Deadly Vows
Page 27
My writing this book was difficult for my wife, April, on multiple levels. Our baby turned a year old shortly after it was finished, and while I was writing it, he consumed every minute of her time while I was too busy to hold him and play with him. When we were able to get time together, this book, the case and Sean were all I could talk about, and she listened as I went over the details ad nauseum. I was absent from our marriage during that time, consumed instead with this—a subject that should have long before dissipated into the haze of my past. Then she celebrated with me the excitement and fears of the publishing process as the book again consumed our lives, becoming this new thing that demanded more and more of our time. And during the editing and rewrite process, she toughed it out again, sacrificing her personal time, her peace and relaxation, so I could babysit the monster this book had become.
Surely she had to be sick of hearing about the book and the case, but she carried on, encouraging and supporting me when a lesser woman would have hit me on the head and walked out.
April, I love you, and I owe you several months of “you” time and more of “us” time—a debt I look forward to paying.
My in-laws, Randy and Janice Woods, also gave me a lot of encouragement while reading the manuscript on a road trip, asking questions and giving suggestions that ended up helping me clarify parts of the book that had been difficult.
Special thanks also go out to Trevor Whitken, who went above and beyond the call of friendship in digging for materials I couldn’t get to because I couldn’t be where they were.
Dr. Laura Fulginiti at the Maricopa County, Arizona, Medical Examiner’s Office was especially helpful in the creation of this book, taking a lot of time out of her incredibly busy schedule to explain small details and recount a story that had been by that time almost a decade old. I view her and Detective Bob Powers as the heroes of this story. Without their dedication and relentless efforts to figure out Joy’s identity, Sean would likely have gotten away with murder.
Tara Walzel also went out of her way to unearth old photographs of Sean and Joy and to refresh my memory on incidents that I had long forgotten from when we both worked at Morris Cerullo’s ministry. And I can’t mention Tara without mentioning Ruth Kinser, without whom I wouldn’t have been able to get in contact with so many of the people I eventually ended up talking to.
Rino Ortega deserves thanks for helping a stranger create a full and engaging memory of Joy.
The staff at the Carnegie Library in Wagoner, Oklahoma, exceeded my expectations to help me uncover information about Sean from before I knew him, when he was in high school.
My literary agent, Sharlene Martin, helped me wend the confusing and frustrating road of book publishing, and without her, you wouldn’t be reading this right now.
Dr. Joan Dunphy and Caroline Russomanno at New Horizon Press also did amazing work in cleaning up the manuscript and making it more palatable.
Morris Cerullo communicated with me about a subject it would have been far more comfortable for him to stay silent about, and I thank him for it.
When he and I were young, Sean and his family helped me out more times than I can count when I was in need and no one else was stepping up—including my own relatives. I hate how our friendship ended up and I hate how Sean’s life has ended up, snuffing out so much promise because of a cruel, selfish act that hurt so many people.
Lastly, I’d like to thank Joy for the light she brought into the lives of everyone around her. I hope that one day her children will be able to have a full picture of how truly special she was and how much she loved them. Her only mistake was falling for the manipulations of a much older, attractive yet scheming man.
Even in the midst of such great negatives, positives can develop, and her two wonderful sons are just that.