In court on Tuesday, one of Molly Conley's childhood friends recalled standing next to her as she was randomly shot to death walking along a street in Lake Stevens.
"I turned around – she was covered in blood behind me," the teen told the court. At first she thought someone had thrown a firework or a smoke bomb at the group of girls.
Recordings of 911 calls from that night convey the panic of Molly's friends and good Samaratins who tried to save her. Molly was killed a day after her 15th birthday.
The shooting happened the night of June 1, 2013. Nearly a month later, police arrested Erick Walker, then a 26-year-old Boeing employee who detectives said was randomly shooting from his Pontiac G6 that night.
Other shootings were reported the night of Molly's death, and in the weeks after the shooting the State Patrol crime lab worked on ballistics tests for some of the bullets found at the scene of Molly's shooting and the other shooting locations.
Detectives came up with a list of possible weapons, and a list of people in the area who had recently bought similar guns.
Police said bullets from all the shooting scenes were from the same Ruger-style gun and found a Facebook photo that showed Walker with the same style gun. Prosecutors say it's clear Walker was the premeditated killer, and that he acted with "extreme indifference to human life" the night he killed Molly. They tracked him through gun records.
But investigators never found the bullet that killed Molly or the gun police say Walker used.
In court on Tuesday, Lynnwood officer Joseph Dickinson told jurors his police dog didn't track a person – one reason investigators thought the shooter was in a vehicle. They didn't try tracking the bullet because the police dogs are training to find human scent.
A neighbor, Dean Jones, told the court he heard people screaming and went to see what was going on. Police searched him, asked for his name and address, then sent him home.
Wayne Aukerman of the Lake Stevens Police Department concluded Jones was not involved and told him to go back into his house.
"You didn't follow him back into his house (or) go inside with him?" one of Walker's defense attorneys asked.
Police did not. They also didn't check to see if there were weapons or other people in the house.
The trial is expected to continue Wednesday.
Previous coverage of the Molly Conley case is below.
STORY: Trial begins in Molly Conley murder case
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