Death at The U: Who killed Bryan Pata?

BRYAN PATA WAS 22 when someone killed him - one medium-caliber shot to the left side of his head, execution-style - in the parking lot of his apartment complex just after football practice on Nov. 7, 2006. The Miami Hurricanes' 6-foot-4, 280-pound defensive tackle, who had grown up in the grip of poverty, was a few months away from being selected in the NFL draft. One of the first things he'd planned to do with his money was buy his mother a house. Instead, he was buried in the beige suit he'd picked out for his draft party.

Detectives from the Miami-Dade Police Department chased more than a dozen leads in the early days of their investigation. They interviewed more than a hundred people, and the investigation report ran to nearly 200 pages. But after more than a decade, the work didn't add up to an arrest or even anyone police would publicly call a suspect.

In 2017, and with no new leads, police reached out to ESPN. Maybe a feature on College GameDay, or any kind of media attention, could produce a break in the case?

In multiple interviews, detectives repeatedly told ESPN they believed someone at the university, likely someone with ties to Miami football at the time, had key information. With NFL dreams in the rearview mirror and middle age setting in - surely, some of them had become parents and could grasp Jeanette's anguish - someone might be ready to talk.

After doing some initial research in 2017, ESPN decided to dig deeper, ultimately obtaining at least 5,000 documents, photos, audio recordings and videos and interviewing more than 100 people, including some who had never been approached by police. Experts at the Cold Case Foundation, a network of law enforcement specialists who work with families and police to crack long-unsolved cases, reviewed materials gathered by ESPN and determined that Pata's killing was not the random act of a stranger.

"The key to the case is the relationship between the victim and the offender," said Greg Cooper, a former FBI profiler. "This individual, whether it's the shooter or whether it's somebody who put the shooter up to it, wanted Bryan dead.

"The closer relationship to Bryan, the higher the probability you're going to find the offender or somebody that knows who the offender is."

That echoed what police have always said, but in multiple interviews spanning more than two years, detectives insisted to ESPN that they never had a prime suspect.

"At the end of the day, it could be anybody," Lt. Miguel Dominguez said in 2019. The possibilities are endless."

But this summer, under oath in the presence of a judge, police said something very different.

Check out the entire account of ESPN's investigation here.