I mean, you couldn't look at those autopsy photos alone, even without the science behind it.

And then just how he left her.

I mean, she's half dangling off that bed.

Everything about it was brutal and violent and offensive and degrading.

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

I'm Anasiga Nikolazi, former New York City homicide prosecutor

and host of investigation discoveries true conviction.

And this is Anatomy of Merck.

Why does one homicide make headlines while another one doesn't?

Maybe there's details from that particular crime that are shocking or some unthinkable violence

that can both horrify and fascinate the public.

Sometimes it isn't just a brutality that grips us. It's where it happens. A murder in an

upscale neighborhood or the heart of a busy tourist hotspot forces us to lean in, to wonder how

violence could shatter a place we once thought was safe.

But we found that one of the most common reasons that the public responds to a certain case is the connection they feel with the victim.

Maybe it's a public figure, but more likely it's just someone who shares the same background,

maybe the same dreams, or the same challenges that we face.

We feel like we know them, making the pain of their death more palpable and the fear that it could one day be one of us more real.

And that feeling, it's especially resonant when it comes to the case of intimate partner violence, something to which our guest today has dedicated

her entire career. My name is Brandy Mitchell. I am the division chief of the family violence

division at the Dallas County District Attorney's Office, where we prosecute felony,

intimate partner violence cases from third degree felonies up to murder and capital murder.

...