reporter: now, as she recovered in the hospital, it was obvious to nancy why frank hadn t been interested in saving their marriage. her husband was in love with somebody else. i said, where did you meet her? and he told me. and i said, and how long has it been? and he told me. reporter: three years, frank told her. three years of lying. three years of living a double life. one in texas. one in california. frank wasn t proud of it. you re a preacher s son. you know better than that. sure. it was very wrong. and you know, i know it now, and i knew it then. i mean, i knew it going through it. it was just trying to figure out, you know, how to deal with it. reporter: while most men try to keep their indiscretions private, frank howard s dirty laundry was now part of a criminal investigation. but the detectives say they were determined to keep an open mind. i think i told michael, let s not get tunnel vision on this. just because he s got a
description, that he was someone that they knew of that had participated in some break-ins in the area. detectives wall and turner were eager to talk to nancy. she s our only witness to this offense. we just had the minimal suspect description at this time. so, we felt it was important to confirm those details with her as soon as possible. while they waited for nancy to get well enough to speak, they called in frank, hoping he could fill in some of the blanks. can you update me on her condition, what the doctors have said? yes. actually, very i mean, actually very good. he had confirmed that she had actually lost her left eye. no brain damage. no you know, none of that. she ll lose her left eye, but but from there it will be cosmetic stuff. detective wall asked if frank knew anyone who might want to hurt his wife. what i know about her doesn t seem like she would have anybody that oh, no, absolutely not. in fact, everyone knew that nancy had a soft spot fo
every last detail of that night. it began at nancy s church. i had a plan that evening to go to church to see one of my little children that i ve known since she was born. and she was being baptized that night at church. reporter: surveillance cameras caught nancy s car pulling into the church parking lot shortly before 6:00 that evening. in the service i got my picture with their family. it was just a very, very special time. and then i walked on out. and got in my car and started heading home. reporter: it was 7:26 when nancy pulled out of the church parking lot. on the way home, she picked up dinner at a place called taco bueno. her receipt shows it was 7:32 when she paid for the meal. drove on in my driveway. lifted the garage door as i usually do. drove in. got out of my car. got up to the door. didn t hear a thing. but suddenly there was a man with
learned that nearly a dozen people from east texas knew about the plot to kill nancy. charlie louderman was one of them. so have you heard about the shooting in carrollton? yeah, i heard about it. everybody else heard about it, and do you know who s involved with it? yeah. who s that? billie earl johnson and mr. john. mr. john. so you know mr. john? yeah, i know mr. john. reporter: charlie louderman was one of the few who was not related by blood or marriage to billie earl johnson. billie earl johnson. he s one mad son of a bitch. reporter: charlie, who started out as a bodyguard for billie earl, says billie and mr. john tried to get him to shoot nancy howard. this [bleep] man, he tried
immediately after hearing details only an insider could know about the nancy howard shooting. their informant was billie earl johnson. he was the patriarch of an east texas family. he claimed he d been involved in a plot to kill nancy. wall and turner wanted to talk to those family members starting with billie s stepson dustin hiroms. billie earl didn t seem to think much of him. he s so stupid. he didn t know how to put antifreeze in a pickup truck. that dude don t know nothing about nothing. reporter: dustin hiroms, remember, was the young man pulled over in nancy s neighborhood a month before she was shot.