shot, erica woke up and started talking to her family. in the icu, erica was feisty and combative. her neurosurgeon said that was a positive sign, her brain was rebooting. did you pray a lot? oh, yes. reporter: judith was the moat religious one in the family. a week after surgery, her prayers and unshakable faith were answered. her condition from critical to fair. she looked real bad. i never dwelled on she wasn t going to make it. reporter: now, the family had to turn their focus to the one who did not make it, erica s mom, erin. on may 25, 2006, a week after she was gunned down, erin s family gathered for her funeral. the man who delivered the eulogy was none other than the officer who raced erica to the hospital, steve kelsey, who also served as a minister in a local church.
from the house, threw the pill bottles and credit cards into the get away car and drove off. a few miles away, whoever was in the car got rid of the hot property, tossing the empty pill bottles and credit cards out the window, along with the cadillac manual. that s how everything ended up together in the drainage ditch. i think they were just grabbing stuff. they thought, we don t want this, she s dead. reporter: rick asked the pharmacist if he knew who broke into his car. he said i don t know for sure, but i have a good idea. reporter: the pharmacist remembered and cameras confirmed a man in a baseball cap and another man came into the walgreens at 9:30 p.m. on may 17th, hours before erin was shot. he said they didn t look like they were regular shoppers at our walgreens. most of our prescription customers are regulars. they came back to the pharmacy and tried to obtain
arnold new this would be a high profile case. he didn t know it would be the case of a lifetime. today s date is may 18,2006. reporter: a video camera rolled as detective arnold processed the crime scene, honing in on clues. this drum, near the victim s body, a shell casing. reporter: the harsh reality of death lay side by side with the every day images of young life. erin s body in a pool of blood, near a red kiddy wagon. a shell casing in front of a box of diapers. and the bed where erica jumped for joy was covered in her own blood. suspected blood on the sheets, pillows and pillowcases. reporter: detective arnold noticed something on the bed. the first thing that immediately hit me was the dora the explorer pillow with blood
knew it was your daughter. what went through you? i lost a son in 78 in a car wreck. he was gone when i got to the hospital. i shed a few tears. this was different. he was 21, had no children. the loss of erin was devastating. now the family had to deal with what happened to baby erica, finding out in the most impersonal way. i knew she was hurt. the police rushing her down the street, i saw on tv. reporter: later, they learned how badly hurt. she had been shot in the head. why, in the name of god, would somebody do that? reporter: it was this man s job to find out. in your experience, how many times have there been babies who have been victims? never a case i worked where a baby was shot. reporter: a pitching career at the university of louisville, now retired detective, rick
talk as much. she was quiet. reporter: with no idea why her sister and mother were shot, ebony and her grandparents remained fearful. you must have been worried like, who did this and where are they? yeah, i was thinking about the safety of the other kids and me. i didn t go out much. reporter: back at the police station, detective arnold was trying to find out his next move when he got a break. a 75-year-old spotted some of erin s things in a ditch three miles from erin s house and phoned police. there were empty prescription pill bottles, credit cards and id cards and personal papers and something else that did not belong. what is this thing? a cadillac manual. a cadillac owner s manual. it stood out because it didn t fit with the rest of the mess. why was the car manual there and whose was it? rick arnold tried thumbing