During the investigation, law enforcement thought they had hit the jackpot when they discovered a witness, Matthew Dowdy, who had seen the attackers as well as the vehicle they were driving—a white van with a broken taillight—during the October 14th shooting of Linda Franklin. Since his statement matched earlier reports of a white box truck or van, law enforcement released the information to the media and the public and only later discovered that Dowdy had been lying. The story fell apart two days later when officers were reviewing security footage from the shooting and saw that Dowdy was inside the building when the shooting occurred and so could not have seen anything. Dowdy was eventually charged with interfering with a police investigation and pleaded no contest before being sentenced to six months in prison.
