The exact weapon with which Anastasia was killed is unknown. Kelly Moffett testified that Byron Case told her that he had gotten a "hunting gun" from his father's home,¹ but she did not see the weapon clearly when he shot Anastasia.² She further testified that Case discarded the weapon that night in an "industrial-looking area" near train tracks.³

While Moffett had difficulty fully describing the murder weapon, having only seen it briefly and not being well-versed in firearms, she did say definitively that it was a barreled weapon, ruling out a handgun.

Only a small fragment of the bullet from the murder was recovered,⁴ leaving it impossible to identify the weapon or determine to a 100% certainty what kind of weapon it was, but the chances of it being a small handgun were virtually ruled out,⁵ with no chance of being a pellet shotgun.⁶

The significance of this is that Kelley Moffett, with no knowledge of the Medical Examiner's report, identified the murder weapon as being long-barreled, as opposed to a handgun. Handguns are much more common in murders, and had she claimed that Case had used a handgun (a much more likely scenario, had she been fabricating the story), the forensics evidence given (estimating the likelihood of a handgun at less than 10%)⁷ would have worked heavily in Case's favor.

Byron Case and his supporters feel that a ballistics test "could have determined definitively whether the bullet had come from a pistol, rifle or shotgun", but this assertion is incorrect, considering the small fragment found. We must assume that they did not consult any experts when making their claim, but we are comfortable with the level of expertise and experience behind our answer.