Bill? Or Kevin? And Why?

 "Powerful... the complex plot and affecting characters--especially gritty  survivor Ellie and her basset hound Bump--make for some nail-bitingly tense thrills." 

                                                         --Publishers Weekly

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: What a fabulous night! The talented Joanna Schaffhausen launched her book THE VANISHING SEASON to applause and adulation at Brookline Booksmith—surrounded by family and friends and colleagues. 
Her book is getting absolute raves. Raves!  And she signed a special Jungle Red edition that we’re giving away today!

After  last night, Joanna has got to be  still floating.

But, like every good crime fiction author, she is fascinated by—the weird. The deeply weird.

(And hurray! She's giving a copy of THE VANISHING SEASON  to one lucky commenter!)

JOANNA SCHAFFHAUSEN: When crime writers look to real-life murder and mayhem for inspiration, we pounce on the deeply weird stories. Most murderers are identified quickly because it’s obvious who the culprit is. But every so often the police come up against a criminal with unusual cunning or creativity, the kind that gives you chills even as your jaw hangs open at the ingenuity involved. Here are just a few true-crime tales that initially baffled the police…including one that remains frustratingly unsolved.

Killer Competition: David Moffitt saw blood red when his girlfriend, Angie Ver Huel, dumped him in favor of a new love, Justin Michael. While normal people in this situation might play sad love songs and sob in their diaries, Moffitt chose a different path: he bided his time for months, working out a plan for murder. Shortly before Angie and Justin’s scheduled wedding, Moffit broke into the couple’s house and shot and killed Justin while he lay sleeping in bed. What made Moffitt diabolically clever was that he also framed another one of Angie’s ex-boyfriends for the crime. He forged a fake ID and bought the murder weapon under the other man’s name. He might have gotten away with it except for one small detail—in his haste to flee the scene the night of the murder, Moffitt crashed his car six miles from the victim’s house, tipping off police to his involvement.

Out for Blood: A young Canadian woman woke up in her doctor’s office with the distinct feeling she’d just been raped. The doctor had given her a sedative that made her memory hazy, but Candice had DNA in her underwear as proof of the crime. However, when the authorities drew blood from Dr. John Schneeberger’s arm, it did not match the sample from Candice and thus he went free. Refusing to believe the DNA results, Candice pursued him doggedly even as public opinion turned against her. Due to her persistence, the police retested Schneeberger a year later, and again, the DNA sample did not match. Only when he was eventually arrested for a second rape did the cops learn how fiendishly Schneeberger had outwitted the DNA test. He had stolen a patient’s blood, put it into a plastic tube, and surgically implanted the tube into his arm so that it resembled a vein. When the police tested Schneeberger’s DNA from his hair and saliva, they were a match to the DNA from Candice.

All in the Family. In this fascinating case, cops have narrowed the suspects to just two people, but they cannot winnow it any further. Diane Kyne was home one afternoon with just her husband, Bill, and her adult son, Kevin, when she was strangled to death. Both men called 911 to report the murder at roughly the same time, and each claimed the other one had killed Diane. The police arrived to find Bill and Kevin grappling on the lawn, accusing each other of Diane’s murder. Forensic investigation was unable to determine which one is telling the truth. The pair disliked each other intensely, so it seems unlikely they killed Diane together.

The son, Kevin, has a wicked temper. He had made threats in the past and has a record of domestic violence. Indeed, Diane had kicked Kevin out of the house before, but she always took him back. Rumor had it she was considering removing him again, possibly for good.  But it was Bill’s DNA, not Kevin’s, which was found on Diane’s neck. Bill also seemed to have the stronger motive for murdering Diane: he stood to collect $750,000 in insurance money after her death. 

More intriguingly, Bill had already collected $250,000 following the strange death of his first wife.  The police eventually arrested Kevin for Diane’s murder, and he was initially convicted and sentenced to life in prison. At a second trial, however, the jury ruled Kevin not guilty. Prosecutors are reluctant to retry the case a third time.

What do you think? Was it husband Bill or son Kevin? What’s the strangest true-crime tale you’ve ever heard?

HANK: And are you all as deeply devoted to MINDHUNTER as I am? Tonight they talked about discovering the “internal logic” of a killer. An entirely new concept in the 60’s. 

SO: Bill or Kevin? And why?

And a copy of the riveting THE VANISHING SEASON to one lucky commenter!

THE VANISHING SEASON

Ellery Hathaway was tortured by a serial killer when she was a teenager, but rescued before he could kill her. Fourteen years later, she has a new identity in sleepy town where a bike theft makes the newspapers. But locals have been disappearing, and Ellery has been receiving strange messages hinting that the culprit knows what happened to her, and that she might well be next on the list. Desperate, she contacts the one person she knows will believe her...the FBI man who rescued her from a killer’s closet all those years ago.

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Joanna Schaffhausen is a scientific editor who spends her days immersed in research on potential new therapies for cancer, addiction, and neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's disease. Previously, she worked as an editorial producer for ABC News, where she advised and wrote for programs such as World News Tonight, Good Morning America, and 20/20. She lives in the Boston area with her husband and daughter. The Vanishing Season is her first novel.