It is a faded beige windbreaker with snap buttons down the front, an article of clothing you wouldn't notice if you passed someone wearing it on the street.

But this windbreaker was anything but ordinary. It was discovered next to Twila Busby's body, stained with blood and sweat, and recovered by police in the Pampa, Texas home where Busby and her adult sons were slain on New Year's Eve in 1993.

And it did not belong to the murder victims or Henry "Hank" Skinner, who was convicted of the triple homicide and sentenced to death.

So whose DNA is on that windbreaker? We may never know because Texas lawmen, after spending more than a decade fighting DNA testing in the Skinner case before relenting two weeks ago, made a stunning admission on Tuesday: They lost the windbreaker.