NEW ORLEANS -- Friends of a Northshore fire chief's wife, found shot in her burned home in July, gathered in her memory Friday night.
The investigation into Nanette Krentel's homicide is heading into its sixth month with no arrests and few publicly-known leads.
"The only person she didn't know was the person she hadn't met yet," said longtime friend Lori Rando, "Because it didn't matter whether you knew her for 30 years or you knew her for 30 minutes, she made you feel like you were the most important person in the world."
And since July 14, friends and loved ones of Krentel have returned the favor by making what happened to her most important to them.
Krentel, wife of Covington-area Fire Chief Steve Krentel, was discovered shot in the head in the rubble of the couple's Lacombe home. Three autopsies, one of which was commissioned by Krentel's father Dan Watson, have all deemed her death a homicide. The State Fire Marshal's Office says it believes the fire was set intentionally.
But in the time since Krentel's death, investigators have provided little information about the case, aside from the St. Tammany Sheriff's Office clearing Steve as a suspect and acknowledging the FBI's involvement.
Longtime friends, like Rando, say the many unanswered questions leave them frustrated and hopeless.
"It doesn't feel like we're moving forward. And everybody keeps telling me it takes time, it takes time," she said. "But we're coming up on the six month anniversary and we are almost clueless today as we were on July 15."
So they're doing their own detective work, focusing on piecing together Nanette's timeline that day.
"Maybe somebody will remember something, something will jog somebody's memory and they can lead us to a clue that we have yet to hear about so far," she said.
It's an effort to get justice for Nanette that's only growing stronger headed into the new year.
"I don't want this to turn into a cold case. I don't want this to get swept under the rug. I want her to be remembered for the wonderful person she is," said Rando.
There is a $10,000 reward for information in this case. If you have any tips, you can submit them anonymously to Crimestoppers by calling 504-822-1111. There is also a You Caring account to assist her family cover the costs for an attorney and private investigator.