Mr. Ballin

There were multiple credit cards and a checkbook that were just sitting on the bed.

And the fact that these items were not stolen made Faust think that robbery probably was not part of the motive for whatever happened to Bonnie.

But then something on the floor by the bed caught Faust's eye.

After double-checking that the room had already been photographed, Faust put on a pair of gloves and then crouched down and he picked it up.

And what it was was a small brown button.

He carried it over to the closet and dug through Bonnie's clothes that were in there, and the button didn't seem to match anything that she owned.

And so based on where it was found in the room, Faust thought, you know, this button must have come off of somebody's clothes in the middle of this attack.

It obviously could belong to Bonnie.

It could have come off of what she was wearing and maybe is still wearing.

Or this button could have come off of the attacker's clothes.

And so Faust gave the button to a forensics officer and told him to bag it up.

Then he kept looking around.

And in the midst of all the blood that had been sprayed all over the room,

he noticed there was a clear trail of red droplets that snaked across the carpet.

The trail led to a sliding glass door that led into the backyard, and when he tried to open it, he realized it was already unlocked.

The forensics officer told him that nobody had touched that door all morning, so it must have been unlocked before anybody arrived.

Faust slid the door open and stepped out into the backyard, and he followed the trail of blood across the grass all the way to a door that led into the garage.

He noticed there were no drag marks in the grass, so Bonnie's attacker must have been carrying her, which sort of naturally suggested that whoever did this likely was bigger and stronger than Bonnie.

But also, judging from the photos he'd seen on the walls,

Bonnie was very petite, so really that didn't narrow it down very much.