Peter Van Sant

It was an assassination.

Tell me how it happened.

One of the questions that came to our mind was why.

Why someone would want to kill them.

This was somebody that was lying in wait for them, prepared to execute them.

When lead investigator John Christopherson arrived at the Cola household on May 24th, 2010, his mind was spinning.

What in the heck could have happened in a situation where two people are dead because this is an affluent neighborhood and crime is very limited in this part of the county.

Standing outside the house in the yellow hat was son Eric Cola, who had discovered the chilling death scene.

and we're entering from the three-car garage into the kitchen slash mudroom area.

Christofferson, a special agent at the time with the Wisconsin Department of Justice, was assisting the La Crosse Sheriff's Department.

He takes us step-by-step through the Colas four-bedroom home.

I walk into the kitchen area.

I notice an elderly male lying prone on the kitchen floor, face down, a pool of blood around him.

He was shot the moment he walked in the door.

Dennis Cola was 68 years old.

A wealthy businessman, he once owned a chain of pharmacies and a Ford dealership in town, which he sold in 2006.

Describe your relationship with your parents.

Oh, very close.

So close, in fact, Dennis gave Eric hundreds of thousands of dollars to start a career as a day trader, buying and selling stocks from a computer in his house.

Cindy Cowell, Eric's younger sister, also received money from their dad, but it was just a pittance compared to her brother.