Dateline: 5 harrowing details about Brianna Denison’s abduction and murder, explored

NBC’s Dateline episode titled The Night Briana Vanished depicted the tragic events surrounding the 19-year-old Brianna Denison’s abduction and murder. After months of search and investigation, the police caught hold of James Biela, who was later found guilty of abducting, s*xually assaulting, and murdering the 19-year-old college student.

The synopsis of the Dateline episode reads:

"Brianna Denison, a college student, was abducted on January 20, 2008, from a friend's house in Reno, Nevada. Her body was discovered the following month."

Biela later received the death penalty in addition to four life sentences for his multiple crimes.

Here are 5 shocking details about Brianna Denison’s abduction and murder case detailed in the Dateline episode.

Dateline: 5 harrowing details about Brianna Denison’s abduction and murder, explored

1) Brianna was abducted from a friend’s house

Brianna Denison was a student at Santa Barbara City College and was enjoying her life with her friends during her college break. Brianna from Reno, Nevada, stayed at her friend K.T. Hunter’s home after a night out with friends and slept on the couch, where she was last seen. In the morning, Hunter discovered that Brianna was gone and found a blood stain on the pillow she used.

As per Dateline, Hunter informed Brianna’s mom, Bridgette Zunino-Denison, who rushed to the house, and also called the police. The police quickly suspected foul play as none of Brianna’s belongings, her phone, wallet, or clothes, were missing. Furthermore, the DNA testing also revealed that the blood matched Brianna’s and they also found an unknown’s DNA on the door knob of Hunter’s house, alerting the police of a potential abduction case.

2) Investigation linked Brianna’s case with other s*xual offences near the area

Further investigation on Brianna’s disappearance brought horrifying details to light as several reports of s*xual crimes were reported around the same time. Detective Dave Jenkins also shared about another case that had happened a month earlier, where an exchange student was attacked and s*xually assaulted in the parking lot of Nevada-Reno University.

The student revealed that her perpetrator drove a Toyota Tacoma but was unable to recall his face as he asked her not to look at him. However, the unknown DNA that was found in Hunter’s house matched with the one found in the exchange student’s r*pe kit. But they were still unable to find the culprit until another victim of the same perpetrator approached the police. She helped them draw a sketch of her assailant, and it was also revealed that the perpetrator kept the undergarments of all his victims.

3) Brianna’s body was found

Brianna disappeared in January 2008, and after a month, on February 15, 2008, her body was discovered by Albert Jimenez while returning from his lunch break. Autopsy revealed that Brianna was also s*xually assaulted and then choked to death.

However, it still took months for the police to capture the criminal.

4) James Biela was suspected of abducting and murdering Brianna

After ten months, the police finally had a lead when someone called and told them that she had found unrecognised undergarments in her boyfriend’s vehicle. James Biela’s description and his vehicle fitted with what the victims had shared, and they only needed a DNA sample to charge him.

However, Dateline revealed that Biela refused, but his girlfriend helped the police by agreeing to let them take a sample from their son, which eventually proved that Biela was the one who assaulted these women and murdered Brianna.

5) Biela received the death penalty

James Biela was later convicted of s*xually assaulting multiple women and murdering Brianna Denison, for which he received the death penalty, in addition to four life sentences, in 2010.

The Dateline episode includes interviews with Brianna’s mother and Detective Jenkins, among others.