Interesting topic... I ran into some other neighbors who knew her and her husband well. They said the latest belief is that it was in fact a professional hit... either ordered by her husband or by someone who was trying to get a message to her husband or had something to gain from Nancy's death themselves. It was too clean, no forced entry, absolutely zero evidence in the home. No one has reported any viable tips. So it appears that it could be the work of a professional... which gives me chills...
Hmm...
You are aware that there's a difference between a "contract killing" and a "professional hit", correct?
Anybody can arrange a contract killing.All you have to do is pay someone to kill somebody.
However a truly "professional" hit would require finding someone that kills, if not for a living, then enough to plan and execute what is a fairly complex task.
There are very few people that do hits on civilians (non-criminals) as the task is very difficult and the police tend to take a dim view of non-combatants being killed. Also the planning involved is beyond the skills of most criminals and discovery means life imprisonment or the death penalty, making it an expensive undertaking for all involved.
This appears to be either a random act of violence or a contract hit by an amateur or a dilettante, not the work of a professional killer. A "pro" would be highly unlikely to take a "job" that involved killing the relative of a police officer,especially a female relative. The heat to reward ratio would be just too great.
And the theories that you have poroposed actually contradict one another: If it was "ordered" by the husband, why do it at his home and how did he pay them? If it was to "send a message" to the police chief husband, why kill her? Why not simply shoot up the house or leave a note or card in the bedroom? Equally effective and far less "heat" than the daytime execution of a female LE relative.
And if someone "gained" something by the woman's death, that fact would be readily apparent in the wake of her demise. From what I managed to gather, no one (other than the husband) seemed to "benefit" from her death.
To me, this appears to be the work of a "lucky" amateur rather than a seasoned killer. Leaving the body where it can be easily found, killing a relative (especially a female) of an LE member, attacking at an LE member's home in the daytime and not making the "hit" appear to be an attempted robbery/rape "gone wrong" rather than an intentional killing are all signs of someone that rarely kills or did so for minor financial gain.