Murdered Eckerd College student's mom on mission to catch the killer

TAMPA, Flal - A mother in search of answers is hitting the road to find her daughter's killer. Brittany Phillips – a student at Eckerd College – was murdered in 2004 and 18 years later her case remains unsolved. 

Her mom, Maggie Zingman, is hoping to change that by going on what she's calling a ‘Caravan To Catch A Killer.’

"I just said, What can people see? Maybe Brittany helped me, I don't know. And came up with Caravan to Catch a Killer," Zingman said.

Since 2007, Zingman has been driving a car, wrapped with her daughter's picture and story, across the country.

"She was very intelligent. She got a full ride scholarship in chemistry to Eckerd College, where she did her whole freshman year. She was very adventurous," Zingman said.

Phillips had a bright future ahead, but missed her family so after her freshman year she transferred to a school in Oklahoma and moved back home. Months later, her life was cut short in September 2004 when Police say she was raped and murdered inside her apartment in Tulsa.

"He told me that she had been it was probably 3 or 4 in the morning that she had been raped and suffocated. And I still didn't want to believe it," Zingman said.

Detectives have investigated and ruled out more than 600 suspects through DNA technology, but over the years the case has grown cold so in 2007 Zingman started what she calls "A Caravan To Catch A Killer." She's been on more than 20 trips around the country visiting all 48 states in the continental US in hopes of drumming up interest catching people's attention and just doing whatever she can to try and solve the 18-year-old cold case.

"The police, although they were still looking local, they said, you know, Oklahoma is the crossroads. 44, 40, 35, 22, right below us seventies, right above us through Kansas. And so they said there's a chance he could move on," Zingman said.

Early this year, Zingman says she learned investigators are analyzing a new set of DNA found under Brittany's fingernails after she says she learned the DNA they had been testing all these years---which was found on Brittany sheets--wasn't actually the killer's but a friend of Brittany's who's since been ruled out as a suspect. Zingman says without the missteps in beginning there may have been a different outcome, but says she's determined not to give up.

"I'll never stop. I can't stop until my last breath," Zingman said.