Trail of Blood: A Father, a Son and a Tell-Tale Crime Scene Investigation

by Wanda Evans, James Dunn

When Jim Dunn got the heart stopping call every parent dreads: "Your son has disappeared" on a Sunday night, it set into motion a six year nightmarish odyssey of desperate searches. Frustrated, Dunn turned to Dr. Richard Walter, a forensic pathologist and criminal profiler, who consulted Scotland Yard, studied DNA evidence and blood spatter patterns and then pointed out who he deduced killed Scott Dunn and why.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction

304 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2005

Reviews

[Fishface · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good read. The story of the disappearance of Scott Dunn and the lengths his family had to go to in finding justice. I was happily surprised to re-encounter my very favorite member of the Vidocq Society in these pages and watch him do his stuff. A very sad story, of course, and this one has an outcome in the courtroom that made my jaw drop. Some of the story was left unresolved, and I was very pleased to find a satisfying answer when I searched Google for the final outcome of this story. This one is well worth your time.

[Lenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Women is convicted of murder without a body being present.

[Meaghan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although Roger "Scott" Dunn is the missing (presumed murdered) person in Trail of Blood, the book is about his father, Jim Dunn, as much as it is about Scott. Jim Dunn corroborated on this book, which chronicles Scott's case from the day his disappearance was made known to the trial, conviction and sentencing of two individuals for his murder. Without Jim's dedication, without him constantly pestering the police and anyone else whom he thought could help, Scott's murder would probably have never been solved. A good word should also be said for the investigating officers, who were very diligent in working the case and never "wrote it off," even when it seemed hopeless.

Although the writing is somewhat dry at times, this book presents a good portrait of the principal characters and also shows the difficulty of solving a murder where there is no weapon, no witnesses, no confessions, and worst of all, no body. The time frame covers over six years between Scott's disappearance and the convictions of his killers, but the suspense remains throughout. I'm sure I'm not the only one who was outraged when I discovered at the end that one of the murder defendants was sentenced to probation, and the other is already being considered for parole. Trail of Blood is a decent read, particularly those who are interested in forensics, since it goes into so much detail about the physical evidence.

UPDATE: Scott Dunn's body turned up in May 2012, just three doors down from his own home. The police had figured he was buried somewhere close by. He'd died of blunt force trauma to the head -- again, as expected.

[Karla · Rating 3 out of 5]

This true crime novel covers the brutal murder of Scott Dunn, bludgeoned to death in his own bedroom. His killers almost walked, however, as Dunn's body was never found, and in Texas, no body=no murder. His killer (and former lover), Leisha Hamilton, counted on that fact.

The fact that the prosecutor in Texas was reluctant to bring this case to trial gave me pause. Although his body was not found, Luminol sprayed on the walls of Scott's bedroom revealed that not only had blood been splattered all over the place, but that the murderer (or accomplice) had attempted to wipe most of it off. Perhaps I watch too much CSI, but shouldn't that be enough to make a prosecutor determine that a crime was indeed committed? Fortunately, even without a body to introduce into evidence, the manipulative Leisha Hamilton was indeed convicted of Scott Dunn's murder.

While this book was interesting, I don't think this merited the "brilliant and utterly gripping" given by the Booklist review. Wanda Evans carefully lays out the investigation of Scott Dunn's murder, but fails to give enough background information on him to make him a three dimensional character. Other missing pieces in this story include any mention of Scott's mother--what were her thoughts on the murder of her son?

[Reborn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't quite give this five stars because the writing is not great.

However, the author lives in St. Marys, and I interviewed him and wrote about this book when it was first published. His son was murdered, and this book is meant as a way to help bring the killer(s) to justice.

It's a very sad story, but the man who co-wrote it is very strong. It has a special place in my heart for all of these reasons.

[Kajal · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the story of the determination of a father to bring his son's murderers to court. I read this book about three years after its publication and was saddened that Scott's body had still not been found at that time and it was an even greater shock when in 2012 they finally found Scott buried four doors down from where he was so brutally murdered. Finally his family had an attempt of some sort of closure over a search that spanned 21 years. Rest in peace, Scott.

[seattleamanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

The whole time I was wishing I would find out what happened with the body. But I guess some times you never get to know. It was an interesting book but extremely redundant.

[Donna Humble · Rating 4 out of 5]

A detailed look into a family working for years to get justice for their sons murder.

[Rosa Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book left me with more questions than answers. I felt like more people were involved with the murder for example, Scott's boss was acting pretty suspicious when Jim Dunn showed up asking about his son. Also once it got the trial part the book became repetitive since the gaining of clues and witnesses was already covered in the investigating part of the book. I don't know if in current times would they had found Leisha guilty. The book kept referencing the OJ Simpson trial which had just happened right before this case so I don't if that influenced the jury and the prosecution.
A very cut and dry book. This book contained no fluff. It went straight to the point.