This book by authors Steve Jackson and Tom McCallum is the first part in the story of the mysterious death of Rhonda Casto in a fall from a 300-foot cliff in March 2009 in the woods of Oregon. The only person who was a witness to this event was her boyfriend, Stephen Nichols who also happened to be the benefactor of a very large insurance policy he’d recently taken out on her, and the father of her 9-month-old daughter Annie. He said she’d acted high and slipped and fell, that he’d found a way down, then after trying to swim upstream to get closer, he ended up going along the shore to get to her. He also claimed to have taken a 45-minute nap on top of her because of being so cold. He then said he’d given up after having attempted CPR on Casto then being overtaken by shivering and returning to his car to call for help.

Later, when the 2 SAR workers (search and rescue) arrived, the only route to get to Rhonda entailed going through mud that looked untouched and then over blackberry brambles. When they reached her body, the scene around her looked undisturbed, as did her position upon landing, which was in a fetal position on her side with her knees drawn tightly up to her chest. What blood there was had run directly down, indicating she hadn’t been moved. Because of all this, and comparing the scene to Nichols’ story, they found it hard to believe that he’d gotten to her at all, let alone tried to attend to her injuries or try to save her. No way could they imagine him taking a nap on top of her in her current position, or doing so and then putting her back into it. They took pictures and since it was becoming night, they decided they would return in the morning with a full team and equipment to bring her out since she was beyond help.

When the sheriff’s department notified Rhonda Casto’s family of her death, the family had already been trying to reach Mr. Nichols by phone and getting no answer for hours, had filed a missing person’s report. They let the sheriff’s department know that they suspected Mr. Nichols of being involved and that the hike had been planned for weeks. Also that he had recently taken out a very large life insurance policy on Ms. Casto. She had told someone that if she didn’t return that Mr. Nichols had killed her. This put a whole new light on things. The investigation gets a bit bogged down at that point, and the family wants to know what really happened on that cliff. Because it’s also looking like he’s got a thing for underage girls, and he’s lawyered up. Looking forward to Part Two. My thanks for the advance electronic copy that was provided by #netgalley, authors Steve Jackson & Tom McCallum, and the publisher for my fair review.

WildBlue Press
Pub: Sept. 13th, 2018