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Back The Sorority Murder Save as PDF
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

Lucas had loosely scripted out each of the eight episodes, but only the first four were in detail because the others he had planned to develop further after he gathered more information—from callers that hadn’t yet manifested themselves. Someone knew where Candace was that first week she was missing, he was positive. And he’d hoped that once he got that break, other clues and episodes would fall into place. If no one called in to crowdsource good information or viable clues, he could still run with some prerecorded interviews, but they’d be half as interesting.

His first episode was basic: Who was Candace Swain, and why should listeners care about her murder? He documented Candace’s childhood, her time on campus, even scored an interview with her younger sister, Chrissy, a senior at the University of South Carolina. He also had a clip from the director of Sunrise Center, where Candace had volunteered weekly for three years: it underscored her commitment to helping others. He had other interviews recorded to interject throughout the eight episodes. The only person who refused to talk to him was Steven Young, the Flagstaff detective in charge of the original investigation three years ago. Lucas only had a letter from the public information officer that gave the status of the investigation—open, inactive. At least the campus-police community relations officer had talked to Lucas and given him a lot of great background information on how Candace’s missing-person case had been handled. But ultimately, once the campus cops turned the case over to Flagstaff PD, they were no longer involved and thus could provide nothing new to Lucas’s podcast.

At the end of the first episode, Lucas revealed that Candace Swain had disappeared after a Sigma Rho party she’d helped organize, and wasn’t seen again until her body was found the following weekend in the lake on the Hope Centennial Golf Course.

The second episode focused on the basics of the missing-person investigation. Lucas revealed that Candace was thought to have been alive during most of the time she was missing. Per the autopsy, she was killed a week after her disappearance. He’d made a request on air during the last episode that if anyone could remember having seen Candace between the party and the time when her body was found, to call that detail in. With that critical new intel, he might be able to further piece together those missing days and solve her murder.

But only two callers had responded, and they hadn’t given their names. While they sounded authentic, he wondered if someone was playing a game with him and making things up. He couldn’t tell for sure, and that bothered him.