ABOUT

BOOK

This is the true story of the murder of Shirley Jean Roberts. The 1968 bludgeoning of a mother of six, was at the hands of an intruder who took the victim’s life with an ax.

Her slaying occurred on December 19, 1968, in the kitchen of her Petersburg, Virginia home. Leaping from bed to her mother’s blood-curdling screams following a brief discussion at the front door with an unknown man, a nine-year-old girl watched in horror from her bedroom doorway as the man chased and attacked her mom. The only eyewitness to the crime, the girl’s statements would be the keystone of a court case against an eventual suspect. Her testimony, coerced by a corrupt police department, landed her father in prison, serving a twenty-year sentence for the murder of her mother.

The girl’s story chronicles the jaw-dropping account of a ten-year-old child used by a system of corruption to obtain a conviction for one of the most brutal murders in modern Virginia history. In the absence of a suspect, her story entails coercion and manipulation by a corrupt police department, witnessed by her mom’s sister, and the collusion of other adults, including lawyers, a judge, and the mayor.

By all recorded accounts and post-trial statements of jury members, the conviction would have never stood without the young girl’s testimony. Years later, looking to clear her father’s name and right the wrongs of history, the now adult eyewitness discovered the case file and any evidence that could eventually solve the crime had gone missing.

The collateral damage of a fraudulent court case is detailed here, with its far-reaching life-long consequences. For the eyewitness, life-long guilt and the search for justice eventually led to a life that was only redeemable through God’s grace.

This is my story.