Diane Fanning: Author, Speaker

January 13, 2009

The body of my non-fiction writing is stained with the agony of missing loved ones. In my first book, THROUGH THE WINDOW, some of the victims of Tommy Lynn Sells were found dead in their homes, others were missing for months and a few like Stephanie Stroh and Yvette Mueller remain missing decades after their deaths.

The serial killer in INTO THE WATER, Richard Marc Evonitz, abducted young girls from their front yards in broad daylight. Sofia Silva’s family spent two months in unrelenting pain not knowing what happened to the 15-year-old girl until her body was discovered in a lonely spot along the highway. The parents of Kati and Kristin Lisk suffered through an eternal week before their daughters’ remains were spotted in a logjam on a secluded stream.

I wrote about Susan McFarland in GONE FOREVER. She was missing for fifty-three days. While her whereabouts were unknown, her husband told their three little boys—ages 6, 8 and 11: “Your mommy needed a break from you because you are so bad.” With those hateful words, he compounded the evil he perpetrated when he killed their mother.

In BABY BE MINE, Lisa Montgomery killed Bobbie Jo Stinnett and kidnapped her unborn child. Frantic police sent out an Amber Alert and ran themselves ragged in the day and a half it took to find the missing newborn.

Phony doctor Dean Faiello inadvertently caused the death of his patient Maria Cruz in UNDER THE KNIFE. Instead of owning up to his responsibility, he buried her under a slab of concrete in the carriage house of his Victorian mansion, sold his home and partied in sunny Costa Rica. While he enjoyed the tropical life, Maria’s family died a little more every day. It took nine months before her body was found.

In my most recently released book, THE PASTOR’S WIFE, Mary and Matthew’s families were terrified when Matthew was found dead and Mary and her three little girls were missing. They feared the worst until police found Mary—she’d shot her sleeping husband in the back and then took her daughters to the beach.

This summer, my next true crime release, POISONED PASSION, details the misery of Michael Severance’s family. He was missing for two months before investigators found his mutilated body in a stock pond in the middle of nowhere. His veterinarian wife was found guilty of giving him a lethal injection.

Right now, I am working on a book about Caylee Anthony, the sweet little toddler who was missing for nearly six months before her discarded body was discovered. The whole nation grieved and prayed for her safe return. It isn’t easy to write this book—it is heartbreaking work writing the story of the death of the most innocent victim of all.

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