One year ago Wednesday, Joseph Gatto, a 78-year-old father, grandfather, and an Army veteran was killed inside his home on Bright Lane in Silver Lake.
In the weeks that followed, 60 LAPD detectives were assigned to the case and two detectives have devoted the last 12 months to nothing else.
But they can’t finish the job alone.
"We just need one more piece of information leading us to the right person and will put it together from there," said Lt. Walter Teague, of the LAPD's elite Robbery-Homicide Division.
LAPD officials tell NBC4 they have recovered physical evidence in the case and hope that will solve it.
"Somebody walked into my dad's house and shot him," said his son Mike Gatto, a California State Assemblyman. "He worked hard to raise us right."
"When we were kids he worked three jobs … give me a second."
And one year later, no one has come forward. Nothing.
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Mike Gatto is reaching out to people in Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles he represents.
"This is something that has rocked this community to the core," Mike Gatto said.
It is where his father, a retired art teacher, lost his life.
"I would like the community to get some of its innocence back," Mike Gatto said.
LAPD officials say they believe the killer may have left LA.
He could be in the Bay area, Las Vegas, San Diego, Teague said.
The killer is no more than 25 years old, who the night of Nov. 12, 2013, while trying to break into cars , threatened to kill two of Joseph Gatto's neighbors.
It's something Mike Gatto says is so out character for Silver Lake.
The assemblyman and the LAPD have a goal — re-enlist the public support.
A $50,000 reward in the case still stands.
"This guy has talked," Mike Gatto said of the killer. "He talked to a girlfriend, a boyfriend."
Teague is optimistic the case will be solved.
"What makes it not totally a whodunit is ... we have something," he said. "We will solve this case."
LAPD officials said they won't compromise the case by revealing what the physical evidence is.
Mike Gatto said that while he is heartened to hear the developments, he wants to stress they still need the public's help to bring the case home.
