Come What May

The two lower chest wounds clearly showed stippling or "tattooing." When a bullet leaves the barrel of a firearm, it is followed by superheated gasses, burning gunpowder, and some amount of unburned gunpowder. The presence or absence of gunpowder residue on a victim's clothing or the edges of an entry wound indicated whether a gunshot wound was contact, close, intermediate, or distant.

While it varied depending on the type of firearm and ammunition used, Malone knew that typically when stippling was present, the bullet had been fired at close range, within 36 inches. No stippling indicated the bullet had been fired at a distance, at least from further away than 36 inches. The wound above the victim's left breast had been fired from some distance away explaining the lack of stippling.

The other two wounds were not contact wounds but very close. Hence the stippling. The killer was very close to the victim when those two shots were fired. It seemed like those were the coup de grace, two final bullets to make certain that Anderson was dead. That just didn't fit with an interrupted burglary turned violent. Why would the suspects have done that? It didn't make sense.