On the evening of October 23, 1998, 52-year-old physician Barnett Abba Slepian was in the kitchen of his Amherst, New York, home after returning from a memorial service for his father. A single shot from a high-powered rifle shattered the kitchen window and struck him; he died two hours later. His wife and four sons were in the house at the time.

Investigators focused on James Charles Kopp, an anti-abortion activist known in some circles as Atomic Dog. Evidence pointed to a sniper-style attack from a wooded area behind the residence. Kopp fled and was placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list; an international search led to his arrest in France in March 2001 and his extradition to the United States under the condition he not face the death penalty. At trial Kopp admitted firing the shot but said he intended only to wound; an Erie County judge convicted him of second-degree murder in March 2003 and sentenced him to 25 years to life. A separate federal conviction for violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act produced a life sentence plus ten years, and the court ordered $2.6 million paid to Slepian’s family.

Kopp is also a suspect in several non-fatal shootings of abortion providers in Canada and Rochester, New York, between 1994 and 1997. Did anyone who knew Dr. Slepian notice anything unusual around his home in the days before the shooting?