October 31, 2024
THE BOOKFEST: Second Place Award for Nonfiction – True Crime
In a presentation unlike other true crime stories, TRACKRS takes the reader through all the stages involved in the pursuit of a serial killer who sexually assaulted seven young women in Orange County, California in 1978 and 1979. He brutally murdered five, savagely attacked another who barely survived, and injured a pregnant woman so severely that it caused the death of her unborn child. The narration provides a closeup, detailed description of an intricate murder investigation by multiple Orange County law enforcement agencies in 1996. Including transcripts of the defendant’s recorded statements and courtroom testimony, all the “in the trenches” and raw details are recounted as seen through the eyes of the author, a deputy district attorney and veteran homicide prosecutor, who initiated the investigation and followed the case through to the jury’s final verdict.