Author Research: Warming Up Cold Cases

          In my work in progress, A Silent Place to Die, my main character, Grace Kimball, is researching cold cases in her little town of Endurance, Illinois. Because the town is having a centennial, Grace is writing several pieces for the Endurance Register about the history of the town and some of its cold cases.
        
          Since I need to have Grace investigate a particular case, I felt it would be wise to find out what would be in such a file. I also need to know what kinds of information and pieces of evidence might be found in a cold case file, typically a cardboard, sealed carton.

          My amazing detective-consultant, Suzy Owens, who works for the police department in Ames, Iowa, put me on the track of a cold case that appears to have a number of resources on the internet. The victim was an ISU freshman named Sheila Jean Collins who was murdered on January 26, 1968. Her killer was never found. She had advertised in the student union for a ride to DeKalb because she was going over the weekend to see her boyfriend. Students wanting to share the gas payment would post their destination and date on the "ride board" in the student union.

Sheila Jean Collins

She never made it home. The assumption is that whoever picked her up in a blue Volkswagen was her killer. Her body was found, unclothed, in a ditch. The actual murder weapons in the case are missing--a rope and a piece of pipe. One of the websites that describes this case and has extensive references is here.

          To further gain more information about cold case files and reopening them, I visited a website called Defrosting Cold Cases. The author of this site investigates cold cases in conjunction with police departments. This is an intriguing internet site, and it also gave me some great information about how to go about researching the contents of cold case boxes.

          I decided to get some corroboration from a living source, the local Monmouth police chief, Bill Feithen, who was extremely professional and could answer anything I asked. I had made a list of things I would expect to find in a 1968 cold case box. I must have done my work well because he was able to add a few things and corroborate the choices I already made: black and white photos and some Polaroids that might have deteriorated, lab tests, evidence in paper bags, handwritten notes, a ME report, witness interviews, task force meeting notes, detective reports, newspaper articles, and objects from the scene of the crime.

          How well the evidence is preserved is another story. Particularly in a small town police department, officers in 1968 might not have been trained so well in preserving evidence over the long haul. Sometimes evidence boxes are moved, roofs and basements have leaks, mold gets in, mildew and dust take their toll, and just plain moving evidence can result in its loss.

          What would NOT be in there from 1968? Missing would be computer files/notes--replaced by hunt and peck typing of detectives on typewriters or writing by hand--DNA lab reports, although the evidence might still be there for modern tests; Xerox copies; color photographs, videotapes or audio tapes of interrogations and interviews; and high grade paper. I still remember the onionskin paper and carbon paper we used back then to type multiple copies.

          I'm afraid Grace has her work cut out for her because she has two boxes full of evidence from the 1968 cold case she is researching.

          Does this cold case have a connection to the present day murders in her little town of Endurance? Only time will tell.

A Silent Place to Die [Introducing Grace Kimball]

I considered writing a post about old friends because the book I am currently writing, A Silent Place to Die, involves a number of characters who are old friends of Grace Kimball, the main character.  But I believe it would be wise to talk about Grace first.  Other posts will follow about her friends.

Let's look at one of Grace's conflicts and the former students she sees as she lives in the tiny town of Endurance. Then let's listen in on one of the conversations she has with her friends.  Ah, an introduction to Grace!

Grace is a widow and her husband Roger died years ago, leaving her with three children to raise on her own.  After Roger's untimely heart attack, his sister, Lettisha, moved in for a number of years to help Grace with the children.  Grace also was aided by three friends whom she met during those early years, and even now they are highly involved in her life and will be knee-deep in the murders that take place during the course of the book.

Conflict.  Grace is a recently retired English teacher in Endurance, Illinois, who taught for twenty-five years after Roger's death, and she is having a few problems with her retirement.  What to do?  Here are some of her thoughts:

Two weeks earlier she had cleared out her file cabinets, erased the whiteboards for the last time, piled up the textbooks in neat rows, emptied her desk drawers, and carted home only a few precious mementoes from a lifetime of teaching high school English.  That hadn't been so hard really. The bad part was turning in her room keys, keys that had jingled in her pockets for twenty-five years.  That was when she realized she was done.  Now she would gather her thoughts and settle into her big house, empty since her children had left.*

While Grace contemplates the next part of her life, she keeps running into former students in the little town of 15,000.  As she recognizes them, we read some of her thoughts:

Another one she remembered.  Lacey Lancing.  Probably about twenty-three.  Has two kids and is married to a guy who works for IDOT.  Terrible speller.  Did her research paper on whether the Loch Ness Monster--spelled 'Lock Nest Monstir'--could be related to Big Foot.*  

Or:

Jimmy Dolan.  He must be in his forties by now.  I remember he gave a speech on the history of condoms, hoping to shock me.  I think he has six kids.  What does that say for the old axiom that knowledge is power? *

Finally, let's sit in on a conversation with her three friends--Deb, Jill and TJ--who are having lunch at the Cafe on the Square downtown in early June:

     "I don't know where all that will end," murmured Deb, and then it was quiet.  Within seconds the calm was shattered by Grace's cell phone playing the theme from Jaws.
     "Ah, that's Lettie," announced Grace, touching the "answer" button.
     Deb glanced at Jill and whispered, "Her sister-in-law gets the theme from Jaws?"
     "Ours is not to question why--"
     "What? Who called?"  Then there was silence again.  "Sure. Be right home." Grace broke the connection.
     "An emergency?"  TJ questioned.
     "Oh, that was Lettie.  She's puttering around my kitchen making a pie.  She declared it was an emergency because a man called me and wants me to call him back."
     Deb, TJ, and Jill eyed each other.
     "And this is a problem because--"
     "When was the last time I had a male caller?"
     TJ responded, "How long have I been alive?  Did she get the name by any chance?"
     "Of course not. This is Lettie we're talking about."
     "Could be interesting.  I'll have to check back with you later this afternoon," Deb surmised.  "And then I'll call Jill."
     "And then you'll call me," TJ nodded to Jill, as she scraped her chair on the cement and dropped a few bills on the table.*


Shortly after this conversation, Grace will become involved in multiple murders in her quiet, little town.  People she knows have secrets they must hide. Because Grace has the curiosity of a cat, her own life will be threatened and she will discover that all is not what it seems in the picture-perfect town of Endurance.


*copyright, Brakelight, LLC, 2012