The last time Tommy Charafauros saw his girlfriend Starr Mooren alive, the two had woken up late Dec. 12, 1996. Both were scrambling to get to work on time, she to a Carmel Valley travel agency, and he to his family's tile business. Nearly 12 hours later, when Charafauros returned home, he found Mooren dead on the living-room floor, naked from her waist down. The couch was soaked in her blood.

"I yelled 'Starr,'" Charafauros told the jury in the trial of William Tyquiengco, who is charged with raping and murdering Mooren. "I didn't know if she was at all conscious. So I kneeled down by her."

Police quickly targeted Carl Jacobs, an obsessive ex-boyfriend with a history of violence. A pig hunter who killed his prey with a knife, Jacobs was dropped as a suspect after tests revealed his DNA didn't match crime scene evidence. A medical examiner would later testify Mooren was killed in the same efficient way a hunter would slaughter a wild pig.

Detectives worked overtime. Dozens of interviews were conducted. Hundreds of pages of police reports written. More than 40 DNA samples were tested in the first year. Police even compared DNA found at the crime scene to that of Yosemite Park murderer Cary Stayner.

Stayner was seen in Monterey around the time of Mooren's slaying and had a connection to the area through Mike Echols, who wrote a book about Stayner's brother. However, there was no DNA match.

Mooren's sister and Tyquiengco's wife, Jodi Mooren, was asked to play the role of Starr in a re-enactment of the slaying in the hope that it would elicit new information. But the investigation remained stalled.

Then in 2001, after a tearful phone call from Jodi Mooren to Monterey detective Steve McMahon, police looked at someone who had never before been considered: William Tyquiengco, a Seaside mechanic.

When police first suggested to Jodi Mooren that her husband was under suspicion, she became angry and defensive, said Monterey detectives. She has since become estranged from Tyquiengco and has been a key witness for the prosecution.

Tyquiengco was arrested Sept. 7, 2001, after police found a DNA match. He told arresting detectives he didn't know why they found his semen on his sister-in-law's body and suggested that he had been set up.

For four years, he has been incarcerated in Salinas, making him someone held in custody longer than anyone at the jail can remember. His lengthy incarceration is a result of years of legal maneuvers and wrangling on both sides, time-intensive DNA testing, and the Monterey County District Attorney's Office attempt to remove Deputy Public Defender Juliet Peck from Tyquiengco's case.

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