Lester Holt hosted After The Storm, a Dateline NBC episode centered around the case of Diane Holik, a resident of Great Hills in Austin who was found strangulated to death. The incident took place on November 15, 2001, when Austin was under the covers of a thunderstorm.
Diane Holik reportedly had a last telephonic conversation at 3:30 p.m. on November 15. She used to work at IBM on a hiring team and was planning to move to Houston.
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Eventually, when her co-workers could not reach out to Holik after she had reportedly missed a work meeting, they informed the police. Later, she was found dead in her room with ligature marks on her neck and a good amount of missing jewelry.
What happened to Diane Holik, as explored in Dateline NBC?
As witnessed on the Dateline NBC episode, on the day of Diane Holik's murder there was a thunderstorm hovering above Austin and thus Diane's friends were trying to contact her to see if she was okay or not.
After Holik's friends were not able to contact her, they got worried and informed the authorities. Later she was discovered dead in her guestroom after her neighbor cum realtor Mr. Brown let them into the house.
According to reports, Diane Holik had signs of ligature around her neck, though no trace of it was later found. Dateline NBC had mentioned that her post-mortem reports concluded death by strangulation. The redness of Diane Holik's wrists suggested that she was confined with zip ties before being murdered. Moreover, her wedding ring was nowhere to be found.
What more do we know about the murder of Diane Holik?
According to reports, after close investigation, the police had learned that Diane Holik's fiance Dennis had some 'ups and downs ' with her and also mentioned in his statements,
"We ran into some tough spots. I mean we don't fight, it's just you know everybody carries baggage into your relationships at this age. And our baggage was clashing and we were working on it."
One of her neighbors had mentioned that he had seen a van parked outside Diane's house in her driveway assuming it was a potential buyer for the house.
With a statement from a real estate agent, eye witnesses from neighbors, and sketches composed from the description, a name came forward by matching the license plate of the car found near the house of Diane Holik. The guy's name was Patrick Tony Russo who had a background in music.
He was reportedly never interested in buying the apartment and told the agents that he wanted to pay in cash to buy the house. After matching DNA imprints and hair samples, Russo was taken into custody for the murder of Diane Holik. His fingerprints matched the ones found at the scene.
Later Russo's trial resulted in his imprisonment after he was convicted in February 2004, as explored in the Dateline episode. He reportedly had a history of attacks on women and was imprisoned before but claimed that he was now a reformed man after he married his wife.
For more information stay tuned to Soap Central.
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