Giarratano recanted his confessions and was seeking parole when he was first eligible in the spring of 2004. Supporters still sought his freedom. In 2004, the state said they could not find any of the physical evidence collected from the crime scene in 1979, and "Norfolk and Virginia authorities have maintained that the biological evidence in Giarratano's case was destroyed years ago." At a hearing in 2004, his counsel was seeking this physical evidence in order to conduct DNA testing to exclude Giarratano from the scene. That forensic testing had not been available in 1979.