I had the privilege and the pleasure of knowing and working with Diane for three years. She was so kind as to serve as an expert consultant on an event the zoo produced each year during the school year for area students called "Native American Autumn Fest." Accuracy was very important to us and we didn't want to get the information wrong or offend any of our Native American neighbors. Diane was part Ojibwa and part Apache and even though the local tribe here is Pottawatomie they respected her opinion and trusted her. Imagine the shock when on February 9, 1991 we learned that she had been fatally shot and the main suspect was her husband Brad who was a criminal justice professor at Western Michigan University and a former police officer. Even more shocking was that her 3 year old son and 3 month old daughter were in car seats still in the car. They were supposed to have stayed at Diane's mother's home but her daughter appeared to be coming down with something and the 3 year old didn't want to stay alone. I didn't believe it was possible that Brad had killed her until I heard that the dog...a giant of a German Shepherd... was tied in the hay barn to the loft ladder and the fatal shot came from the loft. I had encountered that dog and knew that it had to have been tied there by someone that it knew and there was only one other person other than Diane at the house. It's not a huge in your face crime as far as murders go but it happened to a lovely, well respected mother, daughter and friend so it was huge to us. This author does a really good job telling Diane's story. ( )

I really like Lowell Cauffiel's writing, but this case was sort of boring to me. I always prefer true crime books that do a deep dive into the childhoods and teen years of the victims and defendants, but there wasn't much of that in this book. There was a lot of focus on the detectives and prosecution, which is less interesting to me in most cases unless there are a lot of bombshells and great evidence being uncovered. ( )