Kevin Neal

A Ghastly Find

Aerial close-up of cemetery.

Stickley said he felt "a needle shot through my body" and he quickly backed out of the crime scene, got on his tractor and called authorities to report that he had "found the two bodies that I presume were Cody and India."

India Smith, who would have celebrated her 12th birthday the following day, was lying on her back, her legs spread in a sexually provocative position, less than 100 feet from the grave of Sue Neal's mother.

Sheriff David Deskins and Harry Trombitas, an FBI Special Agent, made the drive to Indiana to interview Kevin Neal while crime-scene experts gathered evidence at the cemetery. On the way over, they decided only to tell him that the children "had been found" to see how he reacted. Neal surprised even the two experienced law enforcement officials.

"I guess if they were walking around, you would have told me," he replied after digesting the news. After he was told that they were dead, Neal stood up, silently pushed in his chair, and asked the corrections officer to take him back to his cell, leaving Deskins and Trombitas simply staring at each other in shock. They had expected that at least he would have asked where or how the children had been found. The person who killed them, of course, wouldn't need that information.

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1. Messages from the Dead
2. 700 Years Later
3. The Children are Missing
4. Unhealthy Family Dynamic
5. Complex Relationships & Conflicts
6. Search for Children Called Off
7. Behind the Scenes
8. Neal's Criminal Past
9. Lies
10. Sexual Predator
11. Bodies in the Cemetery
12. A Ghastly Find
13. Physical Laws of Death
14. The Stages of Death
15. The Bureau of Criminal Identification
16. Working the Crime Scene
17. Manner of Death
18. Not Much to Work With
19. Cause of Death
20. More Forensic Clues
21. "We Are Not in a Rush"
22. No Smoking Gun
23. "Hurt Someone They Love"
24. Incriminating Statements
25. The Physical Evidence
26. Forensic Botany
27. Bug Collecting
28. Forensic Entomolgy
29. How Flies Tell Time
30. After the Blow Flies Flew Away
31. Enter the Cheese Skipper
32. Date of Death
33. The Secondary Screwworm in Court
34. Battle over Bug Evidence
35. Cheese Skippers for the Defense
36. Counterpoint
37. The Body Farmer
38. Dr. Bass for the Defense
39. "The Liver Bothers Me"
40. The Jury Decides
41. Bibliography