It’s a pleasure to welcome bestselling author Caitlin Rother back to Colloquium!
She is celebrating the publication of the updated edition of her riveting true crime thriller, Body Parts. Originally published in 2009, the new edition includes previously unavailable information and developments in the case since the book’s initial release.
Caitlin expounds on why she found it important to issue a revised edition of the gripping story, especially for the family of Kerry Anne Cummings. She was the first victim of a ruthless killer who, surprisingly, voluntarily surrendered to police in order to bring his own horrifying crime spree to a halt. Even so, the true extent of his crimes may never be known, denying to other families knowledge of the fate of an untold number of victims and the ability to lay their loved ones to rest. But thankfully, the unrepentant killer will be spending the rest of his life in a California prison.
Serial Killer’s First Victim Identified via Genetic Genealogy 25 Years after Her Murder
I’m thrilled about the publication of an updated edition of my book, Body Parts, which chronicles the case of serial killer Wayne Adam Ford, with thirty-two pages of new developments.
For readers of Colloquium, which has generously covered many of my other books, I thought I’d share some of the thoughts I included in my author’s note, explaining how and why I put the book together.
When Body Parts was originally published in 2009, it was my third title. Since then, I’ve released almost a dozen others, and researched five more that never made it to publication for one reason or another.
Other than my book about the Manson killings, Hunting Charles Manson, this story is the most gruesome I’ve ever written and I can’t see doing another one like it. That said, I’m happy to report that this book seems to have brought more closure to victims’ family members than any of my others. I’ve gotten emails over the years saying so, which always brings me joy.
But if there is such a thing as a happy ending to a book about a serial killer, this updated edition is it, because Ford’s first victim, Kerry Anne Cummings, now has her name back and her family knows what happened to her when she went missing in 1997.
When I interviewed Kerry’s sister, Kathie, she told me that she’d read the original edition of the book three times before she’d received any formal notification that Kerry had been identified by genetic genealogy after their cousin Jeff submitted his DNA profile to GEDmatch. But she could tell from the details I provided that Ford’s first victim was Kerry, and despite the gruesome details of her dismemberment, Kathie could finally stop wondering if and how her sister had died.
After interviewing Kathie several times, I was pleased to be able to write a detailed tribute to Kerry and show who she was before she fell victim to Wayne Adam Ford, which I didn’t get a chance to do in the first edition.
I don’t write these books as entertainment. I write them with the hope of educating people about the criminal justice system, the different sides of humanity, and the intersecting paths they can take. This is definitely my darkest book, but it is also my second-bestselling title, which shows that people probably enjoy reading about serial killers more than I like writing about them.
I write true crime books to show readers what makes a person turn to murder, to give a voice to the victims and their families, and to try to answer the most common question: why.
I was drawn to this particular story because Ford is a rare bird who stands out from other serial killers: he turned himself in so he wouldn’t be able to kill anyone else. At the time, he admitted that he knew what he did was wrong. Today, he seems to have backed away from that accountability, but maybe it’s the only way he can cope with waiting to be executed someday.
Because Governor Gavin Newsom issued a moratorium on executions while he’s in office, Ford was recently moved from San Quentin Rehabilitation Center (formerly San Quentin State Prison) to the California Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo, where he is reportedly much happier because he has more freedom. At this rate, he likely won’t be executed before he dies of natural causes, but he will also never go free.
As an investigative journalist, investigative reports and court documents are my best friend. I love gathering research and finding juicy tidbits as I go. I am grateful to have gotten access to such a wealth of research materials for this book, including court exhibits, witness interviews, Ford’s interview transcripts, his military psychiatric records, and other previously sealed documents, some of which never made their way into the jury’s hands and probably wouldn’t be released if I tried to write this book today. That includes excerpts of an eight-hour interview with Ford’s mother that the defense investigator conducted in India, and his interviews with other Ford family members.
I culled quotes and facts from the interviews that detectives from four counties (Humboldt, Kern, San Joaquin, and San Bernardino) did with Ford, and I also did my own interviews with those detectives — Juan Freeman, Frank Gonzales, Mike Jones, Joe Herrera, and Gary Rhoades — who were surprisingly cooperative. Freeman, who was mostly retired when I interviewed him, shared his investigative files with me, and Gonzales was kind enough to take me on a tour of some of the key places in the story, including the street corner where Ford picked up Patricia Tamez, and also the spot where he dumped her body into the California Aqueduct.
I also spoke with Wayne’s father, Gene, and his brother, Rodney, who had never agreed to speak to any other journalist or author before. I spent an entire day with them in a hotel room in Sacramento, mostly talking to Gene, then I spoke with Rodney alone the next day. Although Gene was reluctant to speak with me at first, he and Rodney proved to be extremely cooperative. Gene said he’d turned down an interview with Dan Rather’s producer, among many others, when the story first broke back in the late 1990s.
I tried to speak personally with Karen, Ford’s mother, who made some serious allegations against Gene, but once she found out I’d talked with him and Rodney she backed out.
Defense investigator Ron Forbush was reticent at first but proved to be tremendously helpful. Ford’s attorney, Joe Canty, who had been Forbush’s best friend for decades, agreed to be interviewed, but unfortunately died of a heart attack in 2007 before we had a chance to talk. Then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed Canty’s co-counsel, Steven Mapes, to the bench that same month, and Mapes apparently didn’t feel it was appropriate to talk to me once he became a judge.
I wrote a letter to Ford, asking if he would talk to me, but he didn’t respond, which was no surprise after I learned that he’d appointed a breast enhancement herbal supplement spokesmodel as his “media liaison,” even though she was making a documentary about him.
I emailed him again recently, asking for an interview for this update, but he said he saw no point in talking about all of this now. I thought that was a shame, but I’ve got plenty of him telling his story to detectives in the book.
Prosecutor Dave Mazurek was also extremely helpful and cooperative, answering questions about the case for hours, and even the judge, Michael Smith, gave me an interview. So, overall, I think I have it covered.
I hope you enjoy the book. If it inspires you to read more of my work, you might be interested to know that my other titles take an even more psychological approach than this one. I’m not big on gory graphic details, but this story demanded that.
Meet Caitlin
Caitlin Rother was an only child who entertained herself “by reading stacks upon stacks of books and using my mind as a stage where characters talked to each other.”
She holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of California, Berkeley, and earned her master’s degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. In high school and college, she explored journalism but opted for a career in public relations with a San Francisco cruise line. Eventually, though, she was compelled to choose the “balance and objectivity of newspapers over the positive spin world of PR, marketing and advertising, . . . ”
It was not until the late 1980s that she joined a writing workshop in Northampton, Massachusetts, in her quest to write more in-depth, creative stories while toiling as a reporter with the Springfield Union-News. The series of short stories produced in that workshop eventually evolved into her first novel, Naked Addiction.
As an investigative journalist, Caitlin was drawn to “complex and dramatic stories – the most bizarre or tragic deaths and the public figures whose questionable actions evoked my investigative curiosity.” She wrote about Michael Jackson’s original molestation charges and addiction to painkillers, the lifestyle of the Heaven’s Gate cult and strippers’ laundered political contributions to San Diego City Council members, and developed expertise in addiction (alcohol and methamphetamine, suicide, mental illness and the family dynamics and pharmacology involved).
She expanded a series of news stories about the Kristin Rossum murder case into what would become her first true crime book, Poisoned Love.
In 1998, Caitlin was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize by the Union-Tribune. Her story about a depressed teenager who died after lighting himself on fire behind a Walmart store won three awards in the annual Best of the West contest. Her journalistic honors also include a Best Feature award from the Associated Press News Executives Council and Best News-Feature award from the Los Angeles Press Club.
In 2006, she contracted to draft her second non-fiction book and, in a risky leap of faith, left the security of her position with The San Diego Union-Tribune behind.
Today Caitlin is also the New York Times best-selling author of Lost Girls, Dead Reckoning, and Then No One Can Have Her. Additionally, she penned A Complicated Woman, one of three entries in Greg Olson’s Notorious USA series, and authored Hunting Charles Manson with Lis Wiehl. Her other books include Deadly Devotion/Where Hope Begins; My Life, Deleted; Body Parts; Twisted Triangle; I’ll Take Care of You, the story behind the love triangle murder of Newport Beach multimillionaire inventor Bill McLaughlin by his fiancée, Nanette Packard, and her NFL-playing lover, Eric Naposki, and Death on Ocean Boulevard, which has been optioned by Untitled Entertainment.
Caitlin’s next true crime book, Down to the Bone, about the McStay family murders, will be published in June 2025.
She is also writing a fictional crime series. The first novel, Dopamine Fix, and the following installment will be published in 2026.
A sought-after speaker, Caitlin has made more than 250 television, radio, and podcast appearances on 20/20, People Magazine Investigates, Crime Watch Daily, Australia’s World News, and various Netflix, Investigation Discovery, and Lifetime programs. She helps aspiring authors as a book doctor and writing/research/promotions coach and consultant. In her spare time, she sings and plays keyboard in a trio with her partner.
Connect with Caitlin via her website, or on Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram, Threads, or Bluesky.
To purchase autographed copies of Caitlin’s books, email her directly: crother at flash dot net.
Thank you, Caitlin!
Books by Caitlin Rother:
