smoot with murder. the crime lab released its ballistic report showing that marks on shell casings from the crime scene matched marks on a bullet found in smoot's home. his missing handgun appeared to be the murder weapon. >> that's a huge connection. >> it is pretty much the connection. >> in june of 2012, eight months after brook was killed, shawn smoot was indicted on charges of first degree murder. >> did you immediately identify with her just being this young woman who was clearly so vulnerable. >> absolutely. the prosecutors saw the case as a relationship turned deadly. >> we're still talking about domestic violence, we're still talking about orders of protection. and all of the things that go wrong in this situation. >> you had no witnesses, you had no dna from your suspect. you have no murder weapon. that's a lot of things you didn't have. >> we didn't feel like we could