AN ABUSIVE MOTHERRaised in the suburb of Riverside, California, twenty-year-old college student Jason Bautista endured for years his emotionally disturbed mother's verbal and psychological abuse. She even locked him out of the house, tied him up with electrical cord, and on one occasion, gave him a beating that sent him to the emergency room. His fifteen-year-old half brother Matthew Montejo also was a victim to Jane Bautista's dark mood swings and erratic behavior,...

An Abusive MotherRaised in the suburb of Riverside, California, twenty-year-old college student Jason Bautista endured for years his emotionally disturbed mother's verbal and psychological abuse. She even locked him out of the house, tied him up with electrical cord, and on one occasion, gave him a beating that sent him to the emergency room.A Son's RevengeOn the night of January 14, 2003, Jason strangled his mother. To keep authori...

Thomas and Jackie Hawks had big plans. The couple wanted to sell their retirement home--a hard earned 55-foot yacht named Well Deserved--and move onto land to spend more time with family. So when a baby-faced buyer, Skylar Deleon, wanted to test drive the yacht, the Hawks were overjoyed. However, Skylar--with his troubled past as a flamed-out childhood actor, a dishonorably discharged Marine and a suspect in the mysterious death of his former friend, Jon Jarvi--had an even more tr...

The true-crime story of Edwin Snelgrove, an American serial killer who wanted to out-kill Ted Bundy, from the New York Times bestselling author.In September 2001, Carmen Rodriguez, a beautiful thirty-two-year-old Hartford mother of four, went missing. At first police were stymied . . . until a killer's crucial mistake led investigators down a long, dark road of cold, calculated murder . . .In 1987, single mother Mary Ellen Renard was strangled, rep...

He had a successful career, a selfless wife, and three loving children.When high school sweethearts Karen and Richard Sharpe married, they shared an interest in medicine, a desire for family, and a dream for the future. For Karen, that dream became a nightmare. After years of abuse at the hands of her physician husband, she put an end to their twenty-six-year marriage. Fearing a crushing divorce settlement, Richard ended the marriage first by unloading a .22-calibe...

Ash WednesdayBeautiful, bubbly, 20-year-old Kim Antonakos was returning to her New York City apartment after a night of clubbing with a friend. A business major with wild black hair, long polished fingernails, and a new Honda her loving father had bought her, Kim took good care of herself and looked forward to a bright future. But on her way home in the early morning darkness of that Ash Wednesday, Kim was abducted—and her mysterious kidnappers would be the last peo...

A LIFE TAKENJeanne Dominico’s fiancé found her body on her kitchen floor. More than forty stab wounds and blows to her head with a blunt instrument had cut her life short. What monster had struck in the heart of a peaceful New England town?A TRUST BETRAYEDJeanne was a hard-working single mother. Nicole, her fourteen-year-old daughter was on the honor-roll and head over heels in love—with an eighteen-year-old man she’d known only throu...

In the summer of 2003, the Houston suburb of Clear Lake, Texas, was devastated when four young residents were viciously slain. The two female victims, Tiffany Rowell and Rachael Koloroutis, were just eighteen years old—popular and beloved. But when a killer came knocking, it turned out to be someone they knew all too well.Seventeen-year-old Christine Paolilla was an awkward outsider until the girls befriended her. In this gripping true story, M. William Phelps delves into the heart...

In the fall of 1999, a twenty-two-year-old woman was discovered naked and bleeding on the streets of a small New Mexico town south of Albuquerque. She was chained to a padlocked metal collar. The tale she told authorities—of being beaten, raped, and tortured with electric shock—was unthinkable. Until she led them to fifty-nine-year-old David Ray Parker, his thirty-nine-year-old fiancée Cindy Hendy, and the lakeside trailer they called their "toy box." What the FBI uncovered was unprecedent...

Cold StorageIn May 2003, an Arizona man who’d bought dozens of sealed boxes at an auction of unclaimed property made a horrifying discovery: the bodies of three plastic-wrapped infants, one of which had become mummified over the years. Police traced them to Dianne Odell, 50, a mother of eight children, who admitted the babies were hers but claimed that they’d died of natural causes.Justice DeferredIn 1989, police had found the remains...

His TargetAspiring model Sandee Rozzo's big mistake was being kind to Timothy "Tracey" Humphrey. After Rozzo refused the 'roided-up ex-con's advances, she described how he imprisoned, raped, and brutalized her for two days. When the courageous woman pledged to testify against him, Humphrey knew he had to silence her . . .His WeaponThat's when he turned to 19-year-old Ashley Laney. She had fallen in love with Humphrey, her personal t...

“Phelps’s writing reads like a mystery novel.” —Suspense MagazineThe crime stunned quiet Mineral Wells, Texas: 49-year-old Bob Dow shot execution-style in his own bed, his invalid mother locked in the next room—and a cache of homemade porn starring the town’s underage girls. The two accused killers—teen lovers Bobbi Jo Smith and Jennifer Jones—were on the run, intent on going out in a cross-country blaze of glory. M. William Phelps exposes a gripping tale of sexploitation,...