eyes. his father named them in 2003 and two careers later they had their first child, a daughter named ashley. that was rough. there were complications? yes. she spent the first ten days of her life in the in the neonatal unit at the hospital. reporter: it was a close call but one that seemed to deepen and enrich the couple s faith. soon the family grew to include a son, jay, and another daughter, breanna. growing up was great. i had a wonderful older sister and older brother who kind of helped guide me through stuff and then obviously a wonderful mom and dad. reporter: eldest daughter ashley said whatever the howard family did, they did together. both our parents did choir in church. any time they needed a family it was like oh, get the hourwards,
theirs for a. it and it may be a family affair. certainly a change case of articles. they re about to hit this case like a monster truck. if your dishwasher doesn t get thing completely dry. zwrsh. ashley home stores columbus day sale is in its final week. save up to 30% or get zero interest for six years in ady. but one thing we could both agree on
they ll come and bring all the kids. we were always together, always a family. we went to all of their events. they were busy, always doing something. whether it was soccer or, you know, anything in the fine arts musically. reporter: you guys do almos sound like t leave it to beaver oh, yeah. reporter: but by 2012 those days were gone. frank and ashley were empty nesters. you were so close with your kids. was it hard as one by one they started leaving the nest and going off to college? sure. yeah, it was. i mean, i m proud of them but it was difficult. i mean, change is difficult. reporter: now nancy was often home alone.
reporter: frank howard arrived home in dallas the morning after his wife was shot. his daughter, ashley, said he looked awful when she finally saw him. they drove to the hospital together, and by the time he got there, he could hardly walk. and i hear this crash and i look back, my dad had collapsed on the ground. he was in terrible shape. any time monitors would beep, he was jumpy, just terrible shape. reporter: was he in tears? yeah. reporter: tell me what happened the first time you saw nancy in the icu. it was a time. she was real drugged up but all the family and a lot of people from the church and stuff were there. reporter: doctors told the family the bullet had entered nancy s skull just above her left eye and traveled downward
we basically had nothing to go on. and precious little in the way of leads. we wonder if the shooting was part of a crime in the areawe can t rule it out. there had been some break-ins in the area. reporter: there were some home break-ins we were looking at to see if they may be rerelated to this offense. but there had not been any robberies where people were rocked at gun point for their property. reporter: a police officer got word to her eldest daughter, ashley. a close friend to my mom called me to say your mom is in the hospital with a gunshot wound. i m sorry, what? reporter: that must have been the weirdest phone call. just the weirdest phone call. it was so confusing.