On an autumn day in October 2018 in Sodus, New York, Amber Washburn, 24, and her boyfriend Joshua Niles, 28, were ambushed and gunned down in the driveway of the home they shared while raising a young son and Joshua’s two children from a previous relationship. Joshua was struck multiple times. Amber had just returned from an errand with her son, witnessed the attack, tried to flee by putting the car in reverse, and was fatally shot in the head before she could get away. Her young son, seated in the backseat, was physically unharmed.

Investigators treated the killings as targeted rather than random and focused on a bitter custody dispute. Authorities say the plot originated with the children’s mother, Charlene Childers, who reportedly sought to regain custody, and that her husband, former Sunray, Texas police chief Timothy Dean, traveled to New York and carried out the shooting. A Texas officer, Bron Bohlar, was also implicated for assisting Dean with renting the vehicle used to travel to Sodus. All three were arrested and later convicted: Dean was convicted of first-degree murder and given life without parole, Childers was convicted of first-degree manslaughter and sentenced to 28 years, and Bohlar received a one- to three-year sentence.

Did anyone in Sodus or the surrounding area have information about threats or confrontations tied to the custody dispute before October 2018?