Then No One Can Have Her
Highest Praise for Caitlin Rother and Her Nonfiction Thrillers
THEN NO ONE CAN HAVE HER
“I honestly could not stop reading Caitlin Rother’s new book, THEN NO ONE CAN HAVE HER. It is riveting, revealing, and insightful . . . . The way she unfolded the mystery of who did it was accomplished with perfect pacing. And her closing chapters, written in first person, made my eyes water. What a fabulous, fabulous book!”
—Suzy Spencer, New York Times bestselling author of Secret Sex Lives
“From the first page, Caitlin Rother makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck with this thorough, unforgettable account of greed, flawed love, and homicide. It’s all here: a true, modern murder mystery, told with a reporter’s perceptiveness and a storyteller’s sensibilities.”
—Ron Franscell, bestselling author of The Darkest Night and Delivered from Evil
“It’s exciting to see a reporter’s reporter like Caitlin Rother, churning out journalism built around sharp prose, while getting to the core of a compelling crime story. Her latest, Then No One Can Have Her, equals and maybe surpasses anything she’s done to date. It’s a dark, twisty, riveting true story that will leave readers’ jaws on their bellies while they burn through.”
—M. William Phelps, New York Times bestselling author and TV host
“Tightly written, meticulously researched, Rother has hammered out a riveting new true crime from a complicated and fascinating case.”
—Steve Jackson, New York Times bestselling author of Monster
“Prepare to be hooked by Rother’s absorbing narrative of greed, desperation, and twisty relationships in her latest spellbinder, Then No One Can Have Her. Between lies, financial shenanigans, shady legal maneuverings, and divided families, this tale sounds like fiction, but it’s all true. And very dark.”
—Katherine Ramsland, forensic psychologist and author
I’LL TAKE CARE OF YOU
“Rother has written another ‘ripped from the headlines’ page-turner. Journalistic and thorough, this title is sure to be popular. Purchase for public libraries with large true crime collections.”
—Library Journal
“Riveting . . . a story that will haunt you. . . . Rother presents a fascinating study of one woman’s evil and greed—that ultimately leads to the murder of a kind-hearted millionaire. The compassion the author shows for the victim and the victim’s family makes this book an emotional and gripping tale from beginning to end.”
—Aphrodite Jones, New York Times best-selling author of A Perfect Husband
“Once again Caitlin Rother gets to the heart of a very compelling story, with an eye for detail. A must-read for true crime fans.”
—Robert Scott, New York Times best-selling author of Shattered Innocence
“Caitlin Rother hooks you from the prologue on in I’ll Take Care of You. With the keen eye of a veteran journalist, Rother objectively details the murder and shocking investigation of Newport Beach, Calif., millionaire Bill McLaughlin—a crime that took nearly 20 years for police and prosecutors to convict his greedy, live-in lover, Nanette Johnston, and her former NFL-playing, ne’er-do-well boyfriend, Eric Naposki.”
—Suzy Spencer, New York Times best-selling author of Wasted and Secret Sex Lives
“I’ll Take Care of You is a chilling account of murder and its aftermath by an author at the top of her game. Caitlin Rother’s background as an investigative reporter, plus her skill as a storyteller, combine to create a book that is impossible to put down.”
—Fred Rosen, author of Lobster Boy
LOST GIRLS
“A close look at a killer . . . a deeply reported, dispassionately written attempt to determine what created a monster and predator . . . a cautionary tale and a horror story, done superbly by a writer who knows how to burrow into a complex case.”
—Los Angeles Times
“Well-written, thought-provoking . . . if ever a ‘true crime’ deserved a book-length study, this is certainly that crime.”
—The San Diego Union Tribune
“The disturbing story of John Gardner, who kidnapped, raped, and murdered two teenage girls in San Diego. . . . Rother addresses the complexity and difficulty of managing paroled sexual predators. This book will be popular with fans of Rother, Ann Rule, and other popular true crime writers.”
—Library Journal
“This thoroughly reported and well-written book draws a terrifying portrait of a man who was sweet and cuddly one day and a crazed killer the next.... I doubt that there will be a better book on this tragedy than Rother’s.”
—San Diego Reader
“The reader gets a nuanced look at Gardner, from rapist-killer to charmer with girlfriends aplenty. . . . Lost Girls attracts and repels simultaneously. It can leave the reader sick and seething and swept up. And sad.”
—North County Times
“Rother is one of the best storytellers going in the true crime genre today. Written with the verve, pacing, and characterizations of a detective novel, combined with her reporter’s eye for detail, Lost Girls should be on every true crime fan’s bookshelf.”
—Steve Jackson
“A gripping account of the chilling disappearances of two San Diego area schoolgirls, a compelling picture of the victims’ families’ heartbreak, a nuanced inside look at the two police investigations. A must-read.”
—Sue Russell
“Rother is at her best when she boldly dissects how a boy with psychological problems formed into a man indifferent to his monstrous acts toward two young girls.”
—Katherine Ramsland
“ A frank and riveting look at the life and mind of San Diego rapist and killer John Gardner.”
—Diane Fanning
DEAD RECKONING
“Well researched and a quick, engrossing read, this should be popular with true crime readers, especially the Ann Rule crowd.”
—Library Journal, Starred Review
“Rother’s investigative journalist’s tenacity and eye for detail and her knack for telling a good detective story that reads like a novel set this book above most in the genre. This was one of those true crime tales that gave me chills, and that’s not easy to do.”
—Steve Jackson
“With this headline-grabbing case of multiple murder, Rother skillfully tells a breathless tale of unthinkable events that no true crime fan should miss.”
—Katherine Ramsland
“Rother digs deep into the story of this horrible murder—unearthing never-before-told details of the crime, the investigation and the twisted mind of the man who set it all into motion.”
—Susan Leibowitz, producer of Dateline’s “The Last Voyage”
“Gripping . . . Rother gives readers compelling insight to an unthinkable American nightmare. The book is frank and frightening, and it sizzles.”
—Aphrodite Jones
“Impressively reported in a forthright narrative . . . a pitch-perfect study of avarice, compulsion and pure California illusion.”
—Ron Franscell
“We’ve finally found the next Ann Rule! Caitlin Rother writes with heart and suspense. Dead Reckoning is a chilling read by a writer at the top of her game.”
—Gregg Olsen
“Gripping, brutal, riveting—once again, Rother delivers a thrilling account of murder and mayhem.”
—M. William Phelps
“A true-crime triumph . . . . Rother solidifies her star status.”
—The San Diego Union-Tribune
“Rother is at her best.... This gruesome story is fast-paced and will grip any lover of the true crime genre.”
—North County Times
“Rother brings a journalist’s
careful attention to detail in this chilling look into the mind of a psychopath.”
—Coronado Life Magazine
“A mesmerizing story.”
—Orange Coast Magazine
POISONED LOVE
“A true-crime thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat.”
—Aphrodite Jones
“A gripping and chilling book. A tawdry and twisted story of sex and drugs, deception and murder. And here’s the scariest part—it’s all true.”
—Tom Murray, producer for Court TV ’s “Pretty Poison”
“Absorbing and impeccably researched . . . a classic California noir story of passion and betrayal and death, with a beautiful, scheming adulteress at the center of the web.”
—John Taylor
“With integrity, class and skill, Rother weaves this complex story seamlessly in the page-turning fashion of a suspenseful novel.”
—M. William Phelps
“Chilling . . . Rother paints a portrait of the culture that raised Kristin, hired her, was lured by her beauty, and now must share in the dire consequences.”
—Kevin Barry, producer for Oxygen Network’s The Kristin Rossum Story
“ A lively and immaculately researched book.”
—Carol Anne Davis
“A devastating portrait . . . an unwavering look at how one young woman fantasized herself into murder.”
—The San Diego Union-Tribune
“A page-turner.”
—San Diego Metropolitan
“A gripping account.”
—San Diego Magazine
“An absorbing page-turner, driven by well-drawn characters and a dynamic investigation.”
—Crimemagazine.com
“A concise and riveting account of one of the most challenging but fascinating investigations of my police career.”
—Laurie Agnew, San Diego Police Department homicide detective
“ A riveting and detailed view of a cold, calculated homicide romantically staged as a suicide. I couldn’t put it down.”
—Bob Petrachek, Regional Computer Forensic Laboratory examiner
BODY PARTS
“A must read . . . well-written, extremely intense; a book that I could not put down.”
—Kim Cantrell, True Crime Book Reviews
“Excellent, well researched, well written.”
—Don Bauder, San Diego Reader
“Page-turning excitement and blood curdling terror . . . riveting, fast-paced, and sure to keep you up at night.”
—M. William Phelps
“Rother paints every page with all the violent colors of a malignant sociopath’s fever. This kind of frightening and fascinating glimpse into a killer’s mind is rare.”
—Ron Franscell
“A superior study of the formation of a serial killer and his lost and lonely victims.”
—Carol Anne Davis
“Shocking, chilling, fast-paced . . . a book crime aficionados will be loath to put down.”
—Simon Read
Also by Caitlin Rother
*I’ll Take Care of You
Naked Addiction
*Lost Girls
*Poisoned Love
My Life, Deleted
(By Scott and Joan Bolzan and Caitlin Rother)
*Dead Reckoning
Where Hope Begins/Deadly Devotion
(By Alysia Sofios with Caitlin Rother)
*Body Parts
Twisted Triangle
(By Caitlin Rother with John Hess)
*Available from Kensington Publishing Corp.
and Pinnacle Books
THEN NO ONE CAN HAVE HER
CAITLIN ROTHER
PINNACLE BOOKS
Kensington Publishing Corp.
http://www.kensingtonbooks.com
All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.
Table of Contents
Highest Praise for Caitlin Rother and Her Nonfiction Thrillers
Also by Caitlin Rother
Title Page
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 32
CHAPTER 33
CHAPTER 34
CHAPTER 35
CHAPTER 36
CHAPTER 37
CHAPTER 38
CHAPTER 39
CHAPTER 40
CHAPTER 41
CHAPTER 42
CHAPTER 43
CHAPTER 44
CHAPTER 45
CHAPTER 46
CHAPTER 47
CHAPTER 48
AUTHOR’S NOTE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Copyright Page
CHAPTER 1
A thunderstorm hit the quiet town of Prescott that first Tuesday in July 2008, drenching the thirsty pines, manzanita and scrub oak in this rural enclave, nestled at the foot of Granite Mountain. Even at 5,400 feet, summertime is sweltering in Arizona, and monsoon season always provides a welcome reprieve.
But these particular showers brought an emotional cleansing as well, helping to wash away the tensions that had developed between Carol Kennedy and her daughter Charlotte during the divorce battle with the girl’s father, Steve DeMocker.
Sixteen-year-old Charlotte, who had always been more of a daddy’s girl than her older sister, Katie, accused her mother of unfairly prolonging the divorce by refusing to accept Steve’s settlement offers. Carol, who saw it as quite the other way around, got so upset during an argument that she jumped out of the car in the middle of an intersection and walked away.
At one point relations between mother and daughter grew so strained that Charlotte moved into Steve’s condo near the Hassayampa golf course. Still angry, though, Charlotte complained that if Carol continued to reject Steve’s offers, there would be no money left for her to study premed at her out-of-state dream college and become a neurosurgeon.
Not only is the paying of your bills hurting and restricting my immediate life, but now, my future and the quality of my education and degree is in jeopardy, Charlotte wrote her mother. It’s hard to realize that my Mom, someone who I unconditionally have loved all my life, may damage the rest of my life.
After Charlotte said she was unwilling to spend time with her mother until the divorce was resolved, Carol cried to her friends that Steve had turned their daughter against her.
But since the divorce had been finalized in late May, a new and more comfortable family dynamic had begun to emerge. Carol and Charlotte were making amends, and things also seemed better—and calmer—between Carol and Steve as well.
As a result, they were all able to gather at the Phoenix airport in late June, just days before the storm, to give Katie an intimate send-off to a study-abroad program in South Africa. Making an emotional scene near the security gate, they told each other tearfully that they still appreciated one another, even if they weren’t the family they once were.
“There was nothing but expressions of love and gratitude and happiness,” Katie recalled later. “We spent about twenty minutes, all talking about that, and crying and giving big group family hugs.”
As Katie walked toward the gate, she turned to see Steve, with his arms around Carol and Charlotte, all of them waving good-bye.
A few nights
later, on Wednesday, July 2, the recent rainstorm gave Carol and Charlotte a chance to bond even further by talking about such mundane topics as the weather.
Howd ya like that boomin storm yesterday? Carol texted Charlotte that evening at seven-fourteen.
It was “awesome,” Charlotte responded, saying she loved the showers so much she only wished there had been more of them.
Carol texted back in capital letters that she LOVED her daughter, to which Charlotte responded at 7:39 P.M. with the same high emotion.