“She couldn’t understand what he wanted,” Nguyen said.

On June 11, 2011 — the 45th anniversary of Danielson’s epic run — his name would appear in stories about Lukas Verzbicas, who that day became the fifth prep miler to break four minutes in a race, in New York. Little more than a day later, the headlines would turn tragic.

About 7:45 p.m. on June 12, Nguyen testified in court, she and Qi went for a walk in their Lakeside neighborhood for about an hour. Qi wanted to move in with her temporarily that night, but Nguyen’s spare bedroom was not yet ready. It would be available at 9 the next morning.

“Can I do it earlier?” Qi asked.

“O.K., just call me when you’re ready,” Nguyen said.

“O.K.,” Qi replied, “I’m going to go and tell Tim I’m going to move out.”

At 4:45 a.m. on June 13, San Diego County sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to the Danielson home. A radio call to a patrol car said a person had died in the house and someone else was attempting to take his own life. Connie Danielson, a sister-in-law of Tim’s, had phoned the authorities. She had just viewed an alarming e-mail that had been sent sometime after 9 the previous evening.

“I killed Ming,” Danielson wrote, according to a summary of the e-mail given by a homicide detective in court testimony. “I’m going to ... I shot Ming. I think she’s dead. We have ... I put a generator in the house, I’m going to kill myself. I’m going to go to her, lay down with her and die as well. I’m sorry. If you call 911 ...... you should call 911, but be careful of carbon monoxide.”

When deputies entered the house, they noticed blood in the stairwell and went to the second floor, finding a locked door to the master bedroom. The door was kicked in. Qi lay on the bed, apparently dead, a small amount of blood on her nose and lips. A shotgun was next to her in the bed. Another gun, a .22-caliber rifle, eventually determined to be the one that shot her, was found behind a door.

A generator hummed in the bedroom. Exhaust fumes were powerful. Danielson sat on the toilet in an adjacent bathroom, tilted to his right. Detectives gave him commands, but he did not respond. They could not see Danielson’s hands to tell whether he was armed. So he was Tasered twice, then handcuffed.