Buried Truth

In this first installment of the Buried Truth true crime trilogy, author Bonnie J. Thompson takes the reader back to 1976 when she was a 19-year-old deputy circuit clerk in the Logan County Courthouse. That year a series of murders unfolded in her hometown of Lincoln, Illinois, and she became a witness to suspicious events and circumstances relating to the Schneider triple homicide, a Manson copycat crime. Only one 21-year-old man was charged and convicted of the slayings. Two other men Thompson suspected as accomplices were never implicated and went on to become attorneys. Years later, in 2001, Thompson's father dies a disturbing death, which takes her back to Lincoln. Following her father's memorial, she approaches Logan County State's Attorney Tim Huyett and tells him of her longtime suspicions regarding the triple homicide. She is granted access to the old murder case files and begins her own investigation into not only the Schneider murders but also the murders of Michael Mansfield, Ruth Martin, and Jay and Robin Fry. Read more of Thompson's unabridged trilogy as her story continues in Part Two: Preponderance of Evidence and Part Three: Plea for Justice.