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Episode 17 Holly Cassano it was 2009. On the afternoon of Sunday, November 2nd, 22 year old Holly Cassano dropped her 17 month old daughter Alexis off at Holly's mom's house in Mahomet, Illinois. Tony Cassano often helped her daughter out by babysitting Alexis while Holly went to work at the Meijer grocery store. Holly's shift was scheduled until 10pm sometime that evening, Toni brought little Alexis to the store to visit Mommy. Holly and Alexis played and giggled and then Toni left and took Alexis to her place. Around 10, Holly called and begged her mom to let her stay at work because her friend had made cookies and brought them by and the two young women wanted to hang out for a bit. Holly and Tony agreed that Alexis would just stay over at Tony's house that night and Holly would come over first thing in the morning to pick her up. Monday morning came and Holly didn't show up at Tony's house as planned. Starting around 8.30am, Toni texted and rang her daughter's cell phone, but there was no response. As you can imagine, this was very odd. Holly was a responsible mom and always responded to Tony's communications promptly, especially when Alexis was in her grandma's care. By 10:15, Toni was kind of annoyed she had to be at work. At 11, she weighed whether to just leave Alexis with her longtime partner Holly's erstwhile stepdad Don, and head out. Instead, she decided to run over to Holly's house, which was nearby, leaving Alexis home with Don. She later thanked God that she left the toddler at home rather than bringing her along to find her mother. Holly and Alexis lived in the Candlewood Estates Mobile home park at 298 Dupage Street. This was just outside Mahomet. Tony and Don lived there too. When Tony drove up to Holly's trailer, she saw that Holly's Toyota minivan was parked outside. Tony pulled in and walked in the front door of the trailer, which was standing open. She called for Holly. When she saw red splotches on the floor, she assumed it was prop blood from Halloween which was Holly's favorite holiday and had been celebrated just a day earlier. Tony said later that she was glad she was the one who found her daughter. As horrific and traumatic as it was, it was better than a stranger or a police officer or, God forbid, Alexis finding her. But as a result, Tony saw a sight that she will never be able to unsee. Holly lay nearly naked on the floor of her bedroom, covered in stab wounds. She was cold and stiff to the touch. Blood was everywhere. Her stunned mother said a prayer to herself and dialed 911. It was 10:38am Holly Marie Cassano was born on October 28, 1987, to Tony Cassano and a father who has never been publicly named. She grew up in Mahomet with brother Casey, half brother Kenneth, and sisters Brandy and Dawn. Holly graduated from Mahomet Senior high school in 2006. After high school, she found herself pregnant with her daughter, who was born in 2007. To support herself and Alexis, Holly worked two jobs as a hostess at the Bob Evans restaurant and as a cashier at the Meijer supermarket, both in Champagne. She had worked previously at a Michaels store and had recently left the Bob Evans job. She was a hard worker and was committed to raising her daughter on her own as best she could. She had a lot of friends to whom she was very loyal. They said she was the kind of person who always remembered birthdays and anniversaries. She had a teddy bear collection. Her favorite holiday was Halloween, just three days after her birthday. Holly was 55 and only 110 pounds. She had light reddish brown hair and blue eyes. Holly's aunt Christina, Tony's sister, also lived in Candlewood Estates. She was just returning home from the grocery store when the police cars flew by, lights flashing and sirens blaring. It was only moments before her phone rang and it was Toni crying hysterically about Holly. Christina rushed over there, but all she could do was comfort her sister. It was far too late to help Holly. The November 3rd autopsy on Holly was a complex one for the medical examiner who performed it. Holly had been stabbed to death and had died from blood loss. But this was not just a simple stabbing. The pathologist at the McLean county morgue, Dr. Scott Denton, determined that Holly had been stabbed by a sharp implement, like a knife, 55 to 60 times. 60 times. The amount of trauma to her body was incredible. Champaign county coroner Duane Northrup said of the stab wounds to Holly, quote, they were all over. A couple went through the heart, but there was more than one fatal wound. Indeed, Dr. Denton found that Holly had been stabbed with great force in the chest as her sternum was penetrated and her heart pierced. 27 stab wounds in her back collapsed her lungs and and a cluster of gaping wounds on her lower right back showed that a person was, quote, straddling or sitting on her buttocks, using his right hand to stab her as she tried to fight back. Holly died within three to seven minutes, but she put up a struggle before she died, as evidenced by injuries to her hands and arms. The fingernail on one of her index fingers was broken off. Someone appeared to have had a personal vendetta against or targeted rage at Hollywood. She had been sexually assaulted as well, but that fact was not released at the time. Vaginal and anal swabs revealed the presence of semen. The medical examiner could not determine the time of death, just putting it at some time between 11:30pm Sunday night and 10:30am on Monday morning. In an inquest, a jury surprised no one by finding that Holly's case was indeed a homicide. After Holly's murder, her stunned friends and family organized a vigil in her honor. Hundreds of people attended, lighting candles, listening to the pastor from Church of the Cross say a few words and wearing white ribbons to signify opposition to violence against women. Several of Holly's friends shared memories of her. It was a testament to how beloved the young woman was that so many were touched by her life and showed up to honor her in death. At the same time, people were scared and concerned about her murder. Muhammad is a small town. These kinds of things didn't happen here, and no one could think of a person who would want to harm Holly in such a brutal fashion. Except one. When Champaign County Sheriff's Deputy Doug Bieleschki arrived at Holly's trailer in response to the 911 call, he found Tony Cassano sitting on the front steps, hysterical. After peeking into the house and tiptoeing around all the blood, he saw that there was nothing that could be done for Holly. He summoned investigative units to the scene and the investigation by the CCSO began. Crime scene techs, assisted by the Illinois State Police, set to work analyzing the crime scene and trying to piece together Holly's last movements. She had worked at the Meyer store that Sunday night, November 1, where she was seen by other employees and customers. She finished her shift around 10:15pm she called her mom and asked if Tony could keep Alexis for the night. After that, she hung out for about a half hour, chatting with female CO worker Blake Staller, who had baked cookies and brought them to the store. After Texting Holly at 10pm they chatted and munched on cookies until about 10:45. It was believed that Holly went home at that point. She was last seen in the Meijer parking lot. The last text from Holly was sent to her co worker and friend Oscar Newcoo at 11:16pm all it said was hey. She received no response. Holly put a DVD on and got in bed to watch. At some point, investigators believe that she fell asleep. After that, they could only guess what happened based on the clues left behind by the killer. Holly's pet cockatoo was mute in its cage in the kitchen, unharmed but unable to reveal what had happened that night. The crime scene inside the home was chaotic and bloody, according to Detective Dave Sharik. There was blood in the bedroom, hallway, bathroom, living room, kitchen, kitchen sink and even the outside of the door to the home. Blood was even on the ceilings and walls as well as the floors and on fixtures throughout the house. An Illinois State Police crime scene investigator, Mike Kyroak, processed the scene at the request of the ccso. There was no forced entry to the trailer or primarks on any doors or windows, but Kyrorak noted that a screen was off one of the windows. Since the window was found closed, they did not know whether this was the point of ingress. The screen could have been off the window before the crime, but investigators also noted that the lock on the front door of the trailer could easily have been defeated by someone who knew what he was doing doing. There was blood on a screen door and Kyrorak removed the entire screen door, as well as an interior doorknob, some light switches and switch plates, and a piece of carpet that was soaked in blood. All of this was entered into evidence. Holly was found lying on her back with her ankles just inches apart and her arms spread out wide as if she had been posed. She was naked but for a camisole, which was dotted with 12 to 18 puncture wounds and pushed up around her neck and underwear down around one of her legs. The TV was still on. Investigators for the Sheriff's office, using the information they had learned from the coroner as well as the evidence at the crime scene, concluded that Holly had been asleep on her stomach when her attacker had crept into the trailer in his socks, no shoes. He immediately stabbed her multiple times in the back as she slept, piercing through the blanket and sheet into her body over and over. The blanket and sheet had stab holes that matched up with some of the stab wounds on Holly's body as she tried to fight breaking a nail. They made their Way onto the floor, with the attacker delivering a final stab to her chest to make sure he finished her off. After that, they believed that the intruder had sex with her body. A bloody handprint on Holly's thigh Showed that the killer had manipulated her leg after blood was already present. And the wounds Holly suffered Meant that she would have died quickly. Yet the killer got what he wanted from her after she was dead. No weapon was found, but police believed a kitchen knife to have been the likely implement used. They found a piece of plastic from a knife handle and a bloody imprint shaped like a blade on a surface in the home. Three steak knives appeared to be missing from their designated slots in a knife block in Holly's kitchen. As I mentioned, the crime scene in the house was a bloody mess. There was blood all over the trailer, but it was not all Holly's blood. In fact, Holly's blood was contained to the bedroom, but throughout the house, there were pools of blood that proved to be from a male person, Almost certainly the killer. There were also smears of this blood on multiple surfaces in the trailer. From the ample blood evidence, Investigators were able to determine that the attacker had cut himself, Most likely cutting into his left arm While holding Holly down and stabbing her with his dominant right hand. He was in such a state of mania that he then allowed himself to bleed freely While he sexually assaulted an already deceased Holly. Blood drops the size of half dollars on her legs and foot Illustrated his frenzied necrophiliac act. After he was finished, he cleaned himself up. It appeared inside a second bathroom in the home, where he left blood in the sink and smeared around. He likely bound his wounds with some sort of cloth item found in the house and left, Leaving no blood on the exterior of the home, Save a screen door, and none on the ground outside. The scene was such a mess, Investigators were not able to gather any useful fingerprints. They did collect some hairs found on Holly's body and put them into evidence. The sheriff's office repeatedly asked the public for information on Holly's case. Sheriff Dan walsh pleaded for anyone who had seen Holly after work on Sunday night to please call the sheriff's office. Officials stated that they believed whoever had attacked Holly was a man and he had cut himself while stabbing his victim. Lt. Ed Ogle asked, quote, if you see somebody who has come up with a recent cut After Sunday night, and they are anyway affiliated with the area or the family or friends, that should send alarm bells off in your head, Let us know about it. Investigators were baffled as to the motive. There had been no robbery. $100 cash was still inside Holly's wallet in the trailer. It seemed too savage an attack to have been random. They assumed that the person who had attacked her was known to her. And sure enough, the investigative trail led to someone close to Hollywood. Police had, of course, started by looking at the people in Holly's life with the level of rage that was directed against her and the fact that it seemed she had possibly opened the door to her killer. It looked as though he was someone Holly knew well. And they knew that the killer who had left blood behind was a man. Was there a man in Holly's life who might have had a beef with her? There sure was. Holly's ex, Alexis father, Chris. Holly had sought a restraining order against Chris twice in the five months leading up to her murder. In June 2009, Holly had submitted a nine page statement attesting to Chris verbal abuse and pattern of intimidation. He refused to allow her to move out of the house they shared, and when she did, he called and texted her repeatedly. He also refused to permit Tony, who Alexis's grandmother, to be involved in the child's life. The judge denied the June request for a restraining order, saying that Holly needed to submit more evidence. Holly submitted a second petition in August, again seeking protection for herself and her daughter. This was because she had handed Alexis over for a court mandated visit with her father. But when it was time for her to retrieve the little girl, Chris refused to answer his phone. Holly went to his house and he would not answer the door, but she could hear Alexis crying inside. Holly called her brother Casey and he went in and found Alexis in a filthy diaper with Chris passed out on the couch with marijuana paraphernalia on his chest. The Department of Children and Family Services notified Chris that they were investigating his suspected abuse and neglect of his and Holly's child. All of this went down just a couple of months before Holly was killed. Furthermore, Holly and Chris had a custody hearing on the calendar in the days after the murder. And Holly's mom, Toni, said that she often saw Holly with bruises on her arms that her daughter would try to explain away. As listeners know, many, many women like Holly are harmed each year by their partners or ex partners, especially when trying to leave the relationship or get help. Antoni told police all about Chris and Holly's acrimonious relationship. Within three hours of her mom finding Holly's body, Chris. Police rounded up Chris and grilled him for two hours. He agreed to submit to a polygraph test and the results were inconclusive. Chris Was looking more and more like a good suspect for holly's murder. If he had shown up at her house that night, she might have answered the door. And then things became heated. But there was a problem with his theory. Chris didn't do it. How do we know the DNA? Remember, Holly was killed in 2009. DNA testing was commonplace and reliable. We know that investigators had what they believed to be the killer's blood on hand, Found in the home after he cut himself. And semen from holly's vagina and anal cavity Were collected at her autopsy and used to develop a DNA profile for an unknown male offender. It matched the profile of the male who had been bleeding at the scene. All the male blood lifted from the scene Matched the profile extracted from the semen. Investigators knew that only one man had been in the trailer that night and raped and killed holly. They had his DNA profile. The only thing they didn't know was who he was. Using the DNA profile, Investigators compared the killer's DNA to the profile of chris, Holly's abusive and violent ex. It was not a match. He was ruled out. So investigators had to turn elsewhere in their hunt for holly's killer. All they had to go on at this point, Besides an unknown suspect's DNA, Was an FBI behavioral analysis unit profile. The profile suggested that they were looking for a white male, Young, Possibly a teenager. Someone who was familiar with the area where holly lived but did not necessarily live there himself. He also was familiar with holly and had fixated on her and possibly even expressed sexual interest in her, which was rebuffed. He had likely watched her for some time. He was not confident enough to try to take her alive. Instead, he stabbed her in the back In a sort of blitz attack While she was defenseless, Suggesting that he was young or small and insecure, or he had a sexual fantasy about having sex with a dead woman. Finally, since they had not been able to gather any reports of men with injuries to their upper bodies, he might have left the area soon after the killing. Investigators should consider whether any employees at meijer had quit their job shortly after the murder. The FBI suggested the sheriff's office ran down Everyone they could find who knew holly and followed up on tips. They reviewed the security footage from the meyer store for the 30 days preceding the murder. They obtained cell tower data dumps, Hoping that the killer's phone was on him when he killed holly and his number would stand out as having been in use on the night she was killed. But the area was just too populous for this to be practical. So pursuant to the profile, Suggesting the killer was familiar with candlewood estates sheriff's office. Investigators canvassed the development where Holly had lived for just two months. The media consistently referred to Candlewood estates as a mobile home park, but that's not really an accurate description. It's a neighborhood comprising 500 plus prefabricated homes that are the size of double wide trailers. These are not movable trailers, but are affixed to a foundation and have yards, landscaping, and so on. They're really just mini houses. Investigators went door to door and knocked on every one of the homes spread across the mile wide park, Speaking to most of the 2,000 residents. But given the sheer size of the place, it was not possible for them to get to everyone. And the records of the trailer park management office were found not to reflect the names of of everyone who stayed there. Given the amount of blood he had left at the crime scene, investigators were convinced that the killer had at least one significant wound of his own that would give him away, and these wounds would have been serious enough to warrant medical attention. They had checked all the area hospitals, though, with no luck. And after the Candlewood Estates canvas, Lt. Ed Ogle said, quote, it's very frustrating that we canvass an entire trailer park and we find two people who have fresh wounds on their hands and we didn't get one call. They turn out to be unrelated, but somebody somewhere has to have information on this. Two weeks after Holly's murder, after spending 400 man hours on the case, Investigators had not made much progress honing in on a suspect. Lieutenant Ogle said on November 14, quote, we now know that we are looking for a male suspect. This was a very, very brutal attack on this young lady. She deserves justice, and the family deserves closure. By January 2010, two months after Holly's murder, Her case was starting to go cold. Investigators said they had logged 1500 hours, talked to everyone Holly knew, even remotely, Created a spreadsheet of 836 names for cross reference, and had worked with crime stoppers to offer a reward. It was very surprising to investigators that they had run into a brick wall on this investigation. By August, Lt. Ogle said they were now leaning toward the killer being someone unknown to Holly, A stranger. As sheriff Walsh said, quote, if it's truly a transient person and a random attack, it's going to become much more difficult to solve. He was right. Tony Cassano, meanwhile, was trying to move on with her life. She had a hard time erasing the indelible images of the crime scene from her mind. She told the media Quote, I still have problems sleeping because of it. I don't know why. That's my biggest unanswered question. No one did, of course. One of the first things investigators did was run the unknown perpetrator's DNA profile through codis. There was no match. Investigators assumed that the killer had never been convicted of a crime that would require his submitting a DNA sample. They were wrong about this, but would not know that for nine years. By August of 2010, the sheriff's office had submitted 100 DNA swabs to the state crime lab for comparison to the DNA profile of the man who had bled all over Holly's house. These were swabs from men who were looked at during the course of the investigation. Friends, colleagues of Holly's, like Oscar Newcoo, whom she texted that night. Neighbors, classmates, relatives, acquaintances of Holly's and anyone who had volunteered to give a sample. A couple of these looked like good suspects. A co worker and friend of Holly's who was living in another town and who initially refused to give a DNA sample raised a red flag. He finally agreed to cooperate and was ruled out. Another was a guy who had come into the Meyer store and noticed Holly, thought she was attractive and reached out to her through social media. Investigators found his name by going through her phone and checking into everyone she was in contact with. This guy had spotted her and randomly contacted her and sent her pictures, and she ended up dead very soon thereafter, which was super suspicious. Investigators had considered the theory that someone had followed Holly home from work that night. This new would be suitor also agreed to give DNA. A third possible suspect was a male relative of Holly's who refused to give DNA. And so police had to stake him out and grab his garbage to test his DNA surreptitiously. Not a single one of these men was a match to the profile of the killer. Investigators were stumped. The first anniversary of Holly's murder came and went. Tony Cassano adopted Alexis, who started to call Tony mom. And time continued to pass with frustrated and stymied investigators staring at Holly's photo on the wall at the Champagne county sheriff's office, helpless to solve her case. All the investigators on the case were on a first name basis with Tony, who was in touch with the CCSO regularly. They continued to work the case for years, following up on tips and leads, and eventually swabbed hundreds of people for DNA. But on the fifth anniversary in November of 2014, Sheriff Walsh announced that I'm assigning Lieutenant Kurt Apperson and Sergeant Chris Dahr to Solely rework the Cassano case starting from scratch. This will be their only duty for 30 days or longer if we make progress. Sheriff Walsh expressed the investigators continued lack of certainty about the nature of the suspect, saying, quote, there was so much violence and so many knife wounds, this person was in a rage. So my belief is that it was personal or it was somebody who was just going through an extreme psychotic episode. But the sheriff's office had more than just a file review up their sleeves. In the fall of 2014, Sheriff Walsh contracted with a private lab, Sorensen forensics of Salt Lake city, Utah, to conduct testing on the killer's DNA recovered at the crime scene. In September 2015, just shy of the sixth anniversary of Holly's murder, there was news that gave the case new life. The analysis of the killer's DNA conducted by the lab statistically suggested that the suspect was likely a male with some Hispanic, North American or Central or South American heritage. This was significant because the area where Holly lived was predominantly white. And now they had reason to believe that the suspect was possibly mixed race. Chief deputy Alan Jones with the Champaign county sheriff's department said in a statement, quote, and even since we've had this information that's gone out recently, in the past week, we've had four or five tips that have come in. We've had some cooperative folks that have participated with us, even willingly provided samples. So it gives us some focus, and we're very optimistic that it might help move us to resolution. But they were still looking for a needle in a haystack. Investigators were sent on some wild goose chases as they pursued every would be lead in Holly's case. In 2013, a mentally ill woman named Jennifer Inman attempted to hire a hitman to murder her ex boyfriend. When police busted the plot after wiring up the hitman, Jennifer named the hitman as the murderer of Holly Cassano. Jennifer turned out to be obsessed with Holly's case and had written pages upon pages of notes and observations about it. She was found not guilty by reason of insanity on the solicitation of murder for hire charges. And the alleged hitman, who had been the one who called the police in the first place, had nothing to do with Holly's murder. Then in 2016, there was another murder that drew the interest of the investigators on Holly's case because it was close to home. This gets a little complicated, but here it is. Holly had a half brother named Kenneth Crane. They shared a mom, Tony. Kenneth and his ex girlfriend, a Sarah Kijanowski, had a set of twin daughters who were five years old. In 2016, Sarah and Kenneth's relationship had been volatile and Kenneth was abusive. In 2011, Sarah had gotten a two year protection order against him. Then in January of 2016, Sarah stabbed to death her current boyfriend, a chase yetz, with whom she also shared a young daughter. Tony cassano petitioned to take custody of her son. Kenneth's twin girls with Sarah Because Sarah was going to prison and Kenneth was also arrested on a separate assault charge. All of this turned out to have nothing whatsoever to do with Holly. But for obvious reasons, investigators on her case had to look into it and sort out whether there was any connection. There wasn't. Then another suspect emerged who was so compelling, investigators wondered whether there was some mix up that had prevented his DNA from being a match in CODIS to Holly's killer's DNA. CCSO detective Duane Rolfs got a tip from prison officials in Iowa about a sex offender incarcerated there. And this inmate had known Holly. He moved away from the Muhammad area shortly after her murder. And before Holly had moved into the trailer home, she had lived with Chris in another location. And this sex offender lived there at the same time. The clincher was that this guy had a shrine to Holly set up in his cell. Her media photo was surrounded with pornographic photos of women who resembled her. The shrine was the reason the Iowa prison authorities had contacted ccso investigators. This guy sure looked interested in and connected to Holly. There was a big drawback, though. He had been only 14 or 15 years old when Holly was killed, and his DNA had been taken in Iowa when he was still a juvenile. But it didn't trigger a hit in codis When Holly's killer's DNA was entered. Could there have been a mix up? CCSO investigators decided they would have to travel to Iowa to get a DNA sample from this guy. But before they did that, the forensic genealogy team at parabon gave them another name altogether. As all this was going on, by 2018, investigators had used DNA to rule out 190 people. In February 2018, sheriff's investigator Duane Rolfs attended a training session at the university of Illinois where he sat in on a presentation of by a forensic anthropologist about the use of genetics in crime solving. And an Illinois state police investigator Rolfs was acquainted with told him about parabon's snapshot technology. Intrigued by the possibility of cracking the Cassano cold case, Sheriff Walsh decided to take things to the next level. The champaign county sheriff's office hired parabon nanolabs to produce one of their snapshots of the killer. They got the results in May 2018. The results were consistent with those reported by Sorenson a few years earlier. But Parabon snapshot was also able to tell investigators that the killer was a fair skinned, brown eyed and brown haired man of European and Native American heritage. Worried that releasing the image of the suspect would tip him off to the investigator's trajectory, investigators decided not to release the image to the public. Instead, in June, the CCSO decided to proceed with forensic genealogy. They got approval to spend $6,000 on the testing and Parabon set to work. According to detectives Rolfs, who I talked to at length, the forensic genealogy on this case was very complicated and even CeCe Moore was ready to throw in the towel. But after finding some genetic matches to the suspect in Gedmatch, building the suspect's family tree back to the 1800s, triangulating and eliminating people based on geography, age and other factors, Parabon gave the CCSO the names of two brothers from Mahomet, one of whom was almost certainly the killer. The CCSO got the names of the two potential killers. On Friday, August 24th, investigators took a look at the histories of the two brothers. One of them had a clean record and had not lived in the area when Holly was killed, but the other had a significant record and lived in the same trailer park as Holly in 2009. His name was Michael Frank Allen Henslick, age 30. Champaign County Sheriff's deputies were alerted to this name and they started informally keeping an eye on him even though he was not yet an official suspect. On Sunday, August 26, off duty Deputy Ed Moody was driving through town and noted that the suspect's car was parked in a public lot and he spotted Henslick standing with his girlfriend Rachel outside Top Nail Salon. He watched as Henslick smoked a cigarette and threw the smoldering butt on the ground. Moody called Detective Rolfs, who was at home in his civilian clothes and was off duty. The detective jumped in his car, drove over there, took a photo and scooped the still warm butt out of a crack in the sidewalk. He bagged it up and the next day they started officially tailing Michael Henslick. On Monday the 27th, Detective Rolfs happened to look out his office window. He saw Michael Henslick emerge from the courthouse across the street where he later learned Henslick had a meeting with his probation officer and walk into a Starbucks. This guy was walking around in plain sight, getting iced coffee, even going into the courthouse and was clueless about what was about to go down, detective Rolf said to me in an email. It Was definitely a strange feeling to see him walking less than a block from my office and knowing that he was our killer. It was such an incredible feeling. And the anticipation of waiting to intercept and arrest him was very surreal. We all worked so hard over the nine years to get to that point, and then all of a sudden, CeCe gave us his name. But of course, they still had to prove that this man, Michael Henslick, was their killer. They watched him as he went into the Meijer grocery store, the same one where Holly had worked. They followed him into a diner, hoping to get a chance to grab a utensil he used, to no avail. Then deputies observed as Henslick pulled over to check the air in his tire in the parking lot of a grain elevator on Rising Road west of Champaign. He ditched another butt there, and deputies were waiting, evidence bag at the ready to grab it. After Henslick's brother came to pick him up, Deputy J.R. meeker logged the cigarette butts and then delivered them to the State Police crime lab, where DNA analyst Dana Pritchard extracted the DNA from the saliva on an expedited basis. The CCSO got results in 24 hours, and it was a match. The man who would smoke the cigarettes and dump them, Michael Henslick, was the killer of Holly Cassano. Detectives immediately went to the judge and got a warrant to arrest the man whose DNA matched the suspect profile. They had their warrant by the afternoon of Tuesday, August 28th. After nine years of waiting, things were moving very fast. On Tuesday evening, armed with an arrest warrant, police surveilled Henslick and watched him go to a shopping area. Sheriff's Captain Shane Cook approached the suspect in the parking lot of Marketplace Mall at 6:15pm and informed him that he was being arrested for violation of a no contact order for a previous domestic violence case filed by Rachel. This was true. Henslick was in violation of the order, had pending domestic violence charges, and his probation was being revoked. But the sheriff's office personnel also didn't want to tip their hand and let on what they really suspected Henslick of doing. Duped by this ruse, Henslick did not try to resist. After Henslick was cuffed and Mirandized, Captain Cook and Henslick made small talk with Henslick while they awaited the arrival of Deputy Robert Hubbard with a squad car to drive Henslick to the sheriff's office. In the car, Deputy Hubbard later testified, quote, he was wondering about what was going on. And I told him I didn't know much. Once they got Henslick to the station. Detective Rolfs and sergeants Chris Darr and Dave Sharik put Henslick in an interview room. They sat him down and told him that they had DNA evidence pointing to him as the killer of Holly Cassano. For nearly four hours Henslick denied it all. He said he did not believe that they had physical evidence, that he hadn't killed Holly and so on. After a time they persuaded him to give a DNA sample by means of a cheek swab. It became evident to Henslick that they had DNA of some kind and he better come up with a story to explain it. But he wasn't prepared. His story didn't make sense and things did not go well for him. Throughout the interview detectives worked to build a rapport with Henslick who sat there chain smoking. But after three hours and 45 minutes they hadn't gotten much of anywhere. He continued to deny having anything to do with Holly. Then investigators changed tactics. Detective Rolfs dropped a folder loudly on the table and took a firmer tone with the suspect. He said, quote, you're a big boy. You're a 30 year old man now. Do big boy things? Stand up and be a man. I'm sick of sitting here listening to a bunch of bullshit coming out of your mouth. Did you kill her or not? Here's the exchange that followed Henslick. I did. Rolfs. How? Henslick? I stabbed her. Rolfs. Where Henslick? All over. Henslick went on to talk for over an hour, giving details about what had happened. And during this confession phase of the interview, detectives noted scars on his arms. Henslick admitted that scars on the inside of both forearms came from cutting himself while stabbing Holly. Finally, police had their man. Henslick was arrested for Holly's murder and held on $10 million bond. While he was being interrogated, his own home and his parents home, the one he had been living in when he killed Holly, were searched. And even after all these years, a luminal examination of the sink in his parents bathroom showed that a significant amount of blood had been spilled there sometime earlier. Detectives believe that he cleaned up there after coming back to the Henslick family trailer covered in his own and Holly's blood. At 12:30am on Tuesday night, really Wednesday morning, Sergeants Dave Sharik and Chris Dahr and Detective Rolfs arrived at the home of Tony Cassano. They told her that they had a suspect in custody in Holly's case and that he had confessed. She told the News Gazette, I'm overwhelmed and in shock. I don't have a word for it. I've been driving by his house for the last nine years. Tony said that she was very relieved that she had never heard the name Michael Henslick. She had worried that the person who had killed her daughter was someone she knew, and that was not the case. Toni was happy to be able to tell her granddaughter Alexis, who was now 10 years old, that the man who hurt her mommy was locked up. She told the News Gazette, quote, she just knew that somebody bad did something to her mommy, and we were trying to find that person. When Dave and Chris told her we had him in jail, she had a really big smile on her face, gave them a big hug and went back to sleep. She's had a lot of questions about why bad things happen to good people. A press conference was held in August 2018 announcing an arrest in the Holly Cassano murder case. Chief Deputy Alan Jones of the Champaign County Sheriff's Office said that the break in the case was largely thanks to the work of Detective Rolfs, who as early as 2018 had already been working with a local group in the area of forensic genealogy. This was why as far back as 2015, they had run the trait analysis of the suspect before many other law enforcement agencies were doing that kind of thing. So what do we know about Michael Henslick? The oldest of three children, Henslick grew up in the area, graduated from Mohammad Seymour high school in 2007 and attended Park College for a time. Since then, he had a number of jobs in restaurants, mostly steakhouses. He lived at home with his parents into his early 20s and then moved across the street to his own residence. And he racked up a record over the years. Per the News Press quote, his convictions date to 2006 and range from traffic offenses such as a speeding ticket, operating an uninsured vehicle, driving under suspension, for which he was given electronic home confinement on Carroll street in September 2010, driving without a license, and possession of a controlled substance in that latter offense. In December 2009, just a month after Holly's murder, Henslick was convicted of possession of a controlled substance in his first criminal conviction. Because of his first offender status, he got probation. He was not required to submit a DNA sample in connection with his conviction. Henslick stayed under the radar for years until a traffic stop in 2015, whereupon he was found to be in possession of 60 grams of pot and some cocaine. He was charged with possession, but he repeatedly failed to appear in court for hearings and other proceedings. Multiple warrants were issued for his arrest, but he eluded the law and no one tracked him down until 2017. At that point, he was ultimately convicted on the possession charges, a felony, and received probation. But this conviction meant that per Illinois statute, Henzlich was required to submit a DNA sample to the state police database. Unbelievably, although he was convicted in January 2017, Michael Henslick never gave a DNA sample as required. He was not in custody. Remember, he was just on probation and he clearly knew that his DNA could possibly implicate him, so he just failed to comply. He didn't show up for mandatory probation meetings or court ordered swabs. Basically, he dodged it. He was also required to contribute a DNA sample pursuant to a 2017 domestic violence felony arrest. But the pattern continued with Henslick avoiding complying with court orders that he give a DNA sample. As a result, his DNA was never entered into the Illinois State Police's database, or codis. I am paraphrasing here from an NBC article about the holes in codis. The national DNA database known as CODIS is arguably the most powerful crime fighting tool in modern history. It holds more than 18 million people's profiles and has produced more than 500,000 hits since it went fully online in 1998, according to the FBI. But the system lacks thousands of profiles from convicted offenders and suspects, information that could hold answers to innumerable unsolved crimes. This is because of lack of compliance by felons who do anything possible to avoid being in the database, and lack of follow up by authorities who are tasked with getting the DNA of convicted felons, ex prisoners, arrestees and so on. According to one estimate, many states are missing 40,000 to 50,000 samples that are required by law to be in their databases. Wow, that's not very reassuring. Michael Henslick's successful avoidance of contributing DNA put Champaign county authorities on notice that their DNA collection system was flawed. Prosecutor Julia Reitz told NBC this was definitely a wake up call as to how we need to be on top of whether we are collecting DNA or not. Now when people in Champaign county are sentenced to probation, they are ordered to go straight to the office to give their DNA. It escaped no one's notice that had Henslick been forced to comply, Holly Cassano's murder would have been solved several years earlier without the need for forensic genealogy. If he'd given his DNA, we wouldn't have had to wait nine years, said Detective Rolfs. Henslick's record illustrates exactly how despicable a person he is. He was charged in July 2016 for injuring an elderly person in his care. Police responding to a fireworks complaint had found Henslick hiding on the roof of the mentally disabled elderly woman's home. Henslick was one of her caretakers, but officers observed that the woman's arms were bruised and it turned out she had a traumatic brain injury. Henslick told police that the injuries to the woman had not been intentional, but she had gotten hurt somehow on his watch and the implication that he was responsible was there. Henslick was also arrested numerous times for domestic assault. One of these incidents involved his live in girlfriend at the time, Rachel. She filed for an emergency protection order against Henslick in August 2017. This is an order granted without the input of the offender. It's designed to be a short term preventative measure. Her court filing requesting the order stated that Henslick quote, punch me in the face twice, breaking my teeth, choked me, hit me in the head, shoved me to the ground, took my belongings, keys, phone, purse, threw my purse outside his car. He then threw a glass at my driver's side window. She said that Henslick, in addition to being violent with her throughout their relationship, was suicidal. Her request for an emergency protective order was granted, but eventually the case was dismissed because she failed to pursue a longer term plenary order of protection, which requires a court proceeding involving both parties. A criminal case against Henslick for this same offense, charging him with aggravated domestic battery and possession of pot and hallucinogenic mushrooms, was also dismissed. It did not take long for Henslick to terrorize this same woman again. In September 2017, he violated the emergency protective order Rachel had obtained in August, and he was sentenced to 35 days in the county jail and conditional discharge. Henslick had already been charged with domestic battery for punching this same girlfriend in the face in April 2017 and with criminal damage to property for damaging her cell phone in May of that year. It's really unbelievable, but Henslick just kept constantly weaseling out of criminal responsibility for these incidents. Here is a quote from the Champagne News Gazette, whose coverage I found invaluable in this case. Quote, in Both of those 2017 cases, Henslick missed court dates, was arrested on warrants for failing to appear, and posted bond ranging from $4,000 to $12,000 cash to be released. In one case, his name is on the bond receipt, and in another, his mother signed as the bond poster. Henslick was repeatedly ordered to have no contact with Rachel, and as we know, he continually violated these orders. These Violations were ostensibly the grounds on which he was arrested in 2018 outside the marketplace mall. Although of course, this time he would not be able to worm his way out of the murder charges leveled against him. Rachel was in court on the day of his arraignment on the murder charges in Holly's case. It's hard to imagine how she felt, knowing how close she possibly came to being a murder victim herself. Detective Rawls told me that based on his record and the savagery of the murder of Hollywood. When detectives sat down with Henslick in that interview room, they expected someone arrogant and menacing. But on the contrary, Henslick came across as timid and somewhat effeminate. He seemed to have some delusions of grandeur, saying that he had aspirations for his life like becoming an engineer. He also was suffering from some serious denial. He didn't really seem to grasp the seriousness of the charges against him. In his jailhouse phone calls, he was much less concerned about the potential life sentence he was facing, the then some minor inconveniences of prison life and griping to his family about his treatment. His allocution at trial later displayed some of these narcissistic and delusional traits. So how did Holly and Henslet cross paths? Well, they went to Mahomet Seymour High School at the same time. They weren't in the same class, but they had mutual friends and acquaintances, most notably Holly's cousin Amber. In fact, Amber had introduced the two. She and Henslick were friends and had a casual flirtation going on. And through her, he met Holly. And Henslick and Holly lived in the same mobile home park, Candlewood Estates. The FBI profile was correct. The killer was familiar with the neighborhood. And shockingly, after the murder, Henslick never left. When he was arrested, he was living in the 2200 block of Olin Drive, just outside Candlewood Estates. When he killed Holly, he was living with his parents on Carroll street. This was just four short blocks away from Holly's home on DuPage. Tony Cassano told the media that, quote, Holly walked past his parents house with the baby stroller and would say hi to be polite. Henslick definitely knew who Holly was and that she had a baby girl, Alexis. And after Holly was killed, Henslick would have been subjected to her face on a daily basis. Her mom, Tony, plastered Candlewood Estates with bumper stickers and flyers bearing Holly's image and asking for information. Henslick's own next door neighbor, when he was arrested, had a justice for Holly sticker on his van no doubt Henslick had to look at it every day. Detective Rolfs has a theory that perhaps Henslick fixated on Holly when his interest in her cousin Amber was not returned. He told detectives that he was very interested in Amber, and Amber and Holly looked alike. Amber had moved to Chicago and was out of Henslick's reach, but Holly was still in the neighborhood, totally accessible to him. It's worth noting that Michael Henslick was never the subject of a tip in the case. And when detectives canvassed the trailer park, they didn't talk to him. They knocked on the door of the mobile home owned by his parents, but he happened to be indisposed, and they never spoke with him. He was just one of the 2,000 residents of the park. They couldn't speak to them all. But the FBI profile, which had predicted that the suspect was familiar with the neighborhood, was right on target. And the BAU's conclusion that the suspect had likely stabbed Holly in the back as she slept in an attempt to waylay and get control of her, was also spot on. It posited that the suspect was young and unsure of himself and was perhaps on the small side. Henslick was 21 when he killed Holly, has a meek personality, and is 5 foot 7 on a good day. Michael Henslick was charged with three counts of first degree murder and one count of murder, all based on differing mental states. A judge found that there was probable cause to proceed to trial. Then Henslick defense attorney, Henslick's defense attorney moved to exclude the taped confession from the upcoming trial. Henslick was seeking to have the confession excluded on grounds that it was coerced and he was tricked into giving it. A hearing was held to determine its admissibility. His attorney argued that he had been grilled for hours and hours, his personal space invaded and pressure applied by physically aggressive detectives. In a blow to Henslick's defense, a Judge ruled in January 2020 that his recorded confession would be admissible in court and. And the jury could consider it when weighing the evidence against him. The judge ruled, quote, it was a cordial exchange, a knowing waiver. This was based on the testimony of the sheriff's investigators who had interviewed Henslick after his arrest, who stated under oath that they had read Henslick his Miranda rights and he said he understood them. And footage of the confession showed that Henslick basically blurted out that he had done it. Going into the trial phase, many expected Michael Henslick to take a plea, given that he had confessed to Avoid a risky jury verdict and possibly life behind bars. But Henslick didn't do that. He decided to fight and turned down two plea deals that would have sentenced him to 50 and 55 years, respectively, if he admitted guilt. At a September 2019 hearing, Henslick said that he understood that the state was seeking a life sentence, and he was willing to take that chance. Life was the harshest penalty Henslick could face for killing Hollywood, and it was warranted, according to papers filed by the state, because this murder was accompanied by exceptionally brutal and heinous behavior, indicative of wanton cruelty as an aggravating factor. The trial of Michael Henslick got underway in February 2020. A jury of eight women and four men was impaneled. The prosecution had built a strong case with many witnesses who would testify to the evidence they had amassed against Henslick. Prosecutor Julia Reitz's opening statements took into account Hanslick's confession, even though investigators didn't really believe some aspects of his story. Reits said that on the night of November 2, 2009, Henslick went to Holly's house and they talked. They fell asleep, and sometime after that, he woke up and grabbed a knife from her kitchen and stabbed her, cutting himself in the process. Then he raped her. Then he wandered through her house looking for something to wrap his arm up in. After doing so, he cleaned up and left, throwing the knife away, where it was never found. The prosecution's witnesses were persuasive. A blood pattern analyst, Duane Morris, testified for the state that Henslick had cut himself during the attack and had left a trail of blood throughout the trailer that allowed investigators to determine his movements. For example, blood stains on the walls in the bedroom showed that Holly was stabbed both on the bed and on the floor. They could tell from the constant amount of dripping blood that someone who was bleeding from a cut or wound in his upper body had been standing at the kitchen sink. The bleeder had also gone into Alexis's room, leaving a small blood smear on the inside front wall of the home. This was all the same person. This person walked to the opposite end of the mobile home, into a second bathroom near the front door, where he left blood on the sink and countertop. But no blood trail led outside, leading to the conclusion that the killer stemmed a bleeding, possibly using a pair of hosiery missing from a box found on the bathroom sink and cleaned up before slipping into the night. Other experts who testified included the pathologist, Dr. Denton CCSO Deputy Doug Bieleski, who had been the first officer on the scene. The police who had grabbed the cigarette butts after surveilling Henslick, including Detective Duane Rolfs and Mike Kyroak, the ISP crime scene analyst who testified about bloodstains he observed on a screen door to Holly's home. The actual door was on display in the courtroom, wrapped in paper and sealed off in red evidence tape. The most impactful witness was state crime lab DNA analyst Dana Pitchford. Her testimony was a major blow to Henslick because she came across as infallible. She had 23 years of experience and had collected 18 eight different DNA samples from Holly's crime scene that all contained the same profile. This was not a case where there could be an argument made that there was only touch DNA or consensual sex could explain Henslick's DNA at the scene. His bleeding all over the place was indisputably damning. He had left his blood on, quote, a bloody light switch cover from her bathroom. Dried blood from the floor at the opposite end of her home. Blood on the wall and door handle of the spare bedroom, blood on the knob of the front door, blood on the storm door, blood on her knee and thigh. Pitchford asserted that the DNA came from one man, and that man was Michael Henslick. The chances that the semen in Holly and the male blood evidence came from someone else were 1 in 150 octillion. That's 150 plus 27 zeros. Since this is more people than there are on earth. By many multipliers, only Henslick could be the contributor of the DNA. Amber Nakashian, Holly's cousin, testified that in the months leading up to Holly's murder, she was in touch with Michael Henslick. She was living in Chicago at the time, so this was mostly over text and social media. When news of Holly's death came out, he texted her his condolences and said he heard that Holly was shot or beaten to death. This was a clear attempt by him to appear clueless about the details of the crime. But no one suspected him at the time or for years thereafter. And when Amber spoke with investigators in the wake of the murder, she didn't even mention the communication or Henslick. It didn't seem relevant in her mind. Holly's estranged boyfriend, Chris, was the most likely perpetrator. Champaign police Officer Douglas Bloom testified about the incident in 2016 involving the elderly woman. Officer Bloom had called the Elder Abuse Prevention Hotline and Adult Protective Services, reporting that it was his belief that the woman was being taken Advantage of by Michael Henslick. Then, in what would prove to be the nail in the coffin, the jury heard from Michael Henslick himself. No, he didn't take the stand in his own defense. Rather, portions of his statement to police during his five hour interview were played for the jury. The jury had a transcript for these excerpts as well. Here are some excerpts of what they heard. Henslick went to Holly's trailer that night after she got home from work. Henslick told the detectives he went to her House about 3:30 or 4:00am on November 2, 2009. He said he had been there about two weeks earlier with Amber Nakashian, Holly's cousin. Detectives do not know whether this part was true and they definitely don't believe this next part was true. Henslick said, I just walked in through the unlocked door and Holly was in her kitchen. It doesn't seem likely that the tired out mom would be up at that hour. But anyway. Henslick said that Holly was startled to see him, but he told her he wanted to talk about Amber, with whom he, quote, had a thing. He told detectives. He also told them that he had, quote, a little interest with Holly too. I mean, it was just a whole love triangle thing that was all messed up. Then Henslick said he and Holly had consensual sex. He said, quote, and that just kind of made things seem crazier with the whole being interested in Amber and Amber having a boyfriend. Of course, with Holly dead, we have no way to know whether any of this somewhat dubious confession was true, although the detectives doubt it very much. But it's very clear that what happened next was not consensual. What he said happened was Henslick fell asleep on the floor and Holly went to sleep in her bed. At some point, Henslick woke up, got a steak knife from Holly's kitchen counter and stabbed her as she slept, piercing her body all over in a fit of rage. He didn't know how many times he stabbed her. She had cried out for help. He said. I think she might have said something like what? And help. I was like in a weird, funny place in my head, still kind of drunk and well, just the whole Amber thing, just life and whatnot, you know, I had potentially thought of hurting myself and the next thing you know, I just. I don't know. Like it was an unconscious decision, unconscious thing like taking over me. Henslick acknowledged cutting himself while stabbing Holly, and detectives viewed the scar on his left forearm. He also admitted that because he, quote, didn't finish when they had sex earlier, he had sex with her dead body in what he said in the interview was, quote, disgusting to think about. When he was done, he cleaned up. He said he went through the house looking for something to wrap up his cut, eventually finding a piece of clothing, the hosiery. Then he left. He told detectives, quote, I left her there. I know she was there on her back. She was sprawled out. That's what I remember. He discarded the knife somewhere on the walk home, just down the road. Detective Rolfs said investigators never found it. As to why he killed Holly, Henslick himself was at a loss. He could not explain to detectives why he would stab someone who would just willingly, according to him, had sex with him. He said, I know it doesn't make sense. I have never even understood it myself. That's the truth. Never have and never will. Like I said, something was just coming over me. You know, I think I was just angry about it all, the whole Amber and I thing, and just being scared, hurt, afraid, and then just. Just raged and blinded by a multitude of emotion. Henslick told investigators he had never killed anyone else and that he felt bad about what he had done, but he was scared to turn himself in. He said, quote, I was afraid. I wanted to have a life like growing up and, you know, having my house, being financially stable, having a family. Well, so did Holly. So. The jury saw all of this on video. Michael Henslick freely confessed to the crime, sitting there in his red Hawaiian shirt, chain smoking, showing little understanding of his own actions and even less remorse. After the confession and the evidence presented on the DNA, the defense rested without presenting a single expert witness. They tried their best to poke holes in the state's case. For example, they suggested that more than 90% of the blood evidence at the scene was never tested. And they questioned the state's experts as to why Henslick's brother's DNA was not tested. The defense also said that showing the jury the crime scene photos was prejudicial and that Henslick's confession was coerced, even though the jury watched the video and saw that it wasn't. But the defense's efforts weren't enough. And the public defender's argument that the scores of stab wounds should not lead the jury to a finding of exceptional brutality because Hawley had died quickly and, quote, a dead body does not feel pain came across as insensitive and callous. As the prosecutors pointed out, the case was simple. Henslick had stabbed Holly dozens of times and had confessed. The jury could let Henslick's own words guide them to the correct verdict. This is an interesting detail about the trial. In order to avoid prejudicing the jury about the defendant, the judge would not permit the jury to know that Holly was a mother to a young child. Per the News Gazette, the judge even forbade the lawyers from sending the jury a photo of Ms. Cassano's purse on her daughter's bed because in the background was a pull up diaper. The jury deliberated for only an hour before finding Michael Henslick guilty of the first degree murder of Holly Cassano on Valentine's Day 2020. They found that the crime met the parameters set forth by the judge for a life sentence, that the crime was committed in an exceptionally brutal and heinous manner indicative of wanton cruelty. When the verdict was announced, Tony Cassano, who had sat stoically throughout the trial, broke down in tears. Her son hugged and consoled her, but Tony's tears were happy ones. She had spent 10 years dealing with the stress of her daughter's murder. Through that time, she had been in constant contact with investigators, becoming such close friends with many of them that she was permitted to park in the employee lot at the sheriff's office. Now it was finally over. After the proceeding was adjourned, Tony hugged each of the investigators, Dave Sharik, Duane Rolfs and Chris Dahr. Then she hugged the Henslick family as well. And this is a testament to Michael Henslick's character, per the News Gazette.
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After the judge and jury and most of the spectators had left the courtroom, Henslick, who had shown no emotion during his trial, gave News Gazette photo editor Robin Schultz a familiar middle finger salute. Lovely. At Henslick's sentencing in June 2020, he was permitted to address the court. And he went off on a 24 minute long rambling tale of how someone else killed Holly. And he had actually tried to intervene, getting cut in the process. He said to the judge about the scar on his arm. My wound is more consistent that I tried to get between Holly and the attacker. He expressed his condolences to the Cassano family, but said that he did not kill Holly. I never wish harm on anyone, he said. He admitted to being present when Holly was killed and regretted that he failed to help Holly that night. He said, quote, when she asked for help, I failed her. I failed to call 911. I blame myself for her death. He also mumbled about war, his own empathy for animals, and how he was a loving individual. This was the wrong tactic to take with a judge who wasn't buying it for a minute. The other thing she didn't buy was his statement that he and Holly had had consensual sex. The prosecution had also presented an alternate story in their closing argument that Henslick had sneaked into Holly's trailer in the middle of the night, attacked her as she slept, and then raped her dead body. Prosecutor Reits emphasized in her argument for life without parole that Henslick had been found to have committed acts brutal and heinous, indicative of wanton cruelty, and that he had been dodging, giving a legally mandated DNA sample for years, allowing him to hide in plain sight within the community. And she cited a sworn statement attesting to Henslick's physical abusiveness by his girlfriend, Rachel. It all looked very, very bad. Henslick's defense attorney did her best to get her client leniency. She asked for the minimum 20 year sentence so Henslick could get out and contribute to society. She noted that he was young when the crime was committed and said that her client had rehabilitative potential based on the fact that he had retained a job, paid taxes, and had a supportive family. And she presented the judge with letters and testaments of support for Henslick. People who knew him described him as gentle, peaceful, empathetic, someone who would never hurt anyone. Judge Heidi Ladd said, quote, it is clear there are two sides to the defendant. But in the end, she threw the book at Henslick. She said of him, he has shown no responsibility, not even a glimmer of remorse. The truth is that he did it and he's not accepting responsibility. The judge noted the impact of Holly's murder on her family, saying, quote, nowhere is the loss more profound than to her daughter. Alexis will never know her mom except through photographs and stories. Sadly, these stories of how she died. Finally, Judge Ladd said the public deserves to be protected from the danger Henslick represents to society. And she gave him a natural life sentence. He will never be paroled. After the sentence, Tony Cassano told WCIA.com that the sentence was just. She said, I feel sorry for his family, but his family still gets the opportunity to talk to him and know that he's somewhere. So on the other side of that, I still have the thinking that it's still unfair. Recently, in September 2020, an appeals judge rejected a motion filed by Henslick's attorneys to reduce his sentence. Henslick's team maintained that the trial judge, Heidi Ladd, had had an implicit bias in favor of law enforcement that resulted in the life sentence. Appeals Judge Jason Boehm reviewed the 974 pages of transcripts from the trial and sentencing and denied the motion. His ruling said, quote, the evidence supports that Mr. Henslick brutally murdered Ms. Cassano, then sexually defiled her body after murdering her in her own home. There was no error in imposing an exceptional sentence. He summed up, quote, the mitigation was overwhelmed by the aggravating factors in this case. Henslick now has the right to appeal to the state appellate court, where his case could take years to get through the process. Detective Rolfs tells me it is his understanding that this case is the first one in the US Solved by forensic genealogy to actually go to trial. After 10 years of advocating for her daughter's case, Tony Cassano has found her calling. She is working toward obtaining her associate's degree in psychology and aspires to move on to get her bachelor's degree. She is also raising Alexis, whom she adopted. Their lives have not turned out as expected, but at least they are able to move forward knowing that Michael Hanslick will never get out of prison. One thing that we do not know and likely never will know is whether Michael Henslick knew that little Alexis was not home on the night that he killed her mother. He definitely knew that Holly had a child and a smear of his blood was found on the wall in Alexis's room. Detectives believe Henslet could have been looking out the front window to see whether the coast was clear for him to leave. Or he could have been checking the room to see if the toddler was there. We just don't know. If you recall the FBI profile of the killer posited that it was possible that he had been watching Holly. A slat on a window blind in her room was broken. He could have been looking in from the outside and in the dim TV light saw Holly sound asleep. But it seems possible that it was just luck that little Alexis was not home that night. Again, we will likely never know. After 11 years, Holly Cassano's case is finally closed, thanks to Forensic genealogy. And if you were one of the bad guys, they're coming for you. Many thanks to Detective Duane Rolfs for speaking with me about this case.
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Thanks for listening to this episode of dnaid. Before you leave, please let me tell you about some important things related to the show. If you'd like to support this podcast and in the process get access to early and ad free episodes as well as bonus content like crime scene photos, you can sign up for a Patreon subscription for only $5 a month by heading over to patreon.com dnaid of course, you're welcome to contribute more than $5 a month. We rely on Patreon funds to pay for the original source materials I use
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to research each episode.
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