More than a half-century after the crime, author Wes Skillings offers this deep dive into a murder and the man he believes was unfairly convicted of it.

Sometime in October 1973, 12-year-old Jennifer Hill’s body was dumped in a cornfield in rural Pennsylvania. Police immediately suspected Kim Hubbard, the 20-year-old brother of Jennifer’s friend Ruthie. Jennifer had spent the afternoon of the murder at the Hubbard residence, where Hubbard still lived with his parents and sister. Police alleged Hubbard had sexually assaulted and killed Jennifer, although there was no evidence of such an assault.

Arrested and convicted after a hasty trial, Hubbard served nine years in prison, later marrying and living a quiet life as a roofer in his hometown.

Skillings argues that Hubbard was innocent. He claims police falsified imprints of the defendant’s tires, key pieces of physical evidence. Further, the prosecution alleged that the murder was committed on October 19th, but the body found nine days later showed no signs of decomposition consistent with these facts. It appears Jennifer’s corpse had been refrigerated prior to being abandoned.

Additionally, the prosecution’s timeline of the crime was flawed, and a key prosecution witness had been hypnotized during the investigation to “refresh” her memory, a fact not divulged at trial.

Skillings was a young newspaper reporter in the 1970s when he first investigated this case. Here, he skillfully and passionately details the human costs: the shattered hopes of the Hubbard family for a fair outcome and the difficult lives they faced after the fact.

Unfortunately, the author never adequately addresses why police and prosecutors would target Hubbard for a frame-up. It’s also possible Hubbard was guilty and that police and prosecutors were corrupt or malfeasant. While Skillings is persuaded of Hubbard’s innocence, readers aren’t left with the same certainty. The narrative is also marred slightly by occasional awkward or grammatically incorrect sentences.

Nonetheless, true crime fans will find this an intriguing story depicting a family undone by a flawed criminal justice system.

Also available as an ebook.