when police interviewed the neighbors, several of them said they saw a burgundy-colored car parked a short distance away from the shaws home. the vehicle was occupied by black males. either they observed these black males within the vehicle or standing outside the vehicle, but it was parked in front of a vacant lot in this particular neighborhood, so it did stand out. and about a mile from the crime scene, search dogs found a potentially crucial piece of evidence. while they were walking around in the roadway, they discovered a red ski mask with blue outlines on it next to the roadway, which was in direct line of sight to the rear of the victim s property. this ski mask, red with dark trimming around the eyes, was similar to the one described by rosana shaw. at ron s autopsy, the medical examiner confirmed that ron shaw was shot three times with
a .38-caliber weapon. there were two torso shots. one of those torso shots, the bullet remained. the other torso shot, the bullet went all the way through his body. in the yard, investigators found the projectile that passed through shaw s body. this, along with the two bullets found inside shaw s body were sent to the forensics lab. under a microscope, firearms expert chris henderson discovered that the lands and grooves on two bullets were the same. the third bullet was different. we determined that we had two different shooters, based on the class characteristics of the bullets. in their search for potential suspects, police had to consider whether rosana shaw had anything to do with her husband s murder. ron s grown son from his first marriage certainly thought so.
house. and all of a sudden, three men jumped from behind the garage. [ shots ] i was in shock. i was just waiting for them to shoot me. they put the guns to my head. they told rosana to open the safe in the master bathroom. open the safe, lady. now! i tried to open the safe, and i just couldn t. i was so nervous, i was shaking. then he said, you d better open it this time or i m going to kill you. rosana finally remembered the combination. he was disappointed. i guess he was expecting a lot of money, a lot of cash in there, but it wasn t a lot. the men took $7,000 in cash and a box of jewelry. and i thought okay, now, he s going to kill me. in desperation, rosana begged for her life. i got on my knees, and i told
him, i m pregnant. the killer backed off, but left her with a warning. he said, if you come out of here, i m going to kill you. [ sirens ] the men left, and rosana called police. 52-year-old ronald shaw was pronounced dead at the scene. police knew right away that this was an inside job. whoever was responsible for the death had to know the layout of the home, or certainly, at least, that there was a safe contained inside the bathroom of the home. rosana was unable to give a detailed description of the killers because they were wearing masks. i could tell they were young. they were black males. and they the first one was wearing a red ski mask with some black around the eyes. he s the one that was very close
shot. shannon touchet stayed outside, leaving the shoe impressions in the sand. benson and basile took rosana inside and forced her to open the safe. for reasons that are unclear, they didn t take all of the valuables inside the safe, but they spared rosana s life. i think my daughter saved my life that night. when i told that man that i was pregnant, it just did something to his mind that decided not to kill me. and yes, my daughter saved my life. while running to the getaway car, they dropped the box full of jewelry. as they drove away, benson threw his ski mask out of the car, unaware that it contained his dna.