Donald E. McInnis is a California criminal defense attorney who represented one of the three accused boys, Aaron Houser, in the Stephanie Crowe murder case. Over the span of his 40-year legal career, he has worked for the prosecution and for the defense, having served as a deputy district attorney for two California counties and as a deputy defender for one California county during his early professional years. His new book “She’s So Cold: Murder, Accusations and the System that Devastated a Family” centers around the murder of twelve-year old Stephanie Crowe. It is the story of a broken system: a system stacked against families and, most of all, against children.

The murder case in “She’s So Cold” is that of Stephanie Crowe in the winter of January 1998 in the small town of Escondido, California. Rightly so, the town is horrified when her body is found and it is discovered that she had been brutally murdered in her own bedroom. Since there was no sign of a break-in and no physical evidence pointing to a possible suspect, the police zeroed in on her fourteen-year old brother Michael and two of his friends, Joshua and Aaron. Just because Michael failed to show emotion in the aftermath, the police concluded that he must be guilty because “he didn’t cry.” The policed used psychological manipulation to force three fourteen-year old boys to falsely confess to the murder. All without the benefit of legal counsel and in the pursuit of a misguided challenge to win at all costs. It was not until May 2012, fourteen years after Stephanie’s death, that Michael, Joshua and Aaron were found innocent because the evidence showed “beyond a reasonable doubt that the teens were innocent.”

In this true crime narrative, the author traces the twists and turns of a real-life mystery which eventually changed the lives of fifteen people and cost a district attorney his job. To protect children and teens from such manipulation in the future, McInnis proposes a new Children’s Miranda Rights Warning and a Bill of Rights for Children who are being questioned as suspects – which must be adopted in order to prevent minors from making false confessions that could destroy their futures. “She’s So Cold” is divided into four parts: Part One – murder and mind games: Stephanie and Michael; Part Two – a tapestry of deceit; Part Three – an alternative theory and Part Four – conclusions, vicious cycles. The Appendix (Children’s Rights) includes the aforementioned Children’s Rights, Children’s Miranda Warning and Children’s Bill of Rights.

In this eye-opening account of the police’s handling of the Stephanie Crowe case, one must wonder how the parents could allow this to happen to their child. After all, it happened in 1998, not in the 1940s or 50s. Part of the reasoning is that they assumed the police were just doing their job but in the end, false confessions do occur and not all of them are found out and people have been falsely imprisoned. Donald E. McInnis does an excellent job of outlining the incredulous chain of events but sometimes the details of the boys’ interrogations drag on too long, like in Chapter 8. The hearings and other legal proceedings do not begin until Chapter 16 and the narration starts to move forward. With a perfect balance between dialogue and description, the story flows through the pages and is easy to follow and understand without complicated police jargon. Aside from being a compelling crime novel, it is also a cautionary tale. Overall, “She’s So Cold” is recommended for readers who enjoy true crime novels and anyone willing to learn something new in terms of police procedures.

*The author received a copy of this book for an honest review. The views and opinions expressed here belong solely to her.