would a little girl gain the strength not only to recover and come back whole and would a dedicated detective not onlyd crack his biggest case but keep the emotional promise he made? erika s story began in a hard scrabble neighborhood in louisville in this brick house on wilson avenue. a 2-year-old, wild about dora, the explorer, erika lived here with her mom erin harper. on may in 2006, 911 got a call. what was his state of mind? te he was hysterical. what was he saying in there? sarthere s a little girl in there. reporter: the detective rushed in the house andtt found woman almostd certainly dead o the floor. just a big like a pool of blood. reporter: the officers had to step over the woman to get to the back room where, on the bed,
in the icu, erika was feisty and combative. her neurosurgeon dr. morartie said that was a positive sign her brain was rebooting. judith was the most religious one in the family and a week after surgery, her prayers and unshakeable faith were answered. erika s condition was upgraded from critical to fair. she looked real bad but i never dwelled on she wasn t going to make it. reporter: now the family had to focus on the one who did not make it, erika s mom erin. on may 25th, 2006, a week after she was gunned down, erin s family gathered for her funeral and the man who delivered the eulogy was none other than the officer who raced erika to the hospital, steve kelsey, who also served as a minister in a local church. and it was so moving and
car was broken into at work last week. reporter: his cadillac, the break-in happened on may 17thth, a few hours off erin harper was found dead. reporter: i asked him where do you work? he said he was a pharmacist at a drugstore where she sell prescription drugs. it hit me the manual was with the stuff now. reporter: detective arnold had a working theory and it went like this. someone broke into a shiny cadillac parked outside of an indiana walgreens. the car happened to belong to the store s pharmacist. the thief grabbed the owner manual and tossed it into his own car and went to erin s house where she and erika were shot and erin s prescription ills pills and credit cards were stolen and according to rick s theory the person rushed away from the house, threw the pill bottles and credit cards into
she was everything to me. she loved her kids. she tried her best to take care of them. reporter: erin worked at churchill downs as a hostess meeting celebrities. she had to take contain wa painkillers to manage her symptoms of micro she was with some guys you weren t fond of? that is right . reporter: even so her parents couldn t imagine who would have shot her or little erika and why and that just ramped up their own fears the shooter or shooters might come back. i was scared to death. i thought, my god, what if they don t catch these people. reporter: at the crime scene,