. >> shortly after jim christopherson was promoted to homicide detective, he reopened the case, lookingor any possibly evidence that might have been overlooked. >> when i opened up the case, it was very enlightening, first off. his no idea that the initial investigators had done so much work on it. they had talked to literally hundreds of people and interviewed hundreds of people and had obtained a lot of good information. >> cliff merck's .25-caliber handgun stolen during the robbery was recovered a few months later, but ballistic tests revealed it was not the murder weapon. in searching through the files, christopherson discovered that there were several other men present on the night the cowan brothers sold cliff merck's gun to the drug dealer. when christopherson reinterviewed them now ten years later, one of the men present recalled an interesting detail. he recalled hearing the cowan brothers tell the drug dealer that the gun they were selling had been used in a crime. >> once this drug person took possession of the gun, he put a screwdriver down the end of the barrel and reamed i