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Ferguson won the Edgar Award for "Show me the Evidence," and has written numerous best-selling young adult mysteries.
The murder of a close friend, Savannah Anderson, had a major impact on Ms Ferguson's life and career.
Robert Lloyd Sellers' guilty plea-entered 10 years to the day after Savannah
Leigh Anderson's naked, bruised and sexually molested body was discovered in her
Woodbridge apartment-was only the latest twist in the bizarre murder case.
Defense attorney Jack Earley said Sellers decided to plead guilty to first-degree
murder after prosecutors agreed to seek a sentence of 25 years to life, but with the
possibility of parole. At trial, prosecutors had sought the death penalty and Sellers
received a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
Earley said Sellers wanted to avoid "the risk involved in a new trial. This is an
emotional case, and there is no telling what a jury could do. . . . The certainty of having the case over was peaceful to Mr. Sellers."
Sellers was a 22-year-old Marine and part-time security guard at Anderson's
apartment complex. He subsequently admitted to police that he was obsessed with
the woman and had broken into her apartment to confront her shortly after midnight
on May 14, 1979. When Anderson rejected Sellers' advances, he went into a rage,
beating her with his night stick and then strangling her with his belt. He returned to
the apartment several hours later, dragged the woman's body to the bathtub,
washed it and put it into bed, where he sexually molested the body.
For 5 years the case was an unsolved murder. Then in 1984 Irvine police officers
Larry Montgomery and Scott Cade decided to recheck the bloody palm print left in
the victim's bathroom and discovered it matched Sellers'. When the FBI verified the
finding, Sellers was brought in for questioning and confessed to the crime.
The prosecution had argued that Anderson was raped twice-during her struggle
with her killer and again after she was dead.
In August, 1988, the state's 4th District Court of Appeal found that there was
evidence only that she was raped after her death. Ruling that rape can occur only
while a victim is alive, the court overturned the life-without-parole sentence because
the murder conviction lacked a legally required "special circumstance," such as rape.
The court ordered a new trial, saying that while the bludgeoning and strangulation of
Anderson was "a most heinous crime," jurors had been improperly instructed on the
law regarding rape and that this had improperly influenced the verdict on the murder
charge.
Sellers has been incarcerated at Folsom State Prison since his conviction.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard M. King said that considering all the factors involved in the
case-particularly the expense of a second trial-"it was in the interest of justice to
accept the defendant's offer to plead guilty."
Alane Ferguson (born 1957) is an American author. She won the Edgar Award for Best Young Adult Mystery novel in 1990 for Show Me the Evidence.[1]
Ferguson was born in Cumberland, Maryland, in 1957. Her mother is children's author Gloria Skurzynski. Ferguson collaborated with her mother on a series of novels titled Mysteries in Our National Parks for the National Geographic Society.[2]
Ferguson is the author of many novels and mysteries, including the Edgar Award-winning Show Me The Evidence. She does intensive research for her books by attending autopsies and interviewing forensic pathologists.
Works[edit]
- The Dying Breath, September 2009
- Circle Of Blood, Viking, 2007 hardcover, 2007
- Angel of Death, Viking, 2006 hardcover, 2006
- The Christopher Killer, Viking, 2006 hardcover, 2006
- Buried Alive, National Geographic, 2003 paperback, 2003
- Escape from Fear, National Geographic, 2002 paperback, 2002
- Out of the Deep, National Geographic, 2002 paperback, 2002
- Running Scared, National Geographic, 2002 paperback. 2002
- Over the Edge, National Geographic, 2001 paperback, 2001
- Valley of Death, National Geographic, 2001 paperback, 2001
- Ghost Horses, National Geographic, 2000 paperback, 2001
- The Hunted, National Geographic, 2000 paperback, 2001
- Deadly Waters, National Geographic, 1999 paperback, 2001
- Cliff-Hanger, National Geographic, 1999 paperback, 2001
- Rage of Fire, National Geographic, 1998 paperback, 2001
- Wolf Stalker, National Geographic, 1997 paperback, 2001
- The Mystery of the Fire in the Sky, Troll Associates|Troll Books, 1997
- The Mystery of the Vanishing Creatures, Troll Books, 1996
- The Mystery of the Spooky Shadow, Troll Books, 1996
- Secrets, Simon & Schuster, 1997
- Night Terrors, an anthology, 1996
- See You in September, Avon Books, 1995
- A Tumbleweed Christmas, Bradbury Press, 1995
- Poison, Bradbury Press, 1994
- Stardust, Bradbury Press, 1993
- Overkill, Bradbury Press, 1992
- The Practical Joke War, Bradbury Press, 1991
- Cricket and the Crackerbox Kid, Bradbury Press, 1990
- Show Me the Evidence, Bradbury Press, 1989
- That New Pet, Lothrop Lee & Shephard, 1987
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