Captain Jim Macito was holding a press conference in front of the police station in Calaveras County, California on April 28, 2013.

He was updating reporters on an investigation that they had been working on for the last 24 hours.

An investigation so horrific that it had captivated not only the local area, but had captured the nation's attention as well.

Captain Macito assured reporters that they were working diligently through the night to try and find the murderer who is now undoubtedly still on the loose.

He said they had executed a search warrant on the home where the murder had taken place today before and that they had collected what looked to be promising evidence.

We did collect some fingerprints during that search and we also collected what we believe would be the DNA.

Those prints in that DNA will hopefully be processed within the next week.

He said they had no suspects or persons of interest at this time and that they had notified the local school district and provided extra security to the local schools and bus stops.

And although rumors had already been swirling around and although most everyone in the community already knew what he was going to say next, he then officially identified the victim.

At this point in time we're going to release the victim's name and age. The victim in this case is Laila Fowler. It's L.E.I. L.A. She was a nine-year-old resident of L.E. Springs.

I did have some limited communication with the family today and they have when I asked them if there was anything they'd like to be passed on to the press in the public.

They asked me basically anybody that has any information about this case to please call in and call in immediately.

Laila Fowler was actually eight years old, just two months shy of her ninth birthday.

Hey everyone, this is Jillian and you are listening to Court Junkie, Episode 50.

On Saturday, April 27th, 2013, the day before that press conference, it was a typical spring day in Valley Springs, California.

Valley Springs is located towards the center of the state, about 60 miles southeast of Sacramento and about 50 miles northeast of Modesto.

It's a rather small town, a total of not quite a full 10 square miles and the population in 2010 registered just over 3500 residents.

The Fowler family lived on the 5600 block of Rippon Road. They were what some people would call a blended family.

Bernie Fowler, his fiance, Crystal Walters, and six children ranging from one year old to 15 all lived at the home.

On this particular spring morning, the majority of the family left the house at 7 a.m. to go to one of the kids' little league baseball games.

But 12 year old Isaiah and eight year old Laila stayed home.

It was 12.06 p.m. when Crystal received a frantic phone call from Isaiah.

...