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No Room for Doubt is a compelling account of a real-life homicide and its aftermath. Angela Dove writes about her stepmothers brutal murder in March 1988, meticulously recreating the course of the investigation and its chilling effect on those whose lives were tainted by this crime.
Sue Grafton, bestselling author of T Is for Trespass
This book will bring light to its readers, showing them the reality of what one person can do when they take away the joy and life of another... This book clarifies that the ramifications of murder run deeply.
Susan Levy, mother of murder victim Chandra Levy and founder of Wings of Protection
No Room for Doubt is an accurate and fascinating account of the painstaking search to catch a sexual killer who terrorized a community. Meticulously researched and highly readable, Angela Dove writes from inside the investigation with skill and compassion. She captures the intricacies and details of the forensic and behavioral evidence in a way that makes you feel like you were there... one of the most gripping true crime books Ive read in years... the resolution will stun you.
Mark E. Safarik M.S., V.S.M. (FBI Ret.) Executive Director, Forensic Behavioral Services International
A compelling true story of a loving mothers determination to seek her daughter Debis murderer. While law enforcement struggles to solve the mystery, Jacque MacDonald is inspirational as she courageously uncovers the horrifying truth. Jacque MacDonald is a true inspiration to victims of crime. Her perseverance to seek justice when law enforcement had nearly given up is a true testimony of a mothers love and devotion.
Debra Puglisi Sharp, author of Shattered: Reclaiming a Life Torn Apart by Violence
With Angela Doves steady hand, every page is a gripping read and every word is factual. No Room for Doubt is a remarkable, almost cinematic, achievement.
Dawna Kaufmann, true crime investigative journalist and co-author of A Question of Murder
This is a must-read for every victim of crime who feels helpless or hopeless. Jacque MacDonald is a role model and hero; she proves that one determined victim, who never gives up, can overcome enormous obstacles and bring a murderer to justice. Angela Dove has crafted an exciting, real-life book that should be read by every victim of violent crime and shared with their family, friends, and associates. Bravo, Jacque! Bravo, Angela!
Genelle Reilly, mother of murder victim Robin Reilly and board member of Security on Campus and Justice for Homicide Victims
For Debi
and those who loved her.
FOREWORD
When Jacque MacDonald asked me to write her story, I was honored. Jacques daughter, Debi, was murdered in her home in Modesto, California, in 1988, while her own little girl slept nearby. Debis murder had baffled investigators. They told Jacque there was nothing more they could do. Everyone encouraged her to get on with her life. Instead, Jacque tracked down the killer herself, saw him brought to justice, and started helping other families who faced the same obstacles. I have never known anyone who became so single-mindedly determined to win a losing battle, and then won it. From the moment she approached me, I wanted to tell Jacques powerful and uplifting story.
However, I knew that taking on this project would be difficult for me. Jacques monumental journey lay in stark contrast to my fathers. Debi had been married to my father, Harold Whitlock, for five years at the time of her murder. She was my stepmother and the mother of my baby sister, Jessica. Debis murder had devastated our family, and in order to tell Jacques story, I would have to revisit those terrible events. I agreed, ready to face the nightmare of the past.
Instead, I stumbled onto a new aspect of the storyone I found just as devastating.
While researching the facts surrounding Debis case, I discovered the huge body of evidence linking my father to her murder. I learned things about my dad that literally brought me to my knees. Only now, years after his death, could I understand all the things I sensed in him: his guilt, his inability to forgive himself, and the self-destruction that eventually ended his life. Today Jacque MacDonald is hugged tearfully by strangers, applauded by politicians, and speed-dialed by police departments across Californias Central Valley. Today my father is dead. No telling of these events can get around this fact.
No room for doubt is a phrase I picked up during an interview with Modesto Homicide Sergeant Jon Buehler. It took nine years to solve Debis case, Jon told me, but Jacque always believed it would be solved. And she made us believe. There was never any room for doubt.
This conversation took place at a time when I hoped to tell Jacques story but avoid revealing how Debis death affected anyone else. However, there is no way to compartmentalize murder. Its reverberations ripple across lives, across miles, across time. So Sergeant Buehlers phrase became something of a mantra for me as well. I could not allow any misgivings to deter me from telling this storythe full storywith unflinching honesty.
Because I have tried to be sensitive to those involved in these tumultuous events, certain names and circumstances have been altered. Where peoples recollections have differed, I have had to choose between versions or try to merge the two. Other times I had to condense several occasions into one. I have endeavored to portray the truth of events, relationships, and characters as I understand them.
During the last year it has become clear to me that we can never really know another person. We have only our perceptions, colored by our beliefs and biases and experiences. We live with one foot in fiction, taking what we know about a person and creating the rest. Each of us necessarily decides our own truth.
This book is my truth.
I would like to thank all the people who have assisted with this project, particularly the Modesto Police Department and those officers who shared with me their personal and professional experiences of Debis case; the Stanislaus County criminal court and clerks offices, including Michael Tozzi; Merced District Attorney Larry Morse and Sheriff Mark Pazin; Margaret Speed and the victim/witness offices of Merced and Modesto; Daryl Farnsworth and the editorial staff of the Modesto Bee; Comcast Cable executive Barbara Rodiek; Oxygen channel producer Deborah Dawkins; California Congressman Dennis Cardoza and his staff; California Assemblywoman Cathleen Galgiani and her intrepid aide, Robin Adam; the staff of the Modesto city museum; Modesto historian Colleen Bare; Jacques many friends and fellow survivors, as well as her family, whom she credits for all her successes; the friends and family of Debi and my father, who shared both their joy and pain; my agent, David Fugate; former Penguin editor Katie Day; editor Andie Avila; and my readers Ginny Barrett Patten and Bob Clark. I am enormously grateful to my husband, Ira Dove, and our children, my mother, and my sister, without whose blessing and patience I would not have written this book.
I will always be thankful to Jacque for inviting me on this journey, and to those who supported me along the way. Jacque MacDonald inspires people to be braver versions of themselves. That gift has carried me through this project.
