The boy was unconscious for six days. He awoke the day after Christmas and was rescued by a farmer who was driving by. The side of his head was bloody. He had two black eyes, light stab wounds in the chest and cigarette burns.

A bullet had entered at the left temple and exited at the right temple, injuring the optic nerve and closing the eye.

Mr. Carrier speculated that the burns, some of which still scar him, were meant to test whether he was dead.

Mr. Carrier remembered little about those six days. ''It was more traumatic for my parents and my brother,'' he said. ''It was a walk in the park for me. It happened so fast.''

From the beginning, Mr. McAllister was a prime suspect. He had been dismissed six months before by Mr. Carrier's father, Hugh, from his job taking care of an elderly uncle. Mr. McAllister also had a long criminal record, owned a motor home and bore an uncanny resemblance to a composite sketch made from the boy's recollections. The problem was that there was no physical evidence linking Mr. McAllister to the crime.

But Major Scherer was sure that Mr. McAllister was the assailant. When the police went to question him in 1975, he behaved as though he was expecting the police to find him and charge him with the crime, Major Scherer recalled, adding: ''He said to the investigators: 'What took you all so long? I've been expecting you.' Everything was there -- the motive, the motor home and the composite picture, almost identical. But we couldn't get Chris to identify him.''

Major Scherer received word in August that Mr. McAllister was a patient at the Greynolds Park Manor nursing home and went to interview him.