Part III: Josh's Story
For nearly as long as he's been an inmate on San Quentin's death row, Kevin Cooper has insisted he did not kill the Ryens, and that DNA tests would prove his innocence - tests that the State of California refused to do.
"I am not a murderer. I did not kill those people, and all the evidence that we prove or use to prove that I didn't do it, they don't want to test," says Cooper, who spoke to 48 Hours over the phone because cameras were not allowed into San Quentin.
"They are supposed to care about justice, aren't they? I do believe that if there is any justice, people need to look at my case."
Why should someone believe him?
"I'm not asking anyone to believe me," says Cooper. "I'm asking people to look at the evidence."
And will he continue to fight if DNA tests happen to show his DNA?
"I say this with all the confidence in the world," he says. "I, Kevin Cooper, was never inside the home that I now know is the Ryen home."
"We're seeking the truth. We need the DNA testing to prove something," says Mary Howell. "I don't take no for an answer. I want the truth. I'll never be satisfied until I do."
Just months after 48 Hours first aired this report in the fall of 2000, Cooper got his wish.
The State of California reversed itself and agreed to do DNA testing on evidence found at the murder scene.
For the young man who lost his mother, father and sister in one night of unspeakable horror, the ocean has always been a sanctuary - the only place where Josh Ryen can escape the questions that haunt his past and cloud his future.
But Josh, who just turned 29, is finally breaking his silence.
For the first time ever, he has agreed to speak publicly about what happened to his family and friend that terrible evening on June 4, 1983.
"My throat was slashed, I was stabbed and I was hit with an ax," he says. "I think it was a screwdriver that they said punctured my back, my lung, broke three ribs."
He says he wonders sometimes how he ever managed to survive. But the miracle worker in his life is his now 89-year-old grandmother, Dr. Mary Howell, who has raised and nurtured Josh since he lost everyone else in his family.
"She's been everybody to me," he says. "My whole family."
Josh, now living on his own, sees his grandmother every week. When he's not working on his job in construction, he's often alone at the beach or riding his motorcycle.
Does he think of his family? "Yes, probably every day," he says. "There's something that reminds me of my sister, my mom and my dad and my friend Chris."
And with equal frequency, other pictures come to mind - scenes from the night that forever changed his life. Josh, nearly 9 at the time of the murders, recalls being awakened by what he believes was his mother's scream. He ran to his parents' bedroom where he found them in a pool of blood.
"Waking up, seeing them in the same room, sticks in my head more than anything else," says Josh, who remembers hiding in a closet until he heard his best friend Chris yell his name.
"I think two times, 'Josh, Josh,'" and then I don't remember, so I must have been attacked again at this point."
As painful as the memories are, what Josh struggles with today is what he can't remember. And it's what everyone wants to know. Is Kevin Cooper the killer? And did he act alone?
"I wish I could remember," he says. "I don't know if they think I have the answers or that it's in my head. It won't come back to me, though."
Josh says he doesn't remember seeing Kevin Cooper from that night - only a shadow.
"I want to know if he really did it," he says. "I couldn't live with myself knowing that there could have been a chance that he didn't do it. That's not right."
But he is finally getting some answers. California investigators have completed tests on three crucial pieces of evidence.
According to a report issued late last year, the DNA found in the following samples - a drop of blood, on two cigarette butts and on the blood-stained beige T-shirt - points to one perpetrator, Kevin Cooper.
But while DNA evidence solved some of the mystery, and clears Lee Furrow, both Josh and Dr. Mary believe that Cooper did not act alone.
"I just can't see one man doing all that he did," says Mary.
"Cooper was there," says Josh. "It's time for him to be punished. But the hair needs to be tested."
The hair that Josh is referring to is what was found in his sister Jessica's hand. It is obviously not Cooper's and if not Jessica's, the hair may belong to another killer.
But so far, that's one test the State of California refuses to do. They say they have their killer.
"Someone else was there," says Josh. "Her hand is clinched fighting for her life with hair in it. So I want to know. I need to know."
As for Kevin Cooper, he still insists he's innocent and that if his DNA was found on evidence, someone put it there. He is still appealing his conviction.
But Josh now says that if Cooper is scheduled to be executed, he will be there to watch him die. "He watched," says Josh. "He was part of it somehow. And he saw what was in that house. So he needs to pay for it."
"I'll be there with him," adds Mary. "Not that I like it, but I'll be there to support him. Because he always says, 'It's you and me, grandma. It's you and me.' So I would be with him."
"It's just what he took from me," says Josh. "I feel empty in a way, but I have my grandmother. That makes me feel whole."
For all the publicity and media coverage about the use of DNA to free innocent inmates from wrongful convictions, the Kevin Cooper case is a powerful reminder of an important flip-side to DNA testing. Unofficial estimates show that it reaffirms an inmate's guilt in six out of 10 cases.