IMPORTANT CHANGE

As of today, all of my blogs including the Stacey Burns murder case, updates on re-release of my novels, work on current projects, writing tips, and any other information will be available on my updated website whichis still www.dukesouthard.com.
Please visit that site to see a fully interactive website.
You will be able to comment on any post I place on that website.
Thanks for following this blog but you'll enjoy the new one much more!
duker

Still for sale?

I've been told that people back in New Hampshire are reading this blog. For that reason, I've waited for ten days for a response to my "Manuscript for Sale" blog, hoping that someone, other than Jim Vittum, would answer the call. (See previous blog for my request) No one has.
For over two and a half years, my writing energies have gone toward Murder in a Small Town: The Tragic Death of Stacey Burns. This is just a guess but maybe I've spent more time working on this project in recent months than the authorities have spent trying to solve the murder. Of course, I hope with all my heart that this guess is completely wrong but I'd be willing to match hours out of curiosity. I know, I know, they have other cases to work on too!
The sad truth is that without anyone else stepping up to either supply new information to me or to simply tell me that it is all right to use the information they've already supplied, I am stymied.
Within the next three or four months, my first novel (A Favor Returned)  will be re-released in paperback and as an e-book so my writing efforts are going to be focused on the revision of that book. (which, by the way, is undergoing a complete rewrite)
I still make the offer to anyone reading this: If you have any new information about the Stacey Burns murder, I would love to include it and I'd be happy to return to work on that book if anyone supplies me with the incentive of fresh ideas.
Watch for an announcement coming soon about my new website where you will be able to go for all kinds of information, from the Stacey Burns book to writing tips and anecdotes to news about programs and presentations.
Just wondering about one other thing regarding the Stacey Burns case- have any reporters been able to obtain any informative police reports concerning that day? Has an autopsy report been released? Is all of that type of information still hidden behind the "ongoing investigation" curtain?
duker
 

Manuscript for sale (Murder in a Small Town . . .)

The title of this blog is misleading, I admit. Please follow the logic below and perhaps it will make sense.
Murder in a Small Town: The Tragic Death of Stacey Burns is going nowhere unless I self-publish it (which is not a moral nor financial option for me) or there is an arrest of the killer of Stacey. Right now, it is a manuscript that could be subtitled The Jim Vittum Story because the most extensive interviews I've conducted have been with him.
I know his story well and unless I hear from someone who can contradict what he has told me, it makes sense. I know there are people out there who have said "Don't believe anything Jim Vittum has told you" which is fine if I have other people revealing specific information on the other side. Ample opportunities have been given to others to respond to my requests to tell their side of the story. Here is where the sale comes in.
Currently, the manuscript is approximately 140 pages in length and is as well-balanced as I can make it without the "others" mentioned above giving me something to write about. I estimate that a final version should be well over 250 pages if the "others" choose to tell me their side.
So, yes, the manuscript is for sale, not literally but figuratively. I will sell as much space in this manuscripts as it takes to tell the many sides of the story. I can't do that without information from the Burns family, the Keane family, the local and state authorities, or the many "others" who know details of what happened during the last few months of Stacey's life.
Any takers for the offer to buy the remaining part of the manuscript? Just get in touch with me with your new information!
In the meantime, I am working on a re-release of a completely revised edition of my first novel, A Favor Returned which should be released sometime this spring as a paperback and an e-book. Watch for it!
duker

Cash for info (2)

In the two days since the blog which contained the word "cash" in the title, there has been a significant spike in the page views for duker's blog.
Perhaps the title of that blog (and this one) piqued some interest or, at the least, some curiosity. Just so there is no misunderstanding, I do not know of any cache of funds earmarked for the search of information in the Stacey Burns murder. However, the whole concept of rewards in solving crimes is not a new one, by any stretch, so why not just speculate on what might happen if someone does have some solid (and new) information which they are only willing to share for a price?  
Since October, 2010 when I began work on Murder in a Small Town: The Tragic Death of Stacey Burns in earnest, I've had the sense that there is more to this story than appears on the surface. That sense remains and is stronger today than it was two and half years ago. If "cash for info" is what it would take to remove a killer from the streets, then probably someone should make that happen. For my part, I naively believe that "justice for info" should be enough to move anyone who knows something to bring it forward and, of course, we know that at least one person knows something- the murderer of Stacey Burns.
duker

Cash for info?

The thought occurs to me that perhaps some people who have chosen not to either talk to me or to allow me to share their information concerning the book about the Stacey Burns murder might be willing to do so if offered cash. Several blogs ago, I mentioned that I would love to be able to ask just two questions of certain people. I wonder if there is dollar amount that would convince these folks to answer those questions? My guess would be that most still would not want to answer the questions regardless of the "stipend" offered but it is an interesting thing to ponder. Obviously my budget for this project is long gone, as if there ever was one anyway. However, it would be an intriguing exercise to see if spreading cash around in the search for information would do any good.
My sincere hope would be that the search for the truth would not be dependent on the trading of information for money but who knows?
Just wondering . . .
duker

Watching and Waiting

This blog will be brief but it concerns a critical area in the investigation into the murder of Stacey Burns. (Less than four months to the 4th Anniversary)
I wonder why this case has seemingly lost its momentum. Is it because the police have decided that they want to wait until the murderer makes a mistake? Is it because no new information has come forth? Is it because some people just want it to go away? Is it because a trial could be an embarrassment for someone (beside the killer)? Is it because those who know something are afraid to come forward? Is it because any pressure on the police to solve this crime has evolved into a once a year event?
Please add your own questions to these, at least in your mind. I believe there is truth in every one of them.
It just seems to me that if someone cares, than that someone acts or at least takes the initiative in trying to force something to happen. The fear factor should not be a part of the equation. Unfortunately, it appears that in this case, for whatever reason, it is part of the equation.
duker

 

Change in focus

Since last June, my blogs have been focused on the murder of Stacey Burns and my work on Murder in a Small Town: The Tragic Death of Stacey Burns. Approximately seventy blogs later, I wonder if these pieces have had any effect. In the near future, this blog will hopefully be reaching a wider audience as a completely rewritten version of my first novel, A Favor Returned, is released as an e-book and as a paperback. As that event approaches, the blog will have a change of focus. It will still be addressing my true crime book but will be expanding into other areas as well. Perhaps with a wider audience, the blog will have the effect I intended in the first place. That effect was (and is) to help keep the cold-blooded killing of Stacey Burns from falling through the cracks of indifference. I am not at all sure that all the blogs I've written have come anywhere close to doing that.
I'm sure that as the FOURTH ANNIVERSARY of her murder rolls around in a few months, there will be a flurry of newspaper articles and memorial events with a great deal of attention paid. I thought that just maybe these blogs would fill in the gap between anniversaries of her death, keeping her memory in the forefront. Sad to say and hard to admit but I guess just maybe I was mistaken.
duker

And still a killer walks free

I never met Stacey Burns yet over the last thirty months or so since I've worked on a book about her death, I feel I've come to know why she was so loved by so many. My extensive research coupled with interviews with friends, colleagues and acquaintances (unfortunately not her family) have, quite frankly, made me increasingly angry that her killer is still living his or her life in freedom.
     Recently, I was rereading an Ann Rule book of true crime cases (A Rage to Kill) and ran across the phrase, "Closed-Exceptional," in her foreword. It is a phrase I did not recall but she says it designates a case in which "the guilty person is known by detectives but, due to lack of physical evidence, has never been arrested." Obviously, with her outstanding record of excellent writing about true crime, Ann Rule would be aware of such terminology. I have been told (and I've mentioned it in other blogs) that the police know who killed Stacey Burns. One person in authority went so far as to say that he thought there would be an 85% chance of conviction with the evidence they had, which apparently is not enough to risk letting a guilty person walk free. Why bring this up? Here are just a few reasons.
     1. If Stacey Burns murder is in a category such as Closed-Exceptional or whatever else it may be
         called, then it has been solved but the killer will continue to walk around free. For how long?
         Infuriating!
     2. If the killer continues to walk around free, then assurances from the police that the public is not in
         danger are ludicrous. Any person, male or female, who could take another's life in a manner such
         as happened to Stacey Burns has to be extremely unstable. Don't tell us this is a one time event!
         What if the circumstances that set this homicidal sociopath off are duplicated in his or her life?
         Murder was a solution once; why not again? No matter what a profiler might say, it is illogical
         and probably even dangerous to assume that Stacey Burns' killer is not a potential threat to others.
     3. If this case is indeed "solved" but not coming to a conclusion, would the public be better served
         to know which of the potential persons of interest (suspects) are actually free from suspicion?
As I said at the beginning, I did not know Stacey Burns but I know that it is a sad, frustrating and even frightening prospect that her killer remains out there.
duker
    

A Public Reading

Apologies are hollow when they are for the same mistake but I'll make yet another anyway. It's been about two weeks between blogs and that is inexcusable on my part. So there you have it- another apology for not blogging in a timely fashion. I been told by one who knows that I need to write something on a blog every day so I will try desperately to do better in 2013. Enough of that!
There are some developments of which you should be aware. First, this blog will be branching out in subject matter as this year progresses. Murder in a Small Town . . . will remain the most substantial focus but  a few other items will begin to make an appearance.
First, you will be interested to know that I will be reading an excerpt from the Stacey Burns book at the 6th Annual Authors' Showcase in Green Valley, Arizona, joining eight other invitees at the event which takes place on January 12, 2013. I've not decided yet on the excerpt I will read but whatever I choose, it will be the first public exposure of that part of the book. Stay tuned to see how it is received.
Second, my two novels, A Favor Returned and Agent for Justice are undergoing revision in preparation for rerelease in e-book and publish on demand format. Both of those books were originally published in hard cover but are now out of print although copies are still available. The plan is to do an extensive rewrite of A Favor Returned, retaining the full impact of the story while tightening the flow. It was, after all, a first novel with some of the weaknesses that occasionally accompany first attempts. It will be worth rereading if you have already read it and if you haven't, well . . .please do when it is released.
Third, here is a request which I've made in the past but it is worth asking once more. At this time, Murder in a Small Town; The Tragic Death of Stacey Burns is sorely lacking some details which Stacey's family could supply to help me to make the story a fair and reasonable portrayal of a wonderful person. I know they are not in favor of this book but I still contend that just maybe I could help to somehow not let her memory drift away into a cold case file drawer. In my opinion, should that happen, it would be yet another crime against Stacey Burns.
Happy New Year!
duker