peter moore, whose family owned the farm, did not like roberto. he even admitted he had challenged roberto to a fight. investigators were zeroing in on peter. then a mysterious clue would land right on their doorstep. it was a letter. and whoever wrote it had serious inside information. here again is keith morrison. reporter: the bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms has become something of a legend at solving puzzles, these little bits and pieces, fragments of this and that were about all that was left around roberto ayala s body the day of the explosion. a story in there somewhere thought the atf. agent brian parker was assigned to find out what it was. what does this tell you overall? there was an incredible amount of force in the explosion.
reporter: most of these pieces were once part of the electrical box. you have washers. different types of hardware in here, screws, nuts, wire. reporter: other pieces just trash. but a few fragments, just a handful looked like they were pieces from a different puzzle. odd. cells from a 9 volt battery, galvanized steel that s been ripped apart. reporter: parker sent off the misfit bits and pieces to the west coast crime lab for analysis. to determine whether or not there was explosive residue present on some of the fragments that were collected out at the scene. reporter: like gunpowder, gasoline, nitroglycerin? correct. reporter: then there was this discovered on the fifth day of the investigation. the panel box door found 160 feet from the site of the explosion. about four feet tall about two feet wide. probably weighs somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 to 20 pounds. this where the large hole is would be the bottom of the panel. reporter: the forensic scientists
dna and all the while the detective david psalm was on peter moore s tail waiting for him to make a mistake. did he go to ground? did he leave? what did he do? he didn t leave. reporter: what were people saying around town that you were hearing? we were hearing that people were saying they thought pete did it. they were following us everywhere. reporter: didn t make a secret of it either, said mary ellen, from them or the neighbors. reporter: how did they start to look at you? like we were guilty. after they raided my house, i spent days crying. days and days, you know, i d be at work and just crying because you don t know what s going on. you don t know who to trust. reporter: how much were you watched? i d wake up in the morning to people outside my house. they watched me get up every day, go put a shirt on, and go out and be in the public s eye when everybody thinks you re a murderer. reporter: even some of pete s own relatives seemed convinced of that, though
doing something, he wasn t doing it at his house. not that we could find any evidence of. he denied he had anything to do with it. yes, he did. reporter: though pete couldn t and didn t try to deny his hatred for roberto ayala. why did you hate him? he was arrogant. he flaunted stuff in my face. reporter: still, the man had as if this were some biblical epic stolen his birthright. lots of people around town knew about that, especially the ayalas. so when they heard peter moore s house was being searched. i thought it was pete all along. reporter: why? he was always the one that had something mean to say. he was always the one that hated him. that was the only person i could think of. reporter: there was a lot of town talk going on. a lot of gossip, rumor. about a week after his house was searched pete got a visit from a friend who had heard some things. i was working one day and he saw me and he backs up and he
because we thought it was an accident. reporter: did they seem to be accusing the two of you? yes. reporter: both of you. yes. reporter: were you frightened? oh, yes. reporter: what were you afraid of? that they thought we did it. reporter: around colusa the raid on peter s house just days after roberto s death was big news. the neighbor began sending out real-time updates on facebook. there was a parade of cars driving around the whole neighborhood. as these detectives were asking their questions and as they were ripping my house going through my house. reporter: and when they left? they took our computers and our cell phones. we had a business. nobody could call us. reporter: meanwhile, the whole neighborhood was watching this. yes. reporter: so the search, said detective salm, didn t yield a thing. we didn t find anything as far as bomb-making materials, instructions on bombs, even anything in remotely close to that like gunpowder. reporter: s