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[close] Eye of The Beholder by Lowell Cauffiel
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Battle Creek, Michigan, is famous as the birthplace of breakfast cereal, and the nearby suburb of Marshall is as wholesome as shredded wheat. Well-known for its colorful Victorian mansions, this stately slice of nineteenth-century Americana became infamous on a frigid night in February of 1991. Newscaster Diane Newton King was stepping out of her car, her children strapped into the backseat, when a sniper’s bullet cut her down. The police assumed that the killer was her stalker—a crazed fan who had been terrorizing King for weeks. But as their investigation ground to a standstill, the police turned to another suspect—one much closer to home.

I had the privilege and the pleasure of knowing and working with Diane for three years. She was so kind as to serve as an expert consultant on an event the zoo produced each year during the school year for area students called "Native American Autumn Fest." Accuracy was very important to us and we didn't want to get the information wrong or offend any of our Native American neighbors. Diane was part Ojibwa and part Apache and even though the local tribe here is Pottawatomie they respected her opinion and trusted her. Imagine the shock when on February 9, 1991 we learned that she had been fatally shot and the main suspect was her husband Brad who was a criminal justice professor at Western Michigan University and a former police officer. Even more shocking was that her 3 year old son and 3 month old daughter were in car seats still in the car. They were supposed to have stayed at Diane's mother's home but her daughter appeared to be coming down with something and the 3 year old didn't want to stay alone. I didn't believe it was possible that Brad had killed her until I heard that the dog...a giant of a German Shepherd... was tied in the hay barn to the loft ladder and the fatal shot came from the loft. I had encountered that dog and knew that it had to have been tied there by someone that it knew and there was only one other person other than Diane at the house. It's not a huge in your face crime as far as murders go but it happened to a lovely, well respected mother, daughter and friend so it was huge to us. This author does a really good job telling Diane's story.