Ashley Flowers

Just after opening on a cold Saturday in February, someone entered the Lane Bryant store in Tinley Park, Illinois, and over the course of just about 40 minutes enacted a brutal crime, killing five of the six women inside.

Despite a detailed suspect sketch from the survivor...

Despite the fact that 911 was called while he was still in the store, and despite the fact that police were on the scene within minutes, the killer got away.

But when I got into this story, it got so much bigger than I ever thought it could have.

The case got so big that I needed help.

So I brought in the best investigative journalist I know, Delia D'Ambra.

And on her newest season of CounterClocked,

she is ready to fill you in on her years-long investigation into the Lane Bryant murders and the suspect that it led her to.

Listen to Season 8 of CounterClock wherever you get your podcasts.

Our card this week is Milagros Nieves, the three of clubs from Connecticut.

The first homicide that a police officer is called to gets burned into their brain forever.

For then-officer Frank Papalucha of the Bridgeport Police Department, this case was his first.

Whether because of or in spite of the horror he saw that day, Officer Papalucha would go on to become Detective Papalucha.

But he was never put on Milagros' case.

He climbed the ranks and became a financial fraud detective.

And for 33 years, he assumed that the murder of Milagros Nieves was a closed case.

And that might sound strange, but when you hear about Milagros' murder, the violence of it, the brutality of it, you'll understand why even the most hardened investigators would want to erase it from their memories.

But it's time to start talking about her again.

I'm confident that's how we're going to get this case solved.

And you want to know why I'm so confident?