BARTLESVILLE, Okla. -- It was May 15, 2013.
At 10:30 that night, Doug Diaz was tinkering with his car out back, when a gunshot took the 46-year-old by surprise. Bartlesville Police Officers tell 2 Works for You he stumbled into the house, collapsing in the front room.
"His girlfriend said it looked like he was trying to say something but he never could. He only lived a couple seconds after the gunshot happened," Capt. Jay Hastings said.
Diaz's family said when they arrived at the house on the northwest side of town that night, the door was covered in blood. The suspects were nowhere to be found.
"Someday they'll get caught. Someday, somebody with a little bit of guts is going to come forward and let us know what happened," his brother Ben Cottingham said.
When Cottingham returns to the house he thinks of Doug's daughter, who witnessed her father's final moments.
"She was here when it happened. She had seen her dad die on the front room floor. So it's been devastating for her," Cottingham said.
Over the last five years officers served search warrants, tested guns, and gave polygraph tests. It's a case that haunts the department to this day.
"After a while these cases kind of get forgotten. Here at the police department though, we don't forget. When you have an unsolved homicide it's something that sticks with you your entire career," Capt. Hastings said.
As for Doug's family, the grief is far from forgotten. They still hope someone will come forward with answers.
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