Student murdered by ex thought she was meeting him one last time

When 18-year-old Catina Rose Salarno arrived at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, to begin her freshman year in September 1979, she thought she was starting life anew. She had broken up with her high school sweetheart, Steven Burns, and was excited to pursue her dream of becoming a dentist. But on her first day of college, he surprised her by showing up on campus. He asked to meet her for one last time later that evening, said Catina Salarno's college roommate, Joanne Marks.

"She was not looking forward to meeting with him, but she was looking forward to it being the last time," Marks told "48 Hours" correspondent Erin Moriarty in "The Boy Across the Street." The episode reairs Saturday, July 25 at 10/9c on CBS and streaming on Paramount+. "She believed that he would stop bothering her," said Marks.

Around 8 p.m. that evening, Burns led Catina Salarno to a dark and secluded part of campus to talk about their relationship. But when she refused to get back together with him, he pulled a gun from his waistband and shot Catina in the back of the head, leaving her to slowly bleed to death.

"My whole world got taken from me in, really, the flash of the gun, I mean, everything was gone. My life was never the same again," Catina Salarno's youngest sister, Nina Salarno, told "48 Hours." She was only 14 years old when Burns was convicted of second-degree murder in 1980, but her sister's death and its aftermath changed the course of her life.

Nina Salarno went on to become a prosecutor specializing in domestic violence cases and has served as the district attorney in Modoc County, California, since 2023. "I chose … to make that my career because I believed, like my sister, so many victims are either not heard, afraid to be heard, or just don't understand the magnitude of what's happening to them," she said.

In 1977, Burns and his family moved across the street from the Salarnos' San Francisco home, and a romance blossomed between Catina Salarno and Burns – both sophomores in high school. While Catina Salarno attended the all-girls high school, Burns became the captain of his school's football team. Burns had a strained relationship with his own father, and the Salarnos took him in as one of their own. He was someone each member of the family grew to trust.

By the end of their senior year, Catina Salarno wanted to break off their romantic relationship. When she started to pull away from Burns, his demeanor towards Catina became more aggressive, said Nina Salarno. And that behavior continued to escalate. Both of Catina's sisters told "48 Ho