Never See Them Again

In the midst of Pennsylvania's Amish country, on a peaceful summer night in 2008, the body of 45-year-old Jan Roseboro was found at the bottom of her backyard pool. Her husband Michael, a successful businessman and member of a prominent family, showed no emotion as he learned of her death. But the next day an autopsy revealed Jan had been savagely beaten and strangled before being tossed in the water to drown. Soon Michael's secret lover, pregnant with his child, stepped into the media spotlight. And a horrifying true story of illicit passion, deadly deceit, and cold-blooded murder unfolded. . .

"One of America's finest true-crime writers."--Vincent Bugliosi

"Phelps creates a vivid portrait." --Publishers Weeklyy

Praise for M. William Phelps

Host of Investigation Discoverys Dark Minds

Phelps ratchets up the dramatic tension.Stephen Singular

Phelps exposes long-hidden secrets and reveals disquieting truths.Kathryn Casey

Jeanne 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?

Jeanne 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 through the Internet. Once the lovers met in person, Jeanne's motherly instincts sensed trouble. If only she'd known that the life in danger was her own.

With a history of psychological trouble and family misfortune, Billy Sullivan's obsessive and controlling power over Nicole contributed to the brutal slaying of her mother. But it was Nicole's stunning confession and guilty plea that led to Billy's sensational trial, where a sordid tale of love, loss, betrayal and murder finally took a cold-blooded killer offline--and on line for justice.

"Phelps is a first-rate investigator." --Dr. Michael M. Baden

A loving father and his new wife set out to pick up his kids for a scheduled weekend visit--but never suspected they were walking into a death trap.

A handwritten note instructed Alan and Terra Bates to enter the back door of his ex-wife's Alabama home. A day later their charred bodies were found hundreds of miles away, wrapped in blankets, in a burned-out car's trunk on a desolate Georgia road.

At Jessica McCord's house, law enforcement found windows covered in blankets, a cache of weapons and ammunition, carpets torn up, new tile on the floors--a couch gone. Then they learned about the nasty divorce and bitter custody battle that had landed Jessica in jail. Upon release, Jessica swore, "Somebody is going to pay." With her new police-officer husband, Jessica became the prime suspect in this brutal double murder. . .

"M. William Phelps' true tales of murderers and mayhem are scary-as-hell thrill rides." --Douglas Clegg

"One of our most engaging crime journalists." --Katherine Ramsland

"One of America's finest true-crime writers." --Vincent Bugliosi

It’s a chilling reality that homicide investigators know all too well: the last face most murder victims see is not that of a stranger, but of someone familiar. Whether only an acquaintance or a trusted intimate, such killers share a common trait that triggers the downward spiral toward death for someone close to them: they are masters at hiding who they really are. Their clever masks let them appear safe, kind, and truthful. They are anything but—and almost no one can detect the murderous impulses buried deep in their psyches.

These doomed relationships are the focus of Ann Rule’s sixteenth all-new Crime Files collection. In these shattering inside views of both headlined and little-known homicides, Rule speaks for vulnerable victims who relied on the wrong people. She begins with two startling novella-length investigations.

In September 2001, Carmen Rodriguez, a beautiful 32-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. . .

"Phelps is a first-rate investigator." --Dr. Michael M. Baden

In 1987, single mother Mary Ellen Renard was strangled, repeatedly stabbed, and left for dead in her New Jersey apartment. Her vicious assailant had already killed once. . .and would kill again. But unlike the fiend's other victims, Mary Ellen lived to tell the tale...

"Phelps gives readers an exclusive, insider's look." --Anne Bremner

Clean-cut, popular and on the fast track at a multinational computer firm, Rutgers grad Edwin "Ned" Snelgrove shocked friends and colleagues with a plea bargain for Renard's brutal attack--and the heinous 1983 murder of college girlfriend Karen Osmun. Vowing never to be caught again, Ned spent his time in prison obsessively studying the violent career of his idol Ted Bundy. . .then was released ten years early for good behavior. . .

"Phelps proves that truth is more shocking than fiction." --Allison Brennan

Unflinching and brilliantly researched, this is an exclusive tour into the twisted mind of an all-American killer. . .and a state attorney's tireless efforts to lock him away forever.

In May 2003, an Arizona man who'd bought dozens of sealed boxes at a self-storage facility's 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. She'd kept the bodies for over twenty years before abandoning them.

In 1989, police had found the remains of a long-dead infant in a suitcase in the trunk of a car Odell had abandoned. The statute of limitations on manslaughter had saved her then from prosecution. She maintained that the fetus was the product of a rape by her father and, after he beat her, was stillborn.

Odell said her own domineering mother had forced her into teen prostitution and murdered what she viewed as "bastard children." Both parents were dead and unable to contradict her. Would Odell's stories sway the jury and buy her the mercy her babies were never granted? Or would she be forced to face the consequences of bringing innocent lives into the world--only to end them in cold blood. . .

On a December night in 2004, a 911 operator in Nodaway County, Missouri, received a frantic call from a woman who'd found her pregnant 23-year-old daughter in a pool of blood on the living room floor. Most shocking of all, the dying woman's unborn baby had been viciously ripped from her womb.

"Get ready for some sleepless nights."--Carlton Stowers

Across the border in Melvern, Kansas, Lisa Montgomery showed off a beautiful newborn she proudly claimed as her own. While some shared her excitement, others harbored suspicions. Meanwhile televisions across the nation broadcast the first Amber Alert for an unborn child.

"Phelps is a first-rate investigator." Dr. Michael M. Baden

Newly updated with the latest surprising developments, Murder in the Heartland goes behind the scenes of two picture-perfect American towns forever changed by one horrifying act of violence. With exclusive access to key witnesses, family members, and potential victims who narrowly escaped a similar gruesome fate, M. William Phelps tells a classic American tale of unthinkable murder and the quest for justice.

Aspiring 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. . .

That's when he turned to 19-year-old Ashley Laney. She had fallen in love with Humphrey, her personal trainer, and would do anything for him. On their wedding night, he made a strange request--one that would end with eight gunshot wounds and a dead body.

The police knew Humphrey was the likely suspect, but he had an alibi for the time of the shooting. How could they prove that, even if he didn't pull the trigger, he was the manipulative psychopath behind Sandee's murder? It would all come down to a prison escape, a manhunt for a killer, and an explosive trial. . .

"One of our most engaging crime journalists." --Dr. Katherine Ramsland

"Phelps gets into the blood and guts of the story" --Gregg Olsen