He was gunned down in his garage with 'no clear motive': Plano police release video in appeal for help

PLANO — Not a day goes by without Cindy Collinvitti asking who killed her husband.

Chris Collinvitti spent that Tuesday in November like any other day. He went to work, he went out to eat, he got gas and he picked up his cat, Jake, from the vet. He'd been texting with his wife, who was out of town with family.

Shortly before 9 p.m., he drove to the post office to mail bills. He returned to his Plano home nine minutes later, pulling his 2016 Toyota Tacoma into the garage next to his wife's car.

He was shot multiple times as he got out of his truck. Neighbors who heard the gunshots called 911. Collinvitti was dead by the time police found him.

Plano police Detective Aaron Benzick said leads have dried up. He needs the public's help in solving the case.

"Somebody knows something," Benzick said Monday on the six-month anniversary of the shooting. "At this point, there's no clear motive. For all intents and purposes, he should not be dead."

A Crime Stoppers reward of up to $28,000 is being offered for information leading to an arrest or indictment in Collinvitti's homicide. Friends and family have been sending in donations to increase the reward in hopes of getting answers. The most recent donation, a $1,000 check, arrived Monday as Benzick briefed the media on the case.

Surveillance video near the crime scene shows headlights from a vehicle slowly approaching near the alley entrance on Ashcroft Lane. Neighbors say they saw multiple people running down the alley and get into the car. The headlights go off but the car's parking lights remain on as it drives away. That's when the vehicle appears briefly on a neighbor's surveillance video.

"You see the car drive westbound on Ashcroft and then turn onto Case Drive," Benzick said.

Some forensic testing is still being done on the evidence, the detective said. But there's little to go on. Was it a robbery gone wrong? A case of mistaken identity? Benzick said he has no solid answers yet. There was no other criminal activity reported in the neighborhood that day, the detective said. The garage door leading inside Collinvitti's home was still locked when police arrived.

Having a homicide case with no suspect is unusual these days for Plano, which has one of the lowest crime rates in the nation for cities of similar size.

The Collinvittis moved into the quiet neighborhood off Hedgecoxe Road on Memorial Day weekend in 2000. The one- and two-story brick homes are like any other middle-class neighborhood in Plano.

When she learned from police that her husband had been killed, "I was stunned," Cindy Collinvitti said.

She described her husband as hardworking, conscientious and very bright. The couple met while working at Texas Instruments in Dallas in 1984. They married in 1990. She was a software engineer; he was an electrical engineer. They both enjoyed traveling and scuba diving.

Chris Collinvitti had just put in his paperwork to retire from Raytheon after a 35-year career. He was 58.

"It's frustrating," Cindy Collinvitti said of the lack of information. "I'd like to know what happened and why."

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