motel. reporter: by the fall of 2013, three months after the attack, vern holbrook was in a coma. but somehow still alive. did either of you hold out any hope for a recovery? i think you always want to believe and have hope that someone s going to get better. i joked with hospital staff all the time. this guy s ornery. if anybody can come out of this, it s going to be him. reporter: and as the autumn winds rolled into the yakima valley detective sam perrault already had made three arrests. but there was one more to come. and to say it was a shocker, would be an understatement. there was one more name the detective had been hearing from vern s family. a lot of people have been saying a lot of different things. reporter: because it turned out that the plot s alleged mastermind, daniel blizzard, had, for several years, dated and helped support financially a woman who d once been as close to vern holbrook, as a child. this woman. remember her?