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Back The Sorority Murder
Chapters (61)
  1. Cover
  2. Praise
  3. Dedication
  4. One
  5. Two
  6. Three
  7. Four
  8. Five
  9. From the Missing Journal of Candace Swain
  10. Six
  11. Seven
  12. Eight
  13. Nine
  14. Ten
  15. Eleven
  16. Twelve
  17. From the Missing Journal of Candace Swain
  18. Thirteen
  19. Fourteen
  20. Fifteen
  21. From the Missing Journal of Candace Swain
  22. Sixteen
  23. Seventeen
  24. Eighteen
  25. Nineteen
  26. Twenty
  27. Twenty-One
  28. From the Missing Journal of Candace Swain
  29. Twenty-Two
  30. Twenty-Three
  31. Twenty-Four
  32. Twenty-Five
  33. Twenty-Six
  34. Twenty-Seven
  35. Twenty-Eight
  36. Twenty-Nine
  37. Thirty
  38. Thirty-One
  39. Thirty-Two
  40. Thirty-Three
  41. Thirty-Four
  42. From the Missing Journal of Candace Swain
  43. Thirty-Five
  44. Thirty-Six
  45. Thirty-Seven
  46. Thirty-Eight
  47. From the Journal of Candace Swain
  48. Thirty-Nine
  49. Forty
  50. Forty-One
  51. Forty-Two
  52. Forty-Three
  53. Forty-Four
  54. Forty-Five
  55. Forty-Six
  56. Forty-Seven
  57. Letter Found in the Journal of Candace Swain
  58. Forty-Eight
  59. Acknowledgments
  60. Booklist
  61. Excerpt

“But no one is going to get in trouble because they might not have known they had information. If you’re a clerk in a store, and the police come in and ask if you saw someone, show you a picture, and you hadn’t see them, you’re not going to get in trouble even if they were there. Maybe they were hiding their face. Maybe they didn’t stand out in a long line of customers. But if you saw them and lied, and the police found out that you lied, they’re going to want to know why. Were you paid to lie? Did you lie because you didn’t like the cop asking the questions? Did you have something to do with her disappearance? But if the victim had been there but you were never questioned by the police, you might not even know you had information they needed.

“This is a roundabout way of saying that the evidence is only as good as the questions the police ask—and who they ask. I would suggest your listeners look at their calendars, schedules, social-media posts from the week of April 12 three years ago. It’s easy to check your memories, see what you posted, who you were with. What were you doing? Do you recall seeing Candace? If so, when and where? In the age of social media where people document their lives online, it’s likely someone saw Candace and just didn’t think anything of it.”

Lucas asked, “In your experience, knowing what you know about this case—that Candace didn’t go to classes, that no one in the sorority saw her, that she left her phone and her car behind—would she be able to avoid detection?”

“In the short term? Yes. Is eight days short-term? I would say probably yes. In the case of a private citizen, not wanted by law enforcement, it’s easier to disappear for a few days. Human beings are complex, but they are also predictable. Most people can’t go completely off the grid for longer than a week. People need people. They also need shelter, food. It’s possible to disappear, but it’s rare for both psychological and practical reasons.”

Lucas said, “Two people have come forward to say that they saw Candace after she left the party. Two people who were not interviewed by the police, so the police were unable to fully trace her steps and—maybe—find out what happened to her.”

Regan replied, “People lie to the police all the time for a variety of reasons. Sometimes lack of trust in authorities, sometimes because they’re hiding something. But unless someone lied to police, if they know something, they should come forward now with confidence that they won’t get in trouble. Someone killed Candace Swain. Her family deserves to know what happened.”

“Someone killed Candace,” Lucas repeated. “And someone also moved her body.”