virtually dead for years was suddenly picking up steam. reporter jeff proctor. it triggered some tip s to te police department and it got people, you know, talking about this as something other than a husband who had walked off on his family. reporter: for the first time albuquerque police were publicly calling the case a homicide investigation. and that caught the attention of a man named frank. he said, i m the one who lent her the gun. if you think that she is a suspect in this, i don t want my family in danger, and so i want to turn the gun over to you. reporter: frank was a retired military and straight by the book guy who had befriended ellen snyder when they worked together in 2001. she was telling people that he yells at her all of the time. reporter: it was christmas 2001, and ellen says that the daily fighting and the snyder