Pursuances

What unfolded at 300 Sorghum Mill Drive was a tragic and horrifying sequence of events that shocked a community and made headlines across the nation. Before the morning was over, Mrs. Hawke-Petit and one of her daughters would be sexually assaulted, the entire house would go up in flames, and only Dr. Petit—his head bloodied, his legs bound—would manage to escape with his life. With the help of neighbors and local police, the two suspects were soon found and captured. Now, Joshua Komisarjevsky and Steven Hayes await trial for murder IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT.

In 1989, a shocking tragedy shattered an otherwise peaceful small Indiana community. Much-admired pastor Robert L. Pelley was found slain in his home. In his basement were the huddled, blood-soaked bodies of his wife and daughters, executed by shotgun at close range. The doors to the house were locked, and there were no signs of forced entry. Meanwhile, the pastor’s son, Jeff, was nowhere to be found?

Police had a hunch that Jeff was responsible for the massacre, but they didn’t have enough evidence to convict. The case went cold?until, more than a decade later, when law officials resolved to finally try to unravel the truth about Jeff and to establish a motive?that he was angry toward his father for grounding him on prom night. Then it would be up to prosecutors to prove that Jeff was responsible for THE PROM NIGHT MURDERS

Their neighbors were Bill and Hillary Clinton. Their home was Chappaqua, the upscale New York suburb famous for its tranquility—until one dark night, when a brutal murder shattered the community. Driving home with his wife Peggy, Carlos Perez-Olivo claimed he was forced off the road by another vehicle. Entering the couple’s SUV, the other driver allegedly shot and killed Peggy during a struggle. Then, while wrestling with the assailant, Carlos took a bullet in the abdomen.

But disturbing facts about Carlos began to surface: He’d sent flowers to his mistress two days before Peggy’s murder. He’d been recently disbarred as a criminal defense attorney. And now, he stood to inherit Peggy’s life insurance policies. With each revelation, more questions were raised: Was Carlos an innocent victim? A scheming accomplice? Or a cold-blooded killer? This is what really happened…

Casper, Wyoming:1973. Eleven-year-old Amy Burridge rides with her eighteen-year-old sister, Becky, to the grocery store. When they finish their shopping, Becky’s car gets a flat tire. Two men politely offer them a ride home. But they were anything but Good Samaritans. The girls would suffer unspeakable crimes at the hands of these men before being thrown from a bridge into the North Platte River. One miraculously survived. The other did not.

Years later, author and journalist Ron Franscell—who lived in Casper at the time of the crime, and was a friend to Amy and Becky—can’t forget Wyoming’s most shocking story of abduction, rape, and murder. Neither could Becky, the surviving sister. The two men who violated her and Amy were sentenced to life in prison, but the demons of her past kept haunting Becky…until she met her fate years later at the same bridge where she’d lost her sister.