Murder So Cold by Patricia Springer – True Crime Book Review

Married for eight years, the Smiths seemed like the perfect couple. On September 28, 1994, in Portage, Michigan, her father Russ told Candace Smith that her mother had run off with another man. But she never explained to the seven-year-old why the bathroom upstairs was a mess and why there was blood in the sink. Then they drove miles out of state to their grandparents’ house with a loaded barrel in the back of a pickup truck.

I saw this original story on the Crime & Investigation channel and wanted to know more, so I ordered the book online. He was right that there was a lot more information in the book that obviously wouldn’t fit into a half hour show. I am amazed at how this man got away with it for so long. In fact, he just got caught by a cold case team a few years later. The original investigators appeared to be incompetent in that they dismissed the case as a woman who had run away from home despite assurances from family and friends that she would never have left her child. It seems that if you murder someone and hide the body well enough (and this man traveled miles with the body), the chances of you getting away with it are very high. This murderer was brazen in his actions even remodeling his bathroom. The amazing thing is that you would think that maybe this was so long ago that the investigators were maybe not so well trained that they didn’t know how to conduct an investigation, but this case was as recent as 1994.

The entire time I read this book I had a constant sense of disbelief that this man was not caught, so I can well imagine the reactions of those close to the victim. They had to live the nightmare and the incompetence in the investigation of this case. She was also constantly worried about the child who was still with this unstable parent.

The book reads well but it was a bit disappointing as I had seen the TV show before so I knew about the major twists and turns. However, Paricia Springer fills in the spaces in between with relevant information and a few surprises here and there. I would recommend this book if you are passionate about true crime books and especially if you have never seen the TV show before.