she's in the kitchen. i'm going to get my neighbor to help me here. [ knocking ] ralph, we're getting help for you, ralph. okay? >> reporter: the police arrived, went into the house with guns drawn. and there at the entrance to the kitchen, still in her nightgown, lay pam candelario, her head covered in blood. >> i knew she was dead when the ambulance showed up because they didn't go into the house. they just stayed and were working on ralph. >> reporter: ralph wasn't shot, but he was hurt. and he was airlifted to the nearest trauma hospital. walsenburg, as local reporter eric mullens knew, was not equipped to handle an investigation of this magnitude. >> you have small town departments with five, six, seven people, you don't have murder cops on staff. you don't have forensic professionals on staff. >> reporter: so by the time shannon arrived at the hospital looking for her mother an agent of the colorado bureau of