As a true crime fan I was keen to read this book Shes so cold and having never heard of the case before went in with an open mind.
What I read made me angry and upset what these boys endured beggars belief. The childs rights were violated and they were coerced by the police to admit to a crime they did not commit.
Bearing in mind one of the boys was the brother of the murder victim I couldnt believe the treatment he got from law enforcement.
The book explains every detail from beginning to end and the author was involved in the case so knows what hes writing about. Well written and the legal side explained in great detail.
I hope the boys and their families manage to find peace and trust when this was stripped away from them. And whilst the book deals with the aftermath of the murder, we should not forget the young girl that died x

She’s so Cold by Donald E. McInnis is nonfiction work about one of the more famous murder cases in San Diego County. The murder of 12-year-old Stephanie Crowe occurred in January 1998, in Escondido, California. Initially, the police focused on the murder having been committed by Michael, Stephanie’s 14-year-old brother, along with two of Michael’s friends, Joshua Treadway and Aaron Houser. Mr. McInnis was the defense lawyer for Aaron.

In one sense, this was a terrible book. For the sake of accuracy, the author relied on court transcripts and other recorded materials to present his facts. Personally, I find the reading of court transcripts and depositions to be incredibly tedious. I’ve provided expert opinions in nearly 2,000 cases (nearly all of it having been outside the criminal arena) and I’ve been deposed approximately 500 times. Proofreading my own depositions has got to be the worst and most boring part of this. But, that’s beside the point. It was just hard to read through all of the transcripts.

This Crowe murder case was a mess from the outset. The author clearly proves that the Escondido Police Department mistreated the boys in the course of extracting two probably false confessions from them. “Mistreatment” is probably an understatement regarding the way the boys were treated. I don’t disagree with the author that the police interrogation techniques were the equivalent of “psychological torture.” The boys were kept from their parents, not Mirandized until much later, and they were denied food, water, and sleep until their initial interrogations were completed. It is outrageous that such behavior still occurs in our legal system. Not only were the boys eventually exonerated, but also the City of Escondido had to pay out $11,250,000 for the violation of the boys’ civil rights. McInnis makes their mistreatment very clear. It was 14 years after Stephanie’s death in 2012 that the San Diego Superior Court ruled that the three boys were factually innocent of the charges against them.

Subsequently to the boys’ trials, 28-year-old Richard Tuite, a transient who may have been schizophrenic, was arrested and convicted of voluntary manslaughter. McInnis presented the evidence against Tuite. That three-month Tuite trial took place in 2004, so the Crowe case once again dominated the local news. However, in 2011, the 9th Circuit Court opined that Tuite was entitled to a new trial, and on 12/6/13, Mr. Tuite was found not guilty of the murder of Stephanie Crowe. Then 44 years old, after spending about 15 years in custody, Mr. Tuite was allowed to freely walk away from prison. So the Crowe case was never solved.

As a further connection to the ongoing importance of this case, when the current County DA Bonnie Dumanis resigned from her post in 2017, the appointed interim DA was Summer Stephan who had lost the Crowe trial against the boys. Ms. Summer was then elected to a four-year term as the San Diego County DA. So, in real life, all court matters are not as neat and tidy as what we see in the mystery books we often read.

Stephanie Crowe is 12 years old when she is found murdered in her bedroom by her grandmother. Her brother, Michael and two of his friends, Aaron and Joshua are arrested.
As juveniles these three boys lost all their rights. They were lied to, kept from going to the bathroom, not provided food or water for long hours of time. Questioned until they were falling asleep on the floor. Not allowed to speak to their parents and forced to finally confess. They were arrested. The two confessions were coerced, psychologically coerced. They were retained until they gave up hope of being believed of their innocence and finally said what the police wanted them to say. In some cases they weren't even mirandized. The real killer was finally caught. He had the victims blood on his clothes. This after months of the boys being incarcerated.
This is a true story. It is compelling and truly heartbreaking.

Thank you Netgalley for a free copy of the e-book in exchange for an honest review!
This book is exhaustive, and at times repetitive, in detail. But I think that heavy attention to detail is necessary for such a book. Though I think it's clear that the author isn't a born writer, he does do a great job at telling this story, and educating people in the process.
This is a very tragic story. I can only hope that, now 21 years on, these boys, and especially the family of Stephanie Crowe, have found some peace.

Such a sad story. The details about this case was amazing. So many people have suffered such a tremendous lost.

My true crime interest in general and the fact that I have family members living in north San Diego County pretty much guaranteed that I REALLY wanted to read She’s So Cold by Donald McInnis, and thanks to J&E Publications and NetGalley, I received a copy in exchange for this honest review.

Back in 1998, a 12-year-old girl named Stephanie Crowe was found murdered in her bedroom in Escondido, CA in the middle of the night. There was no sign of forced entry, no clues to who committed the murder. The police focused right away on Michael Crowe, Stephanie’s 14-year old brother, who, along with two of his friends, was arrested for the murder.

Similar to the story told in the Serial podcast of the way the Baltimore police identified Adnan Syed as their suspect in the slaying of Hae Min Lee and then molded the “evidence” to fit their theory, the Escondido police really didn’t look at anyone beyond these boys, and basically browbeat them in lengthy interrogation sessions (without either a parent or attorney present) into confessing to the crime.

McInnis has a unique perspective, as he was the criminal defense attorney for one of the boys, and he does a terrific job presenting the story of the crime, arrests, and trial. If that isn’t enough, the boys are exonerated and a schizophrenic transient seems to be the likely suspect, but…since I NEVER include spoilers, I will leave it at that. But the fallout from the crime extends all the way to the 2018 election in San Diego County, and the reader’s level of disgust for the system will likely rise constantly reading about the various legal maneuvering that took place over the course of 20 years.

This is a fascinating look at a broken “justice” system, interrogation techniques, false confessions, and the rights of the accused in general and children in particular. Four stars.

I remember this case so clearly when it happened. It was shocking and disturbing as the facts came out and San Diegans were led to believe three teenage boys were responsible for the brutal murder of one of the boy's sister. This book is not about the case and the victim, however. It is actually about the justice system and its treatment of children involved with the case. It is about the tactics of the detectives and police department who abused the rights and used psychological warfare to close a case.
The first half of the book was repetitive, but it showed how the police wore down the boys until there was nothing left of them. It was painful to read as a parent. Fortunately, through hard work of the attorneys and some luck the truth came out. But at what cost? Some things can never be erased or repaired.

The author did a brilliant job capturing how everyone involved in this crime had their life impacted. The 3 young men that were forced into confessing by questionable police tactics, the victim's family, and others. This was truly eye-opening as to how stubborn some police are and the lengths they will go to if they believe someone is guilty of a crime.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to review this book.

I had not heard of this case, as I was in high school when it happened. It was interesting reading about the case from the point of view of the lawyer of one of the defendants. I found myself horrified by the treatment of the boys in this case, as they were the same age I was in 1998.

It's hard to rate a true crime book the same way that I would rate a novel, but I will say I enjoyed this book. The flow and ease of reading was there, and even though the subject matter was very serious, I found the book very readable. The text evoked an emotional reaction as well, as I wanted better treatment for the young men in this case.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this book for me to read in exchange for an honest review.
This true crime book is unlike many I have read before. The police procedural aspect and the "interrogations" to obtain the "confessions" was quite frightening. It was a bit tedious to get through but interesting anyway. Part 3 of this book was easier to get through. Overall, it was an interesting book.

“She's So Cold” is a true crime book of the Crowe Murder Case. A murder of a 12 year old girl, killed in her own bedroom in the dead of night, supposedly by her 14 year old brother and two of his friends. The boys confession under police interrogation is now regarded as a classic example of a false confession. What makes this book so intriguing is that the author was the Criminal Defence Attorney for one of the accused boys, which already puts this book on a good grounding for insight, research and access to police files etc. Due to the authors line of work he knows that false confessions are common which is why he has an appendix proposing a new Children's Miranda Rights Warning and Bill of Rights for Children to safe guard them when being questioned as a suspect.

The author warns you at the beginning of the book that you will feel as exhausted as the boys, when presented with how they where questioned; and this is a warning to heed. During these periods even I didn't know what I knew.

An exceptional gem of a book!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced electronic copy in return for an honest review.

Thanks to Netgalley, the author and publisher for an ARC of this book. I could not put it down! At times I felt sick to my stomach thinking about all this family had to go through and I found it challenging to read, however, the author had me hooked on all the details of the case and I read page after page anxious to discover how it was resolved. If you like reading True Crime or are interested in the way the police and judicial system works, I would highly recommend this one!

This is a book on a fascinating subject that comes up from time to time, about false confessions being pressured from people by police. They are especially found in cases where there is a lot of pressure to solve a case in the community, or often when there are suspects that are juveniles or those who are mentally challenged. This story revolves around the murder of 12-year-old Stephanie Crowe, who is found on a winter morning in January, 1998 on her bedroom floor, having been stabbed and left to die. It’s such a sad case which is compounded when the police use lies and psychological trickery to get three 14-year-old boys to confess to the murder, including her own brother, Michael.

The author was a defense attorney for one of the boys, Aaron Hauser, in the Stephanie Crowe murder trial. McInnis got a first hand look at the problems inherent with young defendants being interrogated by police without a parent or legal representative when there is an admission of guilt, or a confession of any kind that they may have been pressured into by psychologicai means. These false confessions are far from rare. Which is partly why McInnis got involved, and proposed a new Children’s Miranda Rights Warning and a Bill of Rights for Children who are being questioned as suspects. The proposals need to be adopted to prevent future false confessions from children.
This was an enlightening book that would be good for true crime readers, and those interested in police procedure and the law. Advance electronic review copy was provided by NetGalley, author Donald E McInnis, and the publisher.

I had such a hard time with this, to be completely honest I couldn’t even finish it. The injustice of Aaron, Josh and Michael are what made me want to read this book but my goodness I found it impossible. All the interviews (over 60% of the book) I just found repetitive and tedious. I ended up giving up at about 70% of the book because I just couldn’t do it.

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers of She’s So Cold for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I am half way through this book and I am sorry to say that I had to skim the rest because of all the repetitive dialogue of the police investigation. With that said I think it is horrible how the police coerced these boys into a false confession which makes it harder to read. The last 1/4 of the book was pretty good but it goes to show how some police will blame anyone to get a case solved. Very sad. Not sure if I would recommend this book. Thank you netgalley for letting me give an honest review of this book.

Eh... I didn't really enjoy this one. I got kind of bored because it just. kept. dragging. on forever.





I received an arc of this book from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book is a disturbing examination of the murder of Stephanie Crowe in California in 1998. As disturbing as the senseless murder of a 12 year old girl is the railroading of her brother Michael and two of his friends for the murder. Investigators used deception and questionable techniques in interviewing the 16 year olds, and had their minds made up that these boys had committed the crime.
Fascinating read.

Truly sickening how these boys and families ruined. Great book. Lots of information. Something to learn here.....


Thanks to author,publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book. While I got the book for free,it had no bearing on the rating I gave it.

She’s So Cold by author Donald E McInnis is a creepy, true crime novel and definitely worth the read! I would absolutely recommend this book!
Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.