The Authors
Karen Brooke and Kaitlynne Mantooth first met in the Summer of 2024. Kaitlynne had reached out to Alyssa about writing something, assuming she would never hear back. She was shocked when Alyssa did, in fact, responded that she was interested in sharing her perspective in ways she had not done for others who had written about her. After a few conversations, Alyssa contacted Karen. "You've talked with so many people," Karen said. "Yes, but I like this one," was Alyssa's response. She felt that Kaitlynne was relatable and insightful. She felt Kaitlynne's own life experiences helped her to understand her story in unique ways that others hadn't.
When they spoke for the first time, Karen saw it too. The two began working together, Karen bringing her first-hand experience and lifetime living this story herself, and Kaitlynne bringing her research, writing and journalism background. This dynamic helped them to look deeper, expose unseen connections, and identify unexplored avenues. Despite long distance, difference in age, and very different life experiences, the two built a bond as co-authors and collaborators and grew close in ways they couldn't have expected. Kaitlynne even made the long drive to the Carolinas multiple times to meet Karen in person. Over the next couple of years of research, challenges, investigation and outpouring of personal heartache, the book eventually evolved into the informative, defiant, and narrative-shifting force it is today.
From the first story about the murder that changed my and so many other lives forever, I saw holes and misrepresentations in the story. From news reports to articles to documentaries to interviews with public figures connected to the case, it was clear that there were perspectives being hidden and half-truths or even outright falsehoods given international platforms. Despite the mounting and everpresent stress of dealing with the trauma of these events, I regularly felt the pull of a voice inside me, promptings from the Spirit that one of the voices needed to tell this story and correct the record was mine. I tried interviews that went poorly, speaking to documentarians that left much to be desired, and more. But from the beginning, even though I had never written something like this before, I knew then that I was being guided to write a book. Still, I wrestled with the fear of things I'd experienced before- renewed death threats, threats to my professional and financial life, and more. Then one day I met Kaitlynne, and I knew– I had found the right person to enter my life and work with me to make this book happen. Others who would be crucial to the success of the book came along soon after, and I knew that these people had been sent to help me gain the knowledge and insight needed to write something that I truly believe won’t just tell the untold story and correct the record, but offer help to people in need. Whether you're struggling with their own or a loved one’s addiction, mental health challenges, struggling with a child suffering from trauma, or even going through something as horrifyingly traumatic and life-altering as my family did, I believe this book can provide perspective and hope. Who can you turn to? How could this happen? What has helped others working through something like this? I hope that this book will provide some small piece of what you need. If this book helps even one person struggling with mental health or addiction, it will be worth the pain and anxiety I have gone through to write it. I also hope that the book can be a catalyst for change. So many of the traumas my family went through have deep roots in preventable epidemics of addiction, greed, and the failure of the very systems meant to protect us and our children. There are people with the power to change these things and prevent more tragedies like the one that is the focus of this book. From the Campaign for Fair Sentencing of Youth project to the need to address the opioid and methamphetamine epidemic to the need to confront corruption of pharmaceutical executives and address challenges in adolescent mental healthcare, my hope is that my and Kaitlynne's writing can play some small role in making those deeply necessary changes to prevent future tragedy. There are many things I write about in the book that I wish I had known sooner. Looking back, I feel I was in over my head– but that perhaps that was unavoidable. I don't know if what I knows now would have changed the end result, but perhaps it can for someone else. Even though the center of the book is tragedy and trauma and the consequences of greed and power, I want to make sure the book brings its own positive light. I only wish to give readers hope for whatever situation they may find themselves in and show that they are not alone in living through a story that may be terrifying, traumatic, and perhaps even deeply misunderstood from those who aren’t living it, and give them hope that they can come out the other side of these challenging times and positively influence their future and the future of people around them.
Throughout the writing process, I often wondered why I was putting myself through writing such a gut wrenching story. I regularly found myself crying over case details and the weight of such a monumental loss as a child. Many times, my own trauma would be triggered by things that Alyssa went through and the grief interlaced in all 250+ pages. Writing this is hard. I asked myself “what story am I trying to tell?” Usually followed by “who’s story am I trying to tell?” I realized, as I wrote about the pain of being a traumatized teenager, that really, on some level, I was writing my own story. I too was preyed upon. I was also parentified. My life has also been shaped by addiction and instability. I too was massively failed by systems supposedly built to protect me. The world felt like an enemy hellbent on taking me down especially as a fifteen year old girl. To write this was to look that enemy square in their eye. Many people have wondered if this book’s intent is to somehow redeem Alyssa. It is not. I am not writing this to appeal to Alyssa at all, though she has been very vulnerable in sharing her perspective with me. I, Alyssa, and Alyssa’s grandmother all understand the weight of what she did and the justice that had to happen. However, to label her as simply a psychotic monster completely erases the culpability of the very real forces that created the storm that hit Karen’s family- the Frankenstein so to speak. The why of this book is to look deeper than just what happened on that October night in 2009. There isn’t a single person I know who hasn’t had an adverse experience directly caused by corrupt pharmaceutical companies. Nearly every single American life has been affected by the opioid epidemic. Monsters are almost never born. They’re created. I want to look at the way that corruption shapes our individual lives like a disinterested puppeteer. Rather than simply looking at Alyssa’s story, I venture to tell an American story of capitalism and gross greed through the lens of Alyssa’s story. I wrote this story to hold those forces accountable for all of us, not just Elizabeth or Alyssa, but everyone whose lives would have been undoubtedly different had the systems not failed them.