Sunday's event wasn't really a vigil. Brownstein and his co-editors at the blog whomurderedrobertwone.com - Michael Kremin, David Greer, and Doug Johnson - didn't make a big deal about getting together, or telling others that they were, though there was a live shot for Sunday's 11 o'clock news.

They just placed some Black-Eyed Susans, and other summer flowers picked from Brownstein's yard, by the front door, and then they stood around and talked about the case.

Wone's death was ruled a homicide - police say he was drugged, sexually assaulted, then repeatedly stabbed - but no one has been charged with murder. Three men living in the residence at the time - Victor Zaborsky, Dylan Ward and Joe Price - have been indicted on charges of obstruction of justice and are to stand trail in May. They deny involvement in his death.

It always comes back to the same point, Brownstein says: "We throw our hands up. We look at the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle and we can't make them fit."

Brownstein's blog is doing some anniversary coverage this week, pondering various theories, reprinting old news stories, and still asking: Who killed Robert Wone? He and the site's co-founders, together, spend as many as eight hours working on it most days; they have no direct connection to the case other than wanting to see it solved.

In a recent Washington Post op-ed, Brownstein and Greer chronicled a series of missteps and mistakes in the investigation. Some of the evidence has been lost, some was tainted from the start. Some has yet to be tested, they say, all this time later:

Many want to see justice in the scores of unsolved cases, but this one example has revealed a chilling fact: Being a homicide victim in the District may be a great equalizer; position guarantees you nothing. If the slain former colleague of the U.S. attorney general gets lethargic and sloppy treatment from authorities, then what hope do the rest of us have? The District may be a great place to live, but it's a bad place to die.

After about 45 minutes standing around outside the old crime scene Sunday, the small group went home. It had seemed the right thing to do.

"We've taken a certain responsibility," Brownstein says.

Also in the motion, which was filed the same day Kathy Wone, Robert's widow, filed a civil suit against the three men:

Frustrated at its inability to determine how Wone died, the government’s logically-flawed affidavit argues that since the police were unable to identify a third-party ‘intruder’ responsible for Wone’s death, then all three defendants must know more than they are telling, must have tampered with the crime scene, and must have lied to the police....

Without distinguishing among the three defendants, and without specifically attributing any illegal action to any of the three men, the government tosses them all into the affidavit and grossly assumes that they must have done something to obstruct justice....Lacking evidence that any of the three men had anything to do with Wone’s death, the government relies on rank speculation in an attempt to make its case.

The motion marks the first substantial public statements from the three men since their indictments.

Full disclosure: I am acquainted with the accused in this case and met Kathy Wone at her husband's funeral.

I was at Robert's funeral. It was perhaps the saddest funeral I have ever attended and I never even met him. Both my husband and one of our dearest friends went to college with Robert and with Arent Fox attorney Joe Price, one of the three men who lived in the house where Robert was killed. I know Joe, his partner, Victor Zaborsky, and Dylan Ward, who was charged last week with obstruction of justice, tangentially and have been to the Swann house a couple of times for cocktails. All three of them are funny and sweet and I have seen true acts of kindness from them regarding our mutual friend.

I don't know what happened the night Robert was killed, but the affidavit describes a murder worse than I imagined, inferring that he was drugged, sexually assaulted, and was alive for some time after being stabbed repeatedly in the chest. It's a difficult read for anyone, but I especially worry about Robert's wife. Kathy Wone clearly lost the love of her life and, amazingly, was able to stand in front of a packed church in August 2006 and give a eulogy that was touching and funny and heart-breaking. I often wonder what I would do if faced with a situation like hers; in no way do I begrudge the way she's conducted herself in an effort to find out what happened to her husband. I truly hope some day she does find out. And I would caution that no one at this point has been found guilty of a crime. There seems to be only one certainty in this case so far: It's a tough, fraught situation for everyone involved.