"Help me, help me! They've killed me!"

It was 11:00 p.m. on July 9, 2004, and Greg Sorenson, a detective with the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department was lying down to sleep when, in the distance, he heard a high-powered gunshot reverberate through the still night air. It was an alien noise to Goleta, the low crime, wealthy Central California beach community that had only a few murders a year.

Several people called 911 to report hearing the shot and a mortally wounded man crying, "Help me, help me! They've killed me!" as he lay bleeding to death on his porch. A man and woman were seen fleeing the scene.

Jarrod Davidson

Sorenson's phone rang. His boss wanted him on the case. He rushed to the station for a briefing and learned the identity of the victim: Jarrod Davidson, 27, a student pursuing his Ph.D. in chemistry at the University of California, Santa Barbara.