It was March 19, 1985, an unseasonably cold night when a police officer got a call about a fatal shooting on Randolph Street in Riverside, California.

It was just after 3.30 a.m. the temperature had dropped to around 40 degrees. By the time the officer got to the ranch house on a quiet street all hell had broken loose inside

that house there was an unusual family living there 32-year-old david arnold brown a computer programmer

lived there with his 23-year-old wife linda their seven-month-old daughter crystal, and Linda's younger sister, Patty, who was

17. David's daughter from his first marriage, Cinnamon Brown, was also staying in the house.

Cinnamon had been moving between her mom Brenda's house and her father David's house. When she stayed

with David, she mainly lived outside in a separate trailer in the

backyard. But she would come in to hang out and have meals with a family or sometimes to watch

TV. When the officer knocked on the door, David Brown was distraught. He told the officer that he

had to go inside the master bedroom. David explained that he had gone out a little after 2 a.m.

He went to make a late-night run to the grocery store. At that convenience store, he had bought some

fruit pies and flipped through some comic books and also chatted with the clerk. When he got back home,

Patty, his wife's younger sister, stopped him at the front door and told him that

she was terrified. She told David that she had heard shots fired inside the master bedroom, where

Linda was sleeping. Patty said she got scared and barricaded her door shut. Now that David was home,

she wanted him to go inside the bedroom. But David told the officer that he couldn't.

He looked through every other room in the house, but he just couldn't bring himself to go inside

that master bedroom. Later in the excellent and rule book that was written about this case called

If You Really Loved Me, she discussed the responding officer's impressions of David Brown.

Even though David Brown was only nine years older

than his wife, Linda, the officer kind of described someone who seemed like he was 32 years old

going on 50. He was out of shape. He had a gut. He chain smoked. And the bottom line was the officer

...