About this ebook
A brutal murder that shocked residents of Missouri—and a killer it took 25 years to bring to justice...
On June 17, 1985, twenty-year-old beauty pageant winner Jackie Johns's car was found abandoned, the interior drenched in blood. Four days later, her bludgeoned, nude body was found floating in a nearby lake. Sheriff Dwight McNiel vowed to catch Jackie's killer, however long it took. His prime suspect: local rich kid Gerald Carnahan. But despite suspicions, the evidence never managed to add up, and Carnahan slipped away again and again.
Throughout the next two decades, multiple other women went missing, some murdered, some never found. Fearful residents believed that a murderous bogeyman was connected to all these crimes. Carnahan's conviction on the attempted kidnapping charge of another young woman brought his name into the mix over and over again--but all of the cases remained unsolved for decades, until a highway patrol sergeant sent DNA from the Jackie Johns's murder for testing and came up with a quadrillions-to-one match to Carnahan.
This is the true account of a murderer who thought he was beyond punishment, and the lawmen who would not relent until justice was finally done.
On June 17, 1985, twenty-year-old beauty pageant winner Jackie Johns's car was found abandoned, the interior drenched in blood. Four days later, her bludgeoned, nude body was found floating in a nearby lake. Sheriff Dwight McNiel vowed to catch Jackie's killer, however long it took. His prime suspect: local rich kid Gerald Carnahan. But despite suspicions, the evidence never managed to add up, and Carnahan slipped away again and again.
Throughout the next two decades, multiple other women went missing, some murdered, some never found. Fearful residents believed that a murderous bogeyman was connected to all these crimes. Carnahan's conviction on the attempted kidnapping charge of another young woman brought his name into the mix over and over again--but all of the cases remained unsolved for decades, until a highway patrol sergeant sent DNA from the Jackie Johns's murder for testing and came up with a quadrillions-to-one match to Carnahan.
This is the true account of a murderer who thought he was beyond punishment, and the lawmen who would not relent until justice was finally done.
Ratings and reviews
4.7
7 reviews
Karen Donner
- Flag inappropriate
October 18, 2023
Interesting read. Kept me wanting to keep reading.
Sandra Kincaid
- Flag inappropriate
April 30, 2019
My cousin, Gerald Carnahan....
About the author
George Pawlaczyk and Beth Hundsdorfer are investigative reporters for the Belleville (Ill.) News-Democrat in Southern Illinois near St. Louis. They have worked as a team for more than a decade during which they uncovered shoddy investigations by a state agency that led to the death of more than 50 children and exposed the practice of holding mentally ill prisoners in solitary confinement continuously for more than a decade in the state’s supermax Tamms Correctional Center. They won the Robert F. Kennedy Award in 2007 for their series “Lethal Lapses” about the faulty child protection system and in 2009 won a prestigious George Polk Award for their series on solitary confinement entitled “Trapped In Tamms.”
Rate this ebook
Tell us what you think.
Reading information
Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
eReaders and other devices
To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.
