Our card this week is Twana Smith, the seven of clubs from Connecticut.

When Twana's body was discovered behind an abandoned building in Hartford in October

1997, she joined a growing list of the city's vulnerable

locals who fell victim to violent predators.

And for decades her case sat unsolved, gathering dust, even as detectives found the keys to unlock mysteries

from the same era. But after years of dead ends, investigators now believe they're on the brink of

a breakthrough. They just need a final push

over the finish line. I'm Ashley Flowers and this is the deck. Oh, The heart for police to The Hartford Police Department was busy in the fall of 1997.

Five homicides in just 10 weeks had left the city reeling.

And when one officer was flagged down by a woman

at around 5 PM on Monday, October 20th,

he realized that things were about to get even more hectic.

Because the woman, a local named Angela, told him that some kids had just

stumbled upon a body behind an abandoned multifamily home on Ashley Street.

Here is Detective Drew Jacobson of the Hartford PD reading from one of the original reports.

She was on the corner of Garden Street and Ashley Street when she was approached by young juveniles saying that they saw a dead person.

She went to the rear of the abandoned building with the juveniles and saw the victim.

Now, this area, the Asylum Hill section of Hartford, didn't have the best reputation.

In the 90s, it was known as a kind of a drug haven and there

was lots of street prostitution at the time. Sex work and substances led to a lot

of crime in the area. It wasn't the first time a body had been found here.

But nothing could have prepared the officer

...