county district attorney david foley was there and a door-to-door canvas turned up a critical clue for the timeline. >> a neighbor couple had heard gunshots, three gunshots, friday evening, somewhere around 9:00 p.m. >> reporter: on the property itself though, detectives found themselves frustratingly short of clues, but they did recover in the grass a soggy piece of paper that looked like a receipt. it would be work for the lab to figure out. and around the garage, investigators took notice of something perplexing, three exterior lights, the bulbs were missing. >> why are the bulbs gone? this is odd. this is really odd. >> so somebody had done some planning. >> rang the door bell, can't see who's out there flips the light on, nothing happens, opens the door, there's his assailant. >> reporter: so the shooting of the superintendent for a grievance unknown became one theory to pursue, but detectives were about to hear a story that would make them look at the crime scene in a completely different way, something more traditional. was it possible that keith reed was the victim of a bad rom