they had gotten nancy howard and confirmed it with her driver s license. reporter: working on a hunch that nancy had been marked for death, the detectives decided to take a closer look at the video from the security cameras at her church. the video clearly showed nancy arriving at the church. as she s pulling into the parking lot, there s a silver vehicle that s following in behind her. she drives around to the south side of the church and parks. that silver vehicle parks a few parking spots away from her. reporter: could you make out the license plate? could you make out the people in the vehicle? no. the video wasn t clear enough for us to see the license plate. you could tell from the video that there was two occupants, a driver and a passenger, in the front seat. reporter: shortly after nancy enters the church, the silver car drives away but returns just before the church service ends. then a big moment in the case. the church cameras catch a glimpse of a possible suspect
little monitors would beep, he was jumpy. i mean, just terrible shape. was he in tears? yeah. tell me what happened the first time you saw nancy in the icu. it was a difficult time. she was real drugged up. but all the family and a lot of people from the church and stuff were there. doctors told the family the bullet had entered nancy s skull just above her left eye and traveled downward through her sinuses and throat before it collapsed one of her lungs. she d already had the first of many surgeries. she would lose one of her blue eyes. but luckily she seemed to have escaped serious brain damage. there s tubes, there s wires, there s lines. so even though you can say she s all right, it s like, it doesn t look like she s all right. you know. and there s swelling. there s inflammation all over. there s things attached to her feet. so it s kind of hard to feel like okay, this is okay and this is right. it was very traumatic to
if all of the contents of the purse were still there. what s really caught their attention was the fact that her drivers license seem to have been removed and cast side. that was the only item that was taken from the purse, it was at that point in time that i became suspicious. if the shooter didn t want nancy s credit cards and money, maybe he planned to kill her. why was the driver s license found separate from the wallet? i believe, i think you agreed, that they pulled out the driver s license to make sure that it was her drivers license. working on a hunch that nancy had been marked for death, the detectives decided to take a closer look at the video from the security cameras at her church. the video clearly showed nancy arriving at the church. as she s pulling into the parking lot, there s a silver vehicle that s following in behind her. she drives around to the south side of the church and parks. that silver vehicle parks a few parking spots away
nancy s recovery was remarkably speedy. just days after she was shot in the head at close range, she was able to get out of bed, take a few steps. and best of all, the breathing tube was removed. the howard family rejoiced. finally nancy could speak. do you consider it a miracle? oh, absolutely. there s no explanation except my heavenly father was there. reporter: what did she say to you when she finally was able to speak? it was just, you know, i love you. glad you re here. i mean, that was the sense that we were both saying to each other. reporter: and then it was time for business. detectives wall and turner wanted to know 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
called john made everything crystal clear. john was frank howard. he had a photograph of frank howard sitting in his gray lexus. and in the foreground of the picture billie johnson s sitting on his motorcycle. reporter: he may have been frank to his friends and mr. john to the east texans, but in truth he was both. his full name was john franklin howard. john franklin howard. reporter: aka frank? frank. frank, yeah. reporter: three names for a man who d evidently been living three lives. one with his wife in carrollton, one with his mistress in california and a third one with the east texas crowd. it was a surprise just based on being the beaver cleaver family, being involved with the church. it was unusual. reporter: so eight days after nancy was shot, the detectives returned to the scene of the crime. this time they had a warrant.