James Renner is a journalist  and former reporter for the Cleveland Scene. I had heard of his work on the Maura Murray case (he wrote True Crime Addict: How I Lost Myself in the Mysterious Disappearance of Maura Murray,). His thorough research and investigation has resulted in a boatload of work on that puzzling mysterious disappearance, which is available at the Special Collections Archive in the Kent State University Library.

I’m a big true crime fan, and while I had heard of the murder of teenager Lisa Pruett in Shaker Heights, Ohio, in 1995. The community is tight-knit, and Lisa’s many friends take it upon themselves to solve the murder. They all seem to point their collective fingers at Kevin Young, who was widely viewed as being “weird” and was definitely a social outcast at the high school they all attended. Once they tell the police their ideas on what happened, the police fixate on Kevin and never really explore other options. 

When Lisa was murdered, she was sneaking out to be with her boyfriend, and her body was found about forty feet from his house. Kevin was arrested, charged, and tried –and  eventually acquitted, which really didn’t sit well with those who always thought Kevin did it–and that he got away with it. There were so many ways this reminded me of the murder of Hae Minh Lee and the conviction and incarceration of Adnan Syed for the crime. In both cases, there was absolutely no real evidence, and the police were given a name, then tried to make details fit a theory of the crime. Lazy, irresponsible policing, IMO.

Lisa’s murder remains unsolved, and I wonder whether the advances in DNA might lead to it being solved–but first the police would have to reopen the case. Seems unlikely, but so did Adnan’s case when it first happened. Well written, not great literature, but it is a VERY good example of a well done true crime presentation. Four stars.