Laura Hall

Laura Hall

Laura Hall:(CBS)   In the summer of 2005, police were called to an apartment in Austin, Texas. Inside, a woman's body lay in the bathtub; her hands and head severed. Police would soon learn the butchered victim was 21-year-old Jennifer Cave.

For Travis County Prosecutor Bill Bishop, the case is indelible.

“As far as murders go, this is a very clean murder. He shot her through the arm, bullet traveled into the chest, through the heart pretty much killing her instantly. It was the post-murder behavior that made it so grotesque.

“The mutilation was anger… it wasn't any effort to hide the body or get rid of the body. It was just playing with it, like it was toy,” Bishop tells “48 Hours Mystery” correspondent Maureen Maher.

The apartment belonged to Colton Pitonyak, a University of Texas business student. But Colton was nowhere to be found.

“The kitchen I think was the oddest room to me because it was sparkling clean,” Bishop tells Maher.

“Really? A boy's dorm room was sparkling clean? His kitchen?” Maher asks in disbelief.

“Even looked like the floors had been mopped. They found a machete that was in the dishwasher.”

Police urgently needed to know everything about Colton and Jennifer.

“I have never heard anyone say anything but that she was one of the nicest people they knew,” Bishop says of Jennifer.