Almost ten years ago, Seattle Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Wales was shot to death, through a window in his own home, by an unknown gunman who left little evidence of motive or escape method.

The killing horrified his family and co-workers, but seemed not to elicit as much alarm at high levels of George W. Bush's Justice Department. As the New Yorker's Jeffrey Toobin reported in 2007:

At the Justice Department, the reaction to Wales’s murder was more muted. Neither John Ashcroft, then the Attorney General, nor any of his top deputies attended Wales’s funeral. The highest-ranking official present was the director of the executive office of United States Attorneys, a mid-level official who coördinates administrative support for federal prosecutors.

One theory for the muted response: Wales was, at the time, president of Washington CeaseFire, a gun control advocacy group not much liked by conservatives.

Whether that theory is true or not, today the Obama administration is sending a starkly different signal, flying Eric Holder, the current U.S. Attorney General, out to Seattle to announce a new and very public campaign seeking fresh leads in the case. He'll be joined by Wales's children, Amy and Tom, who will be making personal appeals for information connected to their dad's murder.

I'll post more about this afternoon's press conference tomorrow, but for now here are the details on where to go with tips that might help solve this case. There's a $1 million reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the killer.

Phone: 1-800-CALL FBI.

Mail: FBI — Thomas Wales, P.O Box 2755, Seattle, WA 98111

Email: walestips@ic.fbi.gov