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Dateline: After the Storm, which aired in September 2016, investigated the chilling case of Diane Holik, who was found murdered in her Texas home.
The official synopsis of the Dateline episode reads as follows:
Diane Holik is strangled in her home. Family and friends are slowly eliminated until it is likely a stranger murder. Then multiple women report a man behaving strangely while looking at properties for sale or rent.
Diane Holik was planning to sell her house and move in with her fiancé in Houston, which is why she often had potential buyers at her house. The Austin Police traced the killer as a predator who posed as a potential buyer for her house.
Here are 5 harrowing details about the murder of Diane Holik.
Dateline: 5 disturbing details about Diane Holik's murder
1) Dateline: After The Storm- Diane Holik was murdered through strangulation
On November 15, 2001, Holik informed one of her friends on the phone that a man was at the door to see her at her house. After the violent storm in the afternoon, none of Holik's friends could reach her, so they requested the Austin Police to check up on her.
When the police reached Holik's house, they found her dead body in the upstairs bedroom with ligature marks. The autopsy report revealed that Holik was murdered by strangulation, and the deep red marks on her wrists indicated that the killer also zip-tied her hands before leaving and murdering her.
2) Dateline: After the Storm- While the motive was not robbery, Holik's engagement ring was still gone
Examining the crime scene and Holik's body, the Austin Police deduced that the motive of the murder was not robbery. However, a diamond engagement ring was missing from Holik's finger.
Since Holik was talking to one of her friends before a suspicious man came to look at her house, the friend mentioned that Holik had said that she was wearing her $17,500 engagement ring, which was not found on her dead body.
3) Dateline: After the Storm- The Police suspected Diane Holik's fiancé
With no prime leads or any other motive in sight, the police suspected Diane's fiancé, Dennis. The missing engagement ring pointed in his direction, and he even revealed on Dateline that the couple was going through a rough patch in their relationship:
“We ran into some rough spots. I mean we don’t fight, it’s just you know everybody carries baggage into your relationships at this age. And our baggage was clashing and we were working on it.”
However, he maintained that he had not hurt Diane Holik.
4) Dateline: After the storm: Diane Holik's neighbors testified about a strange man looking at houses
When the news about Diane Holik's murder circulated, the women in her neighbourhood revealed that a strange man was looking at real estate in the area often. While he said that he was looking for a house for his wife and kids, the women had strange incidents with him, as one of them recalled:
“The whole time I was showing him the home he was never looking in any room. He seemed to be more interested in looking out windows than he did the actual room.”
All the women reported about his strange and predatory behaviour, and one of them even noted down his license plate number, which ultimately helped track down Patrick Russo, Diane's killer.
5) Dateline: After the Storm- Diane's killer Patrick, had a history of attacking women
The Police tracked down Patrick, a part-time music minister at a Church. The man had a criminal background and a history of attacking women and had also served jail time because of it.
While Russo denied having any connection to Holik or her neighbourhood, the police found his DNA on a towel left at Diane's home. A DNA swap on Holik's hand also matched with Russo, which confirmed him as the killer.
While Patrick Russo maintained his innocence, he was found guilty of capital murder in February 2004.
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Also Read: Dateline: A Promise to Gloria - A complete timeline of the Gloria Pointer murder case, revisited
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