane now in prison, JuJu says Friday’s episode of 20/20 gives Debbie and the survivors a final word.
“The idea that all these people were affected by the crime and that we get a chance to remember how she lived is really a tribute to all of the storytelling that we do here at 20/20,” she said.
Chang says she was able to get in touch with Nickey Stane, but he declined to comment.
Stane is now serving his life sentence at the California Medical Facility in northern California due to his age.
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