officials post pictures of their most-wanted criminals on the town's website, but they needed every trick they could think of to solve the case of clifford and alma merck, a retired couple who lived on the city's south side. >> they loved to sit out on the front porch and they had big trees out in the front and it was shady in the summertime. >> one saturday morning, the mercks' son, robert, stopped by his parents' home for a visit. he immediately noticed something was wrong. >> he found a door open at the back of the house and entered and immediately detected a foul odor. >> i backed out of the house and told my wife, i said, something is wrong here. go across the street and call the sheriff's department. >> jim christopherson was one of the first to arrive at the scene. >> the entire residence was ransacked, everything turned upside down, chairs turned upside down.