It had been more than three years since Brenda Schaefer had disappeared, her car found abandoned along an interstate highway in Louisville, Kentucky. From that rainy night forward, attention had focused on one man, Mel Ignatow, Brenda's ex-fiance, an import-export salesman whose arrogance and piety infuriated both the police and the Schaefer family.
Sixteen months after she disappeared, Brenda's body was found in a shallow grave in the woods behind the house of Mary Ann Shore, a former girlfriend of Ignatow.
Finally, the jury had to decide who was lying: had Ignatow murdered Brenda Schaefer or had Shore done it in a fit of jealous rage? If the jury made the wrong decision, Mel Ignatow would be getting away with murder. In our society, once acquitted, a person can never again be tried for the same crime no matter what new evidence or testimony may arise - that's our constitutional protection from "double jeopardy."
Louisville Courier-Journal reporter Bob Hill brilliantly covers the case in its long journey through the legal system. To tell the complete story, he conducted hundreds of interviews with the FBI, local police, the Schaefer family, and the jurors themselves. The book's legal twists and sudden turns lead to a surprise ending: the murderer - and the gruesome photographs of Brenda's last night alive - discovered by blind luck.