“Are you still working on that book?”
It’s a question I get at least once a week. The answer: Yes. In fact, I put quite a bit of my “free” time into my book about Brenda Michelle Keller. If you haven’t read about that, here’s a blog or two about it.
I was naive to think I could produce a book in a couple of years, at least one with this much depth and without working on it full-time. I also made a decision about a year and a half ago that I wasn’t going to blog about the work I was doing that often.
So, I’m not going to dive into the intricate details just yet. This is an incredible story of a little girl who had a significant impact on people in 12 years, an impact most 50 years older than her would envy.
To date, I’ve conducted about 50 interviews. I’ve driven across the state and into other states. I’ve talked to people from more than a dozen states on the phone. I’ve searched and searched for files and information. Perhaps the most fascinating thing about this case is you won’t find much about it in a Google search.
My dad has always told me that anything worth doing is worth doing right, and if that means taking months and months to research and have a complete story, that’s the path I’m taking.
What I can tell you is that I’ve never enjoyed working on something more than this. It’s fun, yes, but it’s also a mission. It’s been therapy for me and, I think, for many of the folks I talk to.
Something I’ve often thought in the past few months of research is how many people haven’t had the small measure of closure you get when you know what happened to a loved one who was murdered. In Topeka, alone, there are several cases in which the families suffer every day not knowing what happened to their loved one or who caused their demise.
For example, Tirell Ocobock was beaten to death in 1976. She was 18 at the time, and 43 years later, the case hasn’t been solved. I mention this case because some of the law enforcement officers I’ve interviewed for my book worked the investigation.
Each said that cases involved the death of a child or young person are the ones they remember. They’ve also mentioned that the Ocobock case was frustrating because they had a good suspect or two, but never had enough evidence to charge an individual with the crime.
Regardless of what you see on “CSI,” solving these cases isn’t easy. During my interviews, several cases have been mentioned, including Ocobock, Jackie Hay and Roxanne Zwiesler. Hay was a 5-year-old
girl who was abducted in Topeka in 1981. She’s still missing 38 years later. Zwiesler was 38 years old when she was shot and killed in her Topeka apartment in 1994.
The three cases in the previous paragraph are cold cases. That doesn’t mean they can’t be solved. In fact, there have been suspects in each. Somebody knows what happened. I’m writing about these because they can still be solved. If you do know something, do the right thing and call law enforcement. Bring the families some closure.