LA Forensics: The Keystone Diamond

It wasn't long before police had another run-in with Scott. This time he walked into the station of his own accord, blaming Lombardi for burglarizing his apartment.

"I want him arrested," Scott said.

Lombardi had wiggled out of the pawnshop episode and now he was in trouble again. So when confronted by the detectives, he decided to level with them. Yes, he broke into Scott's apartment and took some items. However, it was only because he didn't receive his fair share of money for trying to pawn the diamond, he said.

Lombardi wanted to ensure the detective's good will by giving them some dirt on Scott.

In a local park after a few days after the murder, Scott asked Lombardi: "How do you alter your fingerprints?"

"You slash them. You alter 'em by slashing them," Lombardi replied.

Scott also asked how to beat a polygraph, Lombardi revealed.

This additional information was interesting and it made Scott look guilty, but it wasn't enough for an arrest. Lombardi's statements could be viewed as suspicious because of his prior arrests. Detectives had nothing more to go on and the case languished.

"The stumbling block in this investigation, why this case went cold, is we had no witnesses that could put the grandson at the scene of the crime," Ramsdell said.

The case sat on the shelf, one of hundreds of unsolved murders with viable suspects but no ironclad proof.