and then winter came and the wind, and on february 20, 2008, the moon rose full over the carson valley. after dinner, ben, melissa, her teenage brother craig, and little alyssa settled in the den to watch a movie. melissa remembers falling asleep on the couch waking up with a start. >> thinking i was late were work. it was like 2:30 in the morning, and i was like, oh, i'm not late. so i went and got into bed. >> crawled in with ben, she said. moonlight on the covers. warmth inside. >> about an hour later is when i was woke up by the smell and then a loud noise. my ears were ringing. at first i thought i was dreaming. >> a smell? >> yeah, it was the smell of gun po powder. >> gun powder smell. >> mm-hmm. >> as she told it, looked over to ben, he appeared to have slept through whatever it was. she nudged him. he didn't stir. >> i thought, okay, i'll check it out. i walked halfway down the hallway, realized the front door was open. >> but you didn't see anybody? >> no. >> halfway down the hall, cold air rushing in, she knew something was very wrong. so she ran back to the bedroom, turned