Vanished

About this book

It is Easter weekend, 1999. A rookie uniformed cop responds to a call of "suspicious circumstances" in a working class neighbourhood inn Hamilton, Ontario. The cop meets a woman who is afraid to go near bags left for garbage outside the house of a man named Sam Pirrera. The cop confirms the woman's worst fears: the bags contain pieces of human tissue. The call for backup goes out and a homicide investigation begins. But who is the victim? Where is the rest of the body? The prime suspect is Pirrera, a steelworker whose inner demons and capacity for violence are inflamed by his addiction to crack cocaine. He cannot tolerate women leaving him, but several have tried to do so, including his first wife, his current estranged wife, and two women who have recently visited his house on dates. How far is he willing to go to stop them? Led by driven investigator Peter Abi-Rashed, who once chased teenage Sam Pirrera on the streets of Hamilton's east end, police ultimately learn the unspeakable truth, uncovering a case that shocks even veteran homicide and forensic investigators. Award-winning journalist and author Jon Wells takes readers into the heart of a real-life crime scene investigation and into the chaotic mind of a murderous control freak. Wells, Canada's top true mystery writer, crafts a novelistic story that is true in every detail, at once darkly disturbing and deeply moving.