Our card this week is William Alvarado, the Ace of Spades from Connecticut.

William's case is one that has stumped investigators for more than eight years.

But it's one that may soon be called a success story thanks to a tip that came in from someone

who saw William's face and case details

on a playing card. So today, we're going to do something a little different. We're going to tell

you a story of how a cold case heated up thanks to a deck and give you a front row seat to how

it all unfolded. And what officials say still needs to be done to finally close this case.

I'm Ashley Flowers, and this is The Deck.

Thank you. I'm When first responders heard a call for a medical emergency at the John J. Ashton Towers apartment building come over their dispatch just before 2 a.m. on September 7th,

2016, they acted on muscle memory. They suited up, turned on their sirens, and drove the familiar

route from the fire station to the apartment complex on Valley Street, just as they'd likely done

the night before. And the night before that, and the night before that.

If you want to define a routine calling Wilmanic,

it's pretty much that we've got a medical at Ashton Towers.

They go there all the time for medical emergencies all the time, all the time, all the time.

That's Willamantic Police Department detective, Eric Dean,

a member of Connecticut's cold case unit.

He told us that John J. Ashton Towers, known simply as the Towers, was home to more than 100 residents, most of whom were elderly, disabled or living with mental illnesses.

So emergency services were needed there pretty regularly. And this particular call and how it came in fit the bill. Representatives from a third-party medical device company had made contact. You might remember those quotable Life Alert commercials where someone's grandparent has fallen and can't get up. They can't reach the phone. Well, instead, they hit a button

on a little device around their neck. So this is basically that, same device, same concept, just a

different company. And all the medical device company told the dispatchers was that a patient named

William Alvarado needed medical attention. So again, muscle memory.

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