The Cold Cases I Dream of Solving. Here are some of the books. (AKA. Excellent Gift Ideas for the True Crime Lover in our lives)

Some crimes have no resolution. Lots of suspects, or no real suspects at all. There are a few that bother me more than others. No, not Jack the Ripper. Although, They All Love Jack is a great book.

THESE are the cases I want resolved. Some have books, some do not. Some are old, some are newer. Either way, read up, my friends. Click on the links. Let’s not forget these people, even if we didn’t know them.

The Fort Worth Three disappeared from a mall during Christmastime in 1974. No trace has been found. These were 2 teenage girls & a 9 year-old who went shopping and, poof, gone, forever. Other than a creepy note reading “I know I'm going to catch it, but we just had to get away. We're going to Houston. See you in about a week. The car is in Sear's (sic) upper lot” that came in the mail, not one clue has ever surfaced. And in the note? The “signature” spelled Rachel’s name wrong. This one seems almost unbelievable in its creep factor. I mean, how can 3 girls just be plucked from a mall and never seen again? But, yeah, it’s real.

Jodi Huisentruit. This is one of the creepiest stories ever. Jodi was kidnapped from the parking lot of her apartment building when she was headed to work as a morning anchor at a news station in Iowa. Her belongings were strewn across the parking lot from her car door, which was left open. This case drives me totally bananas. Where is she? How is it possible that not one trace of her has ever been found, all these decades later? Here is the book.

Susan Cox Powell. From her father-in-law’s bizarre, gross, and terrifying obsession with her, to her husband’s claims that he took the tiny children camping in the dead of night in the dead of winter the night Susan disappeared, you’d think this case just can’t get more awful. But then the husband sets fire to his house with himself and his kids in it while a social worker is right outside arguing with 911 to get them to come out & prevent the murder. They didn’t. And it was absolutely irresponsible and disgusting of the TV show to include the husband’s sister’s speculation that Susan invited sexual harassment from her F-I-L. And Susan hasn’t been found. If I Can’t Have You is the book. Read it. Give it as a gift. Talk about it. Let’s find her. She needs to be brought home.

Zodiac. Not only is this one of the most horrifying killers ever, it is also one of the scariest books. I was reading Zodiac one day while inside during a family barbecue (couldn’t put it down), and I got so terrified while in a house during the day with about a dozen people right outside & within my sights, that I dropped the book and sprinted out the door. And the movie is riveting as well. Over the years, several people have thought they solved it, and one guy thinks his father is the Zodiac, but nothing definitive has ever happened with the case.

Finally, there is this one. The Austin Yogurt Shop. Four teenage girls. Rape. Shooting. And a fire that destroyed evidence. For years it seemed like it was solved, but, you know, false confessions and all that. The book is Who Killed These Girls? Indeed.