UPDATES:

Almost all of the killers I write about are still alive. Their stories continue. While the victims are gone, people who loved them, who were irrevocably tied to them survive. I keep in touch with everyone I've written about. No, let me rephrase that. I keep track of the murderers, and I keep in touch with detectives, prosecutors, families and friends of victims. After twenty-eight books--some that have many cases in them--there are constant changes and often startling updates. I guess we're all curious about what has happened since. For those of you who have just read my books, the characters are fresh in your minds, while others have wondered about certain cases for years. Are the convicted murderers are still in prison? Usually. I'll try to bring you up to date. I've had a thousand letters and emails from women who believe they narrowly escaped from a few of the men I've written about, usually Ted Bundy or Gary Ridgway. I believe many of you did, indeed, save your own lives by your quick thinking. You wisely trusted your gut instincts. Maybe there will be some information in the updates that will help you pinpoint dates. I'll keep adding new information about that in these website pages too.

The Stranger Beside Me: Ted Bundy was executed at Raiford Prison in Starke, Florida on January 24, 1989. His wife, Carole Ann Boone, divorced him three years earlier. The child they had together, allegedly conceived in the Visiting Area of Death Row, is about 23 now. I have deliberately avoided knowing anything about Ted's ex-wife and daughter's whereabouts because they deserve privacy. I don't want to know where they are; I never want to be caught off guard by some reporter's question about them. All I know is that Ted's daughter has grown up to be a fine young woman. Today, a whole new generation of women have read about the infamous Ted Bundy and want to know more about him. I put everything I ever found out about him in the updated version of The Stranger Beside Me, published in 2000 on the 20th Anniversary of the first publication. You can track his travels there.

Possession: As I said above, this book is my only fictional book, but based on fact. The real woman who was kidnapped at 16 by the man who shot her bridegroom is now middle-aged. She lives far away from Oregon. Her kidnapper, Thomas Brown, now 60, is still in prison in Oregon. Whenever he comes up for parole, former Assistant Attorney General Bob Hamilton appears to argue against his release--so that Robin Marcus* doesn't have to look in Brown's eyes ever again. Jim Byrnes, the detective who helped Robin recover her buried memories, has retired.

Lust Killer: Jerome Brudos died in April, 2006, of advanced liver disease. I received mail from some other inmates who said he had decided not to receive treatment for his illness any longer. Brudos spent his latter years trying to hide among the crowd at the Oregon State Penitentiary. But, in the end, he stood out because his failing liver turned his skin bright  yellow. He was among the prisoners who had been in OSP the longest--since 1969. Few, if any, mourned this man whose penchant for murderous cruelty destroyed at least four young women's lives. Without knowing the truth about his sadistic torture-murders, no one would ever suspect that he was one of the most heinous killers in Oregon history. He had no contact with his former wife or two grown children. When Portland media personality Lars Larson asked Brudos about the murders he committed, he joked, "It was a slow Saturday night. . ."

The Want-Ad Killer: Harvey Carignan is still in prison in Minnesota. Because he is a "snitch," (Prison slang for someone who tattles on other prisoners), he has sufficient reward money for luxuries in his cell-TV, soft sheets, special food from the prison store. But he is elderly and ill, always looking over his shoulder. Mary Miller, whose daughter Kathy was one of Carignan's victims still works for Families and Friends of Violent Crime Victims and Missing Persons in Washington State. Rather than collapsing with grief, Mary has done untold good to help other crime survivors.

The I-5 Killer: Randall Woodfield, the former Greenbay Packers' hopeful, is also in the Oregon State Prison. He is over 50, and his black hair is gray now. He married twice while he was in prison, the last marriage a few years ago. He has little chance of a parole, although he still claims to be innocent of the rapes and murders of numerous victims in the seventies and early eighties. Detectives feel he is actually guilty of many more homicides than he was charged with, but, of course, there is no statute of limitation on murder. On February 8, 2006, Portland detectives announced that modern-day DNA testing had linked Randy's body fluids with the 1980 murder of Cherie Ayers, who had graduated from high school with him, and with whom he planned their "10 Year Class Reunion." Anyone who has read the I-5 Killer knows that the murders of Darci Fix, Doug Altic, Julie Reitz (In the Portland area), and Donna Eckard and Janell Jarvis (In Shasta County, California) have either gone unsolved or unpunished. I have little doubt that modern forensic science will finally close out those cases, and that I will be adding new chapters to the I-5 Killer. No one should get a half dozen murders for the price of one. I still get letters and emails from women, now in their fifties, who remember their terrifying meetings with a man they believe to have been Randy Woodfield. . .

Small Sacrifices: Diane Downs, who turned 50 in August, remains in the Valley Prison for Women in Chowchilla, California. Her first hope of a parole hearing is four years away. Adopted by Lane County Prosecutor Fred Hugi and his wife, Joanne, in 1984, Christie and Danny--who somehow survived their gunshot wounds--, have no contact with Diane. They have both graduated from college. Christie is married and had a baby boy in 2005. Danny, a computer whiz, is still partially paralyzed from the bullet in his back, but he is living a happy and normal life. They have grown up in a very happy home with the Hugis. I heard recently from a young woman who insists she is the daughter Diane gave birth to a month after her 1984 trial, the baby who was adopted soon after. Thus far, she has offered no proof that she is who she claims to be. Danny's biological father, the man Diane selected because she thought he had "good genes," still lives in Arizona and has a family. His youngest son looks just like Danny did at the same age. Diane still insists that she and her children were shot by a "bushy haired stranger." For some reason, a person in Europe has established a website espousing her innocence. The site is full of misinformation, apparently fed to him by Diane herself. Among other things, the site claims that Diane never talked to me in person or wrote to me. That is totally false. Not only did we talk on the Oprah show, but I visited Diane in jail in Eugene, Oregon, and I still have letters she sent me.

Choose this link to see more Updates on Page 4 of Ann's Newsletter