AN ABUSIVE MOTHER Raised in the suburb of Riverside, California, twenty-year-old college student Jason Bautista endured for years his emotionally disturbed mother's verbal and psychological abuse. She even locked him out of the house, tied him up with electrical cord, and on one occasion, gave him a beating that sent him to the emergency room. His fifteen-year-old half brother Matthew Montejo also was a victim to Jane Bautista's dark mood swings and erratic behavior, but for some reason, Jason received the brunt of the abuse—until he decided he'd had enough... A SON'S REVENGE On the night of January 14, 2003, Jason strangled his mother. To keep authorities from identifying her body, he chopped off her head and hands, an idea he claimed he got from watching an episode of the hit TV series "The Sopranos." Matthew would later testify in court that he sat in another room in the house with the TV volume turned up while Jason murdered their mother. He also testified that he drove around with Jason to find a place to dump Jane's torso. A CRIME THAT WOULD BOND TWO BROTHERS The morning following the murder, Matthew went to school, and Jason returned to his classes at Cal State San Bernardino. When authorities zeroed in on them, Jason lied and said that Jane had run off with a boyfriend she'd met on the Internet. But when police confronted the boys with overwhelming evidence, Jason confessed all. Now the nightmare was only just beginning for him...

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 On January 14, 2003, retired Marine sergeant major George Martinez was bored as a security guard for the multimillion-dollar homes in the private community of Saint Malo Beach in Oceanside, California. He saw two boys, who looked like they were trying to dump a body bag into a Dumpster. #2 On January 14, Orange County Sheriff’s Homicide Investigator Andre Spencer was assigned to the case. He would later discover that the torso was 41-year-old Jane Bautista. Bautista had become obsessed with the idea that nameless, faceless strangers were out to kill her, but her killers would be the only people she allowed to be close to her.

Dirmann tells the true story of Skylar Deleon, a former child actor on the TV series "Power Rangers," who was charged of the 2004 double murder of a wealthy retired couple in Long Beach, California. photos. Original.

This is the tragic story of Kent Whitaker's heart-wrenching journey toward forgiveness and faith after the brutal murder of his wife and one of his sons. Straight from the headlines comes an incredible true story of a son's treachery. For the first time, readers are offered inside access to the emotional drama that went on behind the scenes. At the core is the remarkable healing power of forgiveness, demonstrated by Kent Whitaker, which shows how the survivors of such atrocious events can still forgive those who have permanently damaged their lives. One evening, the Whitaker family returned home after dinner, celebrating a son's impending graduation from college. On opening the front door, they faced a gunman lying in wait. The gunman opened fire, instantly killing the younger son and Kent's wife, leaving Kent and his older son lying wounded until police and ambulances arrived. While recovering in the hospital, Kent resolved in his heart to forgive whoever was responsible for the deaths of his wife and son. Over the next few weeks, it was discovered that the whole murder plot had been orchestrated by the surviving son -- whom Kent had unknowingly forgiven. After a trial that resulted in a death sentence for his son, Kent emerged from this harrowing ordeal to share their astonishing journey toward forgiveness and redemption.

A Heart-Stopping Page-Turner: Unravel the Unthinkable in Sins of the Mother On October 25, 1994, a hysterical Susan Smith told police a tale that would strike terror in the hearts of mothers everywhere: An unidentified gunman had sped off with her two little boys, leaving her screaming on the side of the road. For more than a week, the people in the tiny town of Union, South Carolina, rallied around the young mother. They combed the woods and neighborhood parks for the missing children and prayed for their safe return, while FBI teams launched a massive manhunt. No one ever suspected that the pretty 23-year-old who tearfully pleaded for her children in front of millions of TV viewers could be capable of such a heartless act...until she led police to the watery graves of her young sons. Join the shaken community's journey of grappling with their sorrow, anger, and confusion. Sins of the Mother is more than a crime story; it's an exploration of human frailty and the dark side of maternal love.

***Please note that the photos that appear in the print edition of the title do not appear in the e-book.*** Washington Township, Michigan: Valentine's Day, 2007. Stephen Grant filed a missing person's report on his beloved wife, Tara. The stay-at-home father of two was beside himself with despair. Why would Tara abandon him and their family? Was she involved with another man? Stephen's frantic, emotional search for Tara made national headlines, and the case was featured on Dateline among other television shows and news outlets. But key elements in Stephen's story still weren't adding up: Why did he wait five days to go to police? What was the nature of his relationship with his children's beautiful, nineteen-year-old babysitter? Why did Stephen have cuts on his hands, and random bruises? Then, the police made a gruesome discovery. Parts of Tara Grant's body started turning up around the woods near the Grant's home. The truth was finally coming to light...and, after a two-day manhunt, Stephen admitted to having killed Tara—first strangling her, then cutting her body into fourteen pieces before burying them. This is the shocking true story about a bitter, cheating husband whose crimes were revealed by the BLOOD IN THE SNOW.

Published to strong reviews and major media attention, this heartfelt and inspirational rags-to-riches memoir by the highly regarded CEO of Parade Publications tells the emotional story of how he came to terms with an identity and a family that he never knew he had until he reached middle age. Meant To Be begins when Anderson, a 21-year-old Marine returns from service to say goodbye to his dying father and tries to find the answer to a question that has inexplicably haunted him from his earliest years: Was the alcoholic, abusive man who has so tormented him in his childhood his real father? Shockingly, the answer turns out to be "No." Unbeknown to him, at least until that point, his mother, a German Protestant, fell in love during World War II with a Russian Jew and bore his child. Anderson learns this information as a young man but he and his mother keep this secret for another 35 years, until the day Anderson—now an unusually successful publishing executive—meets an unknown brother who, it turns out, has lived a nearly parallel life. Meant To Be is a love story, a journey of self-discovery and spirituality, and a provocative challenge to common notions about the role of heredity in our lives.