This was a list that he was preparing to give to the killer in his organization and the two most prominent names

were the names of the two witnesses who could put him in the building, names of their relatives that might be living with him.

Children, adults, whatever. In essence, it was a hit list.

I'm Scott Weinberger, investigative journalist and former deputy sheriff.

I'm Anna Sige-Nikolazi, former New York City homicide prosecutor and host of investigation discoveries, true conviction.

And this is Anatomy of Murphy.

For today's story, I spoke with Ken Tav, and just off the bat, I have to tell you a few things.

And that is he was my boss while I was in homicide. He is my good friend, but he also holds this special place for me

because while I learned from a lot of people along the way, he is most likely my main mentor throughout the years.

I started in September of 1980. The homicide rate was substantial by then.

Ken would eventually become the chief of homicide from 1995 to 2017 at the Brooklyn or the King's County District Attorney's Office.

It's a total of 22 years there. And while he would try so many homicide cases in his decorated career, this one that stands out and for so many reasons.

I believe the year before this homicide, 87, I might have had 13 cases. I think that was my maximum. So we were very busy.

It was April 14, 1988, and there was two different law enforcement agencies within New York City. And that was the NYPD and also the Housing Division.

And both divisions and multiple officers were looking for a young girl. She was 10 years old and was last seen playing outside her grandmother's apartment the day before.

Deputy at that time was a fellow named Dan Saunders. He had risen quickly through the ranks. And he came to me and he said to me, what are you doing right now?

And I was never a volunteer for anything, but I didn't have anything compelling that was tying me up at the moment. So he said, good, we're taking a ride.

Ken would quickly learn that the search for the missing girl would take a tragic turn. Multiple officers were conducting the search inside 340 Dumann Avenue, which is a 16 floor, 125 unit building.

And to thoroughly search those buildings, officers would conduct something called a vertical patrol.

The officers start off on the roof of the building and they each descend on the two separate stairwells pop out to inspect the floors as they go along.

And here's why it is because they are tactically safer. As any officer will tell you, you don't want someone shooting down at you in the stairwell.

If you had your choice while you don't want to be in any shootouts at all, you certainly would rather be on the high end rather than the low.

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