Are you confused about the recent publicity surrounding the Marcia Trimble murder case?

Watch: Word On The Street (12/10/07)

Well, there's even confusion or disagreement among present and former Metro police officers.

Jerome Barrett, already charged in the 1975 murder of a Vanderbilt University student, is a prime suspect in the murder of 9-year-old Marcia Trimble.

The FBI's preliminary DNA test matches Barrett with DNA found at the Trimble scene. The FBI is presently performing new DNA tests to confirm its earlier findings.

But there's a controversy brewing about who said what and when. Who alerted investigators about the possibility of Barrett being a suspect in the Trimble murder? Retired Metro Homicide Detective Ralph Langston said he was the first.

Others who investigated the case back then and now disagree.

Langston told Channel 4 News that he was questioning Barrett about a 1975 rape case when Barrett blurted out that Langston was not going to pin the Trimble case on him.

Langston said he hadn't even mentioned the Trimble murder to Barrett.

This has become a point of controversy.

Retired Homicide Detective Tommy Jacobs claims Langston never mentioned Barrett's alleged statement to him, Homicide Lt. Tommy Cathey or present Commander Mickey Miller. Miller has taken a personal investigative interest in the case for almost 20 years.

Metro police spokesman Don Aaron said, "The revelations that have been made recently by some former police department employees are not in any way reflected in case files or supported by colleagues at the time."

"If what Sgt. Langston says is correct, it would have raised a red flag and we would have zeroed in on Barrett back then,” Jacobs said.

No matter what, investigators are going to need more evidence to get a first-degree murder conviction in the Trimble case.