Every story has a beginning, but not everyone has an ending.

In the shadows of headlines and buried police reports lay the voices of the missing, the murdered, and the forgotten, waiting to be heard and have their stories told.

This is The Book of the Dead, a true crime podcast where we remember forgotten victims of heinous crimes, reopen cold cases, re visit haunting disappearances, and uncover the truths buried beneath the years of silence.

I'm your host, Courtney Liso, and every week we turn to another chapter, one victim, one mystery, one step closer to justice.

Brought to you by Darkast Network INDEP Podcasts with the Twist.

Hello, Hello, Welcome to the next chapter in the Book of the Dead.

On a freezing cold morning in January of two thousand and eight, the city of Reno, Nevada would wake up to a nightmare when the news broke that a nineteen year old woman had vanished in the middle of the night from her friend's apartment as she slept on the couch.

As the community rallied to find her, what started as a search for a missing person quickly transformed into a race to find a predator.

As the disappearance seemed to have disturbing links to attacks on other young women in the area.

As the months passed, the break in the case the police desperately needed would come after a phone call for miles away.

This is the murder of Brianna Dennis.

Brianna Denison was born in Rino, Nevada, on March twenty ninth, nineteen eighty eight, to Jeff and Bridget Denison.

She was the oldest of two children.

Her little brother, Brighton, was born four years later, and according to the Press Democrat, she was described as spiritual, respectful, and she adored her family.

As a child, Bridget gave Brianna the nickname Breezy because she reminded her of a breath of fresh air on a cool summer day.

When Brianna was six years old, tragedy struck the Denison family when Jeff suddenly died, and Bridget would move the children to her hometown of Mendocino in California to be closer to other family members.

After the death of her father, Brianna became even closer to her mother, confiding in her about everything, and Bridget enrolled her daughter in art therapy to help her cope with her father's loss.

As Brianna got older, her aunt Lauren, said that Brianna was strong willed and feisty, always managing to talk her cousins and brother into dressing up in girls' clothes for her tea parties.

She also grew up with a love for traveling and exploring the world, and had even spent a year studying in Italy and high school and had been to Hawaii, New York, Mexico, Egypt, Japan, France, and Hungary, just to name a few.

When Brianna was around thirteen, the Dennisons moved back to Nevada, where Brianna would go on to attend Reno High School.

As a young teenager, Lauren said that she was always thinking of others, worrying about them almost to a fault, and Brianna never forgot an anniversary or birthday.

She was also incredibly communicative, always reaching out to a family to say hi and informing her mother about her comings and goings.

Brianna graduated high school in two thousand and six, and for the next year or so she really wasn't sure what she wanted to do with her life.

She worked for a time before California called her back, and she enrolled in Santa Barbara City College to pursue child psychology, determined to help children as she had been helped processing her grief so many years before.

In California, Brianna thrived.

She loved being near the beach, and she was doing incredibly well in school.

She was making plenty of friends and even started dating a boy from Oregon.

While she was away, though, she was in constant contact with Bridget, texting and calling to tell her mom all about her days and her studies, staying just as close with her mom as she was when she was a child, much to Bridget's relief.

She worried terribly about her daughter, and the open communication they had brought her an immense source of peace.

Brianna stayed just as close with her brother, Brighton, who was now fifteen.

Brighton told the Reno Gazett Journal how he would call his when he had an issue with their mom, and Brianna would give him advice on how to handle the situation.

In January of two thousand and eight, Santa Barbara College broke for winter break, and Brianna headed home to Reno to spend time with her family.

And see her friends who had opted to stay in Nevada for school.

This break was packed with activities that Brianna planned to attend while she was home, most of them associated with the Swat seventy two Snowboarding Festival on January nineteenth.

This was a three day event occurring annually from Saturday through Monday, and Brianna had attended the festival the last two years.

She wrote down an itinerary of all of the events she planned to go to and gave it to Bridget so that her mother would know where Brianna was going to be throughout the night, just in case.

On the morning of January nineteenth, Brianna spent the day with Bridget.

They did laundry, when to the movies, and in the evening, Brianna started getting ready for a concert she planned to attend with her friend, Katie Hunter.

Brianna told Bridget that she would be spending the night at Katie's house on McKay Court, feet away from the University of Nevada's Reno campus, where Katie was a student.

Brianna met up with her friend and Katie's roommate, and the three of them headed over to the Sands Regency Casino Hotel to take a bus with other college students to the concert before going dancing.

The girls ended up back of the sands, and at around one am, Katie's roommate decided she was tired and was going head back to the house on McKay Court.

Unable to find a taxi, she hitched a ride with a man who was willing to take her home.

Brianna and Katie continued on with their night, ending up at Mel's Diner around three am for mazzarella sticks and milkshakes.

At four am, they caught a ride with a few college students and headed back to Katie's rental house, exhausted after the long evening.

It's important to point out that most of the houses on McKay Court were rented to students who were attending the University of Name.

Because this was mostly a college community, with students coming and going at all hours for classes or to attend different events and parties, the doors and most of the homes were typically locked unlocked.

When the girls returned to the house, Katie gave Brianna a pillow, a couple of blankets, and a Teddy Bear to act as a second pillow.

Before heading to the room she shared with another student and her dog.

Katie's other roommate, who had returned home hours earlier, was already asleep in her bedroom.

Brianna changed into a tank top and sweatpants before settling in on the couch in front of the glass door to the house, which remained unlocked.

She reportedly sent a text to her boyfriend, who was home in Oregon for break at around four twenty three AM, before going to sleep.

As everyone in the house slept, the house was quiet.

Katie's dog never made a sound responding to any noise in the house, and no one was woken up by anything strange.

It was seemingly a quiet evening on Mackay Court.

At nine am, Katy woke up and headed into the living room area to wake up Brianna, but she wasn't asleep on the couch.

Confused but figuring Brianna was maybe in another bedroom, she knocked on the door but received no answer.

Quickly, Katy's confusion turned to panic when her roommates confirmed they hadn't seen her friend either, and a quick search of the living room revealed that Brianna's clothes, purse, and cell phone were all still there, but the bear Katie had lent her was gone.

Katy also found, to her horror, a small amount of blood about the size of a silver dollar on the pillow left behind on the couch.

Additionally, one of the blankets Brianna had used was found in the kitchen, left near the back door.

Katie immediately called the police to report Brianna missing, and she called Bridget as well.

When police arrived at the house on thirteen hundred McKay Court, they very quickly realized that this wasn't just a missing person's investigation.

The clothing, blood evidence, though admittedly a small amount, and the fact that the couch was in clear view of the unlocked glass door where anyone could see her, were all a cause for concern.

Additionally, due to the clothing being left behind, police determined that Brianna would have left the house in which he had worn to bed the tank top and sweatpants.

Considering that in the early hours of January twenty a, two thousand and eight, it was reportedly thirty three degrees outside according to the Advocate News, the likelihood that Brianna would have left a warm house in that weather without proper clothing was very slim.

Reno Police Lieutenant Robert MacDonald's, head of the Robbery homicide unit, and Detective David Jenkins, a thirty two year veteran, were called to the home and they proceeded with treating the investigation as suspicious based on the clear indication that Brianna had not left the house voluntarily.

Upon their initial walkthrough of the home, police noted that most of the windows were uncovered, providing an unobstructed view into the house.

They also found two additional spots of blood on the pillow on the couch, as well as mascara traces and a spot of blood on the blanket in the kitchen.

Each of the blood stains were about one to three inches in diameter, and the larger stain had saliva mix with it with either mucus or flem DNA analysis would later confirm all of the blood belonged to Brianna, and forensic pathologists reported that Brianna suffered an actively bleeding injury in or near her mouth, throat, or nose at a time when her face was being pressed hard against the pillow.

According to Detective Jenkins.

Also found in the home was DNA evidence confirmed to belong to a male on the doorknob of the rear door.

Upon speaking with Katie and her roommates, they learn about the man that had driven one of them home a few hours before.

Brienna and Katie and they searched for this man in the hopes that he had maybe seen something suspicious.

According to The Advocate News, police released an alert stating that they wanted to quote speak to the driver of a Beije or light brown Chevrolet or GMC suburban style suv.

He is described as a white male, possibly of Latin descent, about forty five years of age, of medium stature, and well dressed.

The vehicle was photographed by security cameras as it left the Sans Casino via the Arlington Street driveway.

However, whether or not this man was ever found or was able to provide information if he was, is unknown.

Police also received a significant piece of information from a neighbor who heard something strange between four thirty and five am.

Daniel Pittman said he was on his computer when he saw a shadow passed by his window approaching Katie's home.

Because his lights were out, the person outside likely assumed the inhabitants were sleeping.

He told police that he heard a noise that quote, sounded like someone tried to push on the handle and push the door.

Initially, Daniel was unconcern by what he heard quote, I used to live in a fraternity.

I thought it was a drunk kid trying to find his way home and had the wrong house.

As the first couple of days of the investigation passed, police knew it was critical that they find Brianna as soon as possible to increase the chances of her being found alive.

As they began their search and news spread around Reno of Brianna's disappearance, the community rallied to help search for her.

Hundreds of volunteers turned up to assist, going door to door combing the areas in the vicinity of the un R campus and any isolated areas they could find.

Over the next two days, the police were also joined by the ex FBI and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, as well as calling in helicopters and canine units to increase the chances of finding Brianna or anything that could point to what happened to her.

Dahn Gibbons, the wife of Governor John Gibbons, also joined the search, saying quote, as a mother of a child nearly the same age as Brianna, my heart goes out to the entire Dennison family.

I continued to be impressed by the overwhelming community support and many volunteers dedicated to the ongoing search efforts.

This tragic case has touched the hearts of so many across the state.

The community really was dedicated to finding Brianna and bringing her home to her family.

The city blanketed itself in blue ribbons and posters saying Bringbree home and supported the family, and billboards went up calling for anyone to come forward with information.

When it was learned that the Washoe County Crime Lab was backlogged with over three thousand DNA samples that needed to be processed before they could get to the unknown DNA found in the McKay courthouse.

Due to a lack of funding, the community came together and raised over two hundred thousand dollars according to the Reno Gazette Journal, to fund the testing.

Unfortunately, the DNA found was not a match to any of the samples in the crime lapse system.

With police quickly approaching a dead end without a hit on the DNA, and with Brianna still missing, they began looking at sexual assaults that occurred on or around the UNR campus in the weeks leading up to Brianna's disappearance that could indicate a potential pattern, and they found one.

Just over a month before Brianna disappeared, Reno police were called to a home on the fourteen hundred block of North Virginia Street, which was less than five hundred yards from Brienna's abduction site, to take a statement from a woman who claimed to have been kidnapped and sexually assaulted under some sixteen two thousand seven.

According to court records, the woman, identified as MC, reported that she had exited her car outside of her apartment at approximately two a m.

When she was attacked and knocked to the ground by a strange man.

He covered her mouth and nose with his hand, obstructing her breathing until she lost consciousness, and brought her to a pickup truck nearby.

As she came to and tried to fight back, he forced her into the truck and covered her face with the sweatshirt, driving three to four minutes before stopping in a secluded area.

He warned her that if she saw his face or went to the police, he would kill her before raping her and then driving her back to her apartment.

He took her underwear as a trophy and threatened that he might come back before letting her leave.

Emma was able to tell police that her attacker was wearing a red shirt with a blue collar, possibly silk or polyester, and had a word embroidered on the left breast.

He was also wearing pants with an elastic waist, and she recalled seeing a baby shoe on the floor of the front seat.

She was also able to provide police with a detailed description of the truck she was transported in.

Emma told police the vehicle was a late model pickup truck with an extended cab, grayer black upholstery, a narrow raised center console with a hinged lid, and the interior lights were located above the rear view mirror.

Emma had been examined after the attack and evidence was collected in the form of DNA and gray fibers that were consistent with the carpeting used in an automobile.

The DNA was finally processed and was determined to be a match to the sample found at the Dennison crime scene, Detective Jenkins spoke to Emma again and she was able to provide him with even more descriptors of her attacker.

She said he was a white male between twenty and thirty years old, somewhere between five nine and six three, with a heavy build and brown hair, a mustache, and a goatee.

She said he spoke clear, fluent English, but was unable to identify any accident or particular dialect.

Police also visited multiple auto shops with the description of the vehicle that Emma had provided, and they learned that the pickup was most likely a Toyota Tacoma made between two thousand and one and two thousand and six, though the vehicle type was narrowed down significantly, there were hundreds of cars that matched that description and they needed a way to narrow it down further.

After speaking with Emma, police learned that this was not the only attack on a un R student with a similarm to Brianna.

The month before Emma's attack, on November seventeenth, a twenty one year old nursing student identified as Amanda Sea in court records, had been attacked at around five pm at an apartment on the four hundred block of College Drive.

Amanda said she had been walking through the parking lot when she was attacked from behind and put in a chokehold, her assailant dragging her between some cars and groping her.

Amanda fought back, screaming, and the man fled, fearing that passers by would be alerted by the noise, dropping a pack of condoms as he ran.

Amanda did not initially report the attack, but came forward after seeing the significant media covered surrounding Briana's disappearance, and was able to provide additional information of her attacker that was used in combination with Emma's description to create a composite sketch of the suspect.

Not only were the attacks between the women similar, but all of the women were within a similar age range, and all three women were peteited with long, dark hair.

There was also an attack in October of two thousand and seven where it was reported that a twenty two year old woman had been assaulted at gunpoint at a parking garage that police believed was connected to Brianna's case, as well as another October assault that police did not believe is connected at all and rather a poorly thought out prank by a student against another.

At the news of the attacks and what was clearly escalating behavior, the police issued safety protocols for the un our campus.

Lieutenant MacDonald said of the suspect, quote, he is a predator of opportunity.

We want women to be cognizant that we have someone in the community who is a deviant in attacking women.

You may not meet the criteria of whom he has been targeting, but still take precaution.

After three weeks of searching and thousands of tips being looked into, the search for Brianna Denison came to an end on February fifteenth, when Ee Technologies worker Alberto Hamanez saw something brightly colored in a snow covered field in South Reno, eight miles from the Mackay court House, as he walked back to work from his lunch break.

He said, according to the Reno Gazette Journal, quote, I could see they were two bright pieces of fabric, but I couldn't make out what they were.

As it got closer, I realized this pieces of fabric were, in fact socks, bright orange, almost neon like socks.

They seemed to be attached to a pair of feet.

As he approached, Alberto saw the rest of the body that of a young woman with a wound on her right arm.

When police arrived, they found two pairs of women's underwear underneath her leg.

Doctor Ellen Clark performed the autopsy and used DNA comparison to positively identify the woman as Brianna Denison.

Doctor Clark determined that Brianna's cause of death with strangulation using a thin cord, most likely one of the pairs of underwear found with her body.

She had also been sexually assaulted, and samples were taken from Brianna's body were a match to the sample obtained from previous victims, as well as the sample taken from the doorknob at the home she was taken from.

Doctor Clark was unable to determine a time of death, but believed that Brienna had been in the field for at least a week.

Due to the snowfall, she could have been hidden from view until the snow had recently started to melt.

While the news of Brianna's murder was devastating, being able to bring her home brought a small sense of peace to her family.

Her uncle, John Zanino told the Reno Gazette Journal, quote, I wanted to break something.

I believe from the beginning that she was coming back to us.

I didn't expect this.

She did come back to us, and I am grateful.

I can't imagine carrying on with life with this always in the back of my mind.

Where is bri But she is home with us now and her family was adamant that Brianna's killer needed to be and would be found.

Her aunt Laurence said, quote, we are truly madder than hell that some person could take someone away from their family, strangle them and throw them out like a piece of trash.

We've got to get this guy.

Someone knows him, please come forward.

We need to find him so he doesn't do this to someone else.

He could be in our midst.

Police announced at a press conference that they believed that Brianna's killer was absolutely a serial rapist and was likely still in the area.

He would be familiar with the University of Nevada Reno campus, as well as the industrial area of Double R Boulevard and Sandhill Road, where Brienna had been found either living or working there.

Lieutenant MacDonald said it was possible that her killer may have moved or changed his appearance in some way, and urged community members to really look at the men in their lives to see if they match the description of the killer, similar vehicle, or was behaving oddly around the time at Brianna's abduction.

They also urged any woman that recognized one of the pairs of underwear that had been left with the Brianna's body to come forward, hoping that she would have information that could be helpful in their investigation.

The other pair of underwear had been identified as belonging to one of Katie's roommates.

Brianna was buried next to her father a Mountain View cemetery on what would have been her twentieth birthday, and community members were invited by her family to come honor Brianna with cake and notes to be buried with her.

At the love shown to her family, Bridget was thankful to her friends and neighbors who had unwaveringly supported the investigation, continuing to offer their assistance in anything the police or Dennison's needed in the hopes Brianna's killer would be found.

Bridget said, quote, it feels really good.

I feel like I'm not alone.

It really feels like she became Reno's daughter.

She also praised the Reno Police for their investigative work and dedication to solving her daughter's case.

Bridget vowed to use the loss of her daughter to press for stronger laws against repeat offenders and laws that would prioritize funding crime labs to process DNA, and she was getting ready to take her cast to the local legislator.

Detective Jenkins said that no matter how long it took, they were going to get him, but they believed that the break in the case they needed was most likely something small and innocuous, a low priority tip.

That small, innocuous tip that police were hoping for, finally came ten months after Brienna's murder.

On November one, two thousand and eight, the Secret Witness Hotline received a phone call from a woman who said her friend had found a pair of women's underwear in her boyfriend's truck during their move back from Washington.

The friend was named Carline Arman, and she said that when she confronted her boyfriend, he claimed that he found the underwear at a laundromat in Seattle.

Her boyfriend's name was James Biella.

He was a twenty seven year old pipefitter who had done work at the University of Nevada Reno campus.

During the attacks, they had moved in March to Spokane, and he had sold his truck, purchasing a new one, and he had returned to Nevada sometime in September, according to the Reno Gazette Journal, around the same time as the attack on Emma and when Brianna was abducted, James had become incredibly angry and had left the home they shared with their four year old son.

He claimed he had been sleeping in his car.

Police interviewed Biella and asked him to provide a DNA sample, which he refused.

He also denied any involvement in Brienna's abduction and murder and said that Carlene could provide him with an alibi.

So they spoke to Carlen, who not only consented to their son's DNA being tested, but told police she could not account for his whereabouts.

The DNA sample showed that the boy's father was a likely match to samples found on Brienna's body, as well as matching samples taken from other victims.

James Biella was arrested on November twenty sixth as he was picking up his son from a daycare center in Spanish Springs, where his DNA was obtained at five thirty am.

The next morning.

Forensic analysis confirmed that James Biella's DNA was a match to the samples found on Brianna, the other victims, the sample from the McKay courthouse, and a sample taken from a condom wrapper from the attack the previous November.

Police were also able to track down the truck Biella had sold in March and match the fibers taken from Emma's clothing to the carpeting on the floor of the pick, which is a two thousand and six Toyota Tacoma.

Biella was charged with the rape and murder Brianna Denison, first degree kidnapping and sexual assault of MBSC, and the sexual assault of Amanda See.

On December nineteenth, two thousand and eight, at a press conference, District Attorney Richard Gammick and Deputy District Attorney Elliott Sadler said quote were going to prosecute this case to the maximum.

He held the community at Bay Way too long and is what I call a hometown terrorist.

There's no question about it.

The District Attorney's office, while clear that they would prosecute to the fullest extent of the law, was undecided at the time if they would be pursuing the death penalty.

In January, the District Attorney's Office announced that they would be seeking the death penalty based on four aggravating conditions.

Their main sided condition was the fact that Brianna Denison had been quote sexual dually penetrated before, during, or after she was killed, and that Beella committed three other felonies involving force against a person.

The three other felonies were the sexual assaults and kidnappings of the other victims.

As the DA prepared to take Biella to court, set for twenty ten, they learned some information about his background that showed his anger had been a cause for concern for years, though very few people in his life knew it.

Depending on who you spoke to, Biello was either the life of the party, always ready to have a good time, or he was a bully with a quick temper.

James Biella was born on June twenty ninth, nineteen eighty one, in Chicago, Illinois, to Joe and Kathy Biella.

He was the youngest of five children, and when he was nine years old, the family moved to Reno when Joe was looking for a job as a truck mechanic.

It seems as if James grew up relatively well adjusted, though his parents divorce than he would go on to move with his mom to Spokane, and he had a strained relationship with his father.

Joe said he enjoyed being a dad and was proud of his children, but admitted he did struggle with his mental health and had gotten into fights.

He had also been jailed for a year for removing the serial number off of a firearm, and according to CBS, Joe Biella was physically violent towards Kathy.

After James graduated from West Valley High School in nineteen ninety nine, he joined the Marine Corps and attended basic training in San Diego before being stationed at Fort Lejune in North Carolina.

He was promoted to lance corporal before his dishonorable discharge in two thousand and one.

According to Joe Biella quote, he got busted kicked out for doing drugs.

Joe also said that his son rarely came to visit quote a couple of years ago.

He comes here with his girlfriend and baby and says everything's okay, But it wasn't.

Why did he do this to this lady?

In two thousand and two, James returned to Reno and almost immediately found himself in trouble with the law.

During an altercation with his ex girlfriend, Angie Carlo Magno's neighbor, Biello threatened him with a knife, and during a drunken argument with Angie, he threatened her and kicked her dog, breaking its leg.

She was granted an order of protection and he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor in April of two thousand and three, ordered to take classes to manage his alcohol intake, and ordered to have no contact with his x for one year.

Because the charge against him was a misdemeanor, Biella was not required to give a DNA sample.

Biella also sporadically trained at the Charles Grassey Jiu Jitsu Studio in Reno, also frequented by local police officers.

Jiu Jitsu is a self defense art and emphasized his joint locks and chokeholds to control attackers.

Gary Gray, the owner of the studio, said quote, he was just a guy in a big group of students.

Great also said that nobody ever noticed anything odd about Biella, but he had stopped attending classes at the same time that the police started investigating attacks on the un our campus, and non named acquaintance of Biellis said he was surprised at the news of his arrest.

He told the Reno gazet Journal, quote, I just had a beer with him, sat right next to him the other night.

He's the last person I think of his doing murder.

He's a really likable guy.

He's funny, great to be around.

While some spoke highly of Biella, Carlene told police that they had a tumultuous relationship over the six years they had been together, and they were currently estranged, though they had applied for our marriage license together in September, two months before his arrest.

James Biello went a trial on May tenth, twenty ten, and both of his previous victims, Emma and Amanda, testified.

According to court records, Amanda was able to identify Biella as her attacker, and the prosecution presented the DNA evidence in Emma's attack to prove that he had assaulted other women prior to Brianna's abduction and murder.

Though the DNA evidence was not precise enough to point to Biella with complete certainty, the sample was consistent enough to prove that Biello or any of his male relatives was Emma's assailant.

A forensics expert also testified that Biella's DNA sample was a match to the samples taken from Brianna's body, the underwear used to strangle her, as well as the doorknob at the McKay court House.

They also introduced cell phone records proving that Beella was in the area during each of the attacks, and various testimonies from his victims, Carlene and his computer search history that he had an unusual interest in women's underwear.

At the conclusion of the eighteen day trial, James Biella was found guilty on all five counts sexual assault with the use of a deadly weapon for the attack on Amanda, sexual assault and first degree kidnapping for the attack on Emma, and the premeditated murder and sexual assault at Brandon Dennison after just six hours of jury deliberation.

At his sentencing hearing, the prosecution presented their four aggravating circumstances to support their argument for the death penalty, which I mentioned earlier.

Biella's defense team argued that he had had a rough upbringing, was a loving father and family man who supported his family, and did not have a significantly violent criminal history.

Amanda also testified at the sentencing hearing, sharing with the court the impact the assault had on her life.

She said that while she had graduated unr gotten married, and was expecting her first child, the attack had quote killed the trusting, vivacious woman I was.

Biella refused to look at Amanda as she spoke, and she addressed that saying, quote, mister Beella, I wish you would look at me despite the fact you committed the most unforgivable act.

I forgive you for everything you put me through.

I pray you find peace with God, because he's the only one who can save you.

According to the Nevada Appeal, the jury ultimately decided that Beella's mitigating factors did not outweigh the gravity of his crimes, and he was ultimately sentenced to death via lethal injection.

In addition to his death sentence, Biella was also sentenced to four life sentences to be served consecutively.

In the event that the death penalty ruling was thrown out, Biello would have to serve a minimum of thirty six years, ten years for each life sentence being the minimum before he would be eligible for a parole.

According to the Nevada Appeal, Washoe County District Judge Robert Perry said, not only were these people terrorized, but the community was terrorized.

My first concern is the safety of the community.

According to the most recent list of inmates on death row in Nevada, James Biella is still awaiting an execution date, though he has unsuccessfully appealed to sentencing countless times since the conclusion of his trial in twenty ten.

While the conviction of Brianna's killer brought a sense of justice to her family, her mother's work was not done, and Briga went on to fight to have Brianna's Law introduced, which was ultimately passed in twenty thirteen.

This law requires those arrested for a felony in Nevada to provide a DNA sample that would be immediately processed and compared to samples in Nevada's criminal database.

Bridget hoped that this law would save other families from the heartache she and her fat family had gone through.

She and many others strongly believed that if James Biella's DNA had been collected in nineteen ninety six when he was arrested for a felony, then Brianna would still be alive, and perhaps he would not have had the opportunity to attack the women on un ours campus.

Brianna's case and the fundraising efforts of the community to have the DNA backlog cleared had also resulted in thirty unsolved cases being solved, emphasizing the importance of adequate funding for forensic laboratories.

In addition to Brianna's law being enacted, college campuses across the state also implemented new safety protocols in response to Brianna's death, along with new security measures and safety education programs.

This case was never just about an investigation, a trial, or a conviction.

It was about a vibrant nineteen year old woman whose future was stolen and a community that refused to let her be forgotten.

Reno rallied to bring Brianna home and then once again came together to find her killer and bring her justice, and her death has created a powerful legacy and made a lasting impact.

However, well Brianna would ultimately get justice, the nightmare was not over for her family.

Ten years after Brianna's murder, the Dentistens would suffer another devastating tragedy when her cousin Caitlin disappeared under mysterious circumstances, which you'll hear all about in next week's episode.

As always, I thank you so much for listening, and I hope you have a wonderful week and I will see you in the next chapter of the Book of the Dead.

Bye, guys, Another page closed.

But the story isn't over for the families left behind.

The pain doesn't end when the headlines fade.

And for the victims, we owe them more than silence for our on Salvet cases.

If you have any information, please reach out to local authorities or visit our show notes for links and resources.

Someone out there knows something, maybe it's you.

Thank you for listening to the Book of the Dead.

If this story moved or spoke to you in some way, talk about it, share it, Keep their names alive.

Until next time, I'm Courtney Liso.

Stay safe, stay curious, and stay vigilant and remember.

The dead may be gone, but their stories will not be forgotten.