Police have found the biggest piece of the Ronni Chasen puzzle yet.
Authorities announced Wednesday that a "preliminary match" has been made between the gun that convicted felon Harold Martin Smith used to kill himself and the weapon used to kill the veteran Hollywood publicist.
It appears that Chasen's death was not a professional hit and that Smith "acted alone," Beverly Hills Police Chief Dave Snowden told reporters outside the police department, adding that they just got the ballistics report this afternoon.
"It was a robbery gone wrong," said Beverly Hills Det. Sgt. Mike Publicker, the lead investigator on the case. It's an "ongoing investigation. We still have additional interviews to do. We are about 60 to 70 percent done. This is our belief at this time. We do not believe [Smith] was a paid hit man."
Investigators suspect that Smith was on a bike when he pulled up next to Chasen's Mercedes in the early morning hours of Nov. 16 and shot her at least three times.
"Through the interviews and the information we received, that leads us to believe that he was at a desperate point in his life and was reaching out and doing desperate measures," Publicker said.
Smith shot himself when police, acting on a tip phoned in to America's Most Wanted, attempted to question him at an L.A. apartment building where he had been staying.
The tipster could be eligible for the $125,000 reward raised by Chasen's friends and colleagues, Publicker said.
"We plan to continue this investigation until we can call you again out here and tell you with definitive proof who exactly the person that shot Ronni Chasen was, and we do believe at this point that we have a pretty good lead on this guy," Snowden concluded.