{"product_id":"runaway-devil-isbn-9780771073618","title":"Runaway Devil","description":"Marc and Debra seemed to have it all—a lovely home in the Prairie town of Medicine  Hat, fulfilling careers, a supportive marriage, and two beautiful children: eight-year-old  Jacob and twelve-year-old JR. After years of struggle to reach this point, they finally  felt their future held promise. But on April 23, 2006, their bodies were discovered  in their basement, covered in savage stab wounds. Upstairs, Jacob lay dead on his  bed, his toys spattered with blood.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Investigators worried for JR’s safety, but  unknown to them, the pretty honour roll student had been developing a disturbing  alter ego online. Runaway Devil professed a fondness for a darker world of death  metal music, the goth subculture, and a love for Jeremy Steinke, a twenty-three-year-old  high-school dropout who lived in a rundown trailer park. Soon, shocking evidence  in JR’s school locker—printed here for the first time—led police to believe the  girl was a suspect in her family’s murders.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The case horrified parents everywhere.  Journalists Robert Remington and Sherri Zickefoose have been covering it from the  beginning, and in \u003ci\u003eRunaway Devil\u003c\/i\u003e, they reveal what really happened: the unlikely young  love, the teenage rebellion, a troubling world of adolescent drifters, and a small  community torn apart by an unthinkable crime.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e A modern cautionary tale, \u003ci\u003eRunaway  Devil \u003c\/i\u003eis also a chilling portrait of an approval-seeking man smitten with a manipulative  young girl—who would stop at nothing to get what she wanted.Authors’ Note\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e1 All Hell for a Basement\u003cbr\u003e2 The Almighty Jaxz\u003cbr\u003e3 Prairie Wolves\u003cbr\u003e4 Til Death Do We Part\u003cbr\u003e5 RAWR!\u003cbr\u003e6 A Blood Shedding Fight\u003cbr\u003e7 Why?\u003cbr\u003e8 The Party\u003cbr\u003e9 Crime Scene\u003cbr\u003e10 The Getaway\u003cbr\u003e11 Peace in the Summerland\u003cbr\u003e12 Love Letters\u003cbr\u003e13 Swooning for Svengali\u003cbr\u003e14 The Confession\u003cbr\u003e15 Judgment Day\u003cbr\u003e16 A Mini-Karla?\u003cbr\u003e17 A Trail of Tears\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEpilogue\u003cbr\u003eAcknowledgements\u003cbr\u003eIndex\u003cb\u003eA NATIONAL BESTSELLER \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “A page-turning thrill.” —\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “The authors  have done a masterful job of crafting the true story like a crime novel . . . chilling  and compelling.” —\u003ci\u003eFast Forward Weekly \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “An authoritative account of the murders  that rocked this city.” —\u003ci\u003eMedicine Hat News\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “\u003ci\u003eRunaway Devil\u003c\/i\u003e tells a story you don’t forget. . . . gripping . . . I also commend Zickefoose and Remington on humanizing the victims.” —\u003ci\u003ePeterborough Examiner\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e“A great read . . . powerful, scary, maddening, but you can’t put it down.” —Gord Gillies, Global TV Calgary\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “In spite of severe legal restrictions,  \u003ci\u003eRunaway Devil \u003c\/i\u003eeffectively details . . . a shocking Canadian triple murder . . . it brings  to life the characters—the victims, the criminals and the supporting cast. This  book does a better job than many in the genre.” —\u003ci\u003eWinnipeg Free Press\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Well written,  excellent, highly recommended.” —Reg Hampton, CTV News Calgary\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “The book is a cautionary  tale on several fronts: the perils of the Internet, Goth culture, heavy-metal music,  violence in film.” —\u003ci\u003eNational Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Dogged reporting had led the pair to countless  scoops and insights into the bizarre case even before the girl was taken to trial  and found guilty of murder. . . . [It’s] as full a picture as we are likely to get into  how the unimaginable happened.” —\u003ci\u003eCalgary Herald\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Expert journalistic handling . . . \u003ci\u003eRunaway Devil \u003c\/i\u003ewill have you checking the contents of your daughters’ iPod and watching  how much time she spends on social networking.” —\u003ci\u003eJanuary\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003emagazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Elegantly crafted  and written, \u003ci\u003eRunaway Devil\u003c\/i\u003e is a fine attempt to explain the inexplicable.” —Elliott  Leyton, author of \u003ci\u003eSole Survivor: Children Who Murder Their Families\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “A finely constructed  narrative of a horrific crime that shocked a nation . . . never again will I see youths  hanging around a mall with nothing to do and not think about JR and Jeremy.” —Nick  Pron, author of\u003ci\u003e Lethal Marriage: The Unspeakable Crimes of Paul Bernardo and Karla  Homolka\u003c\/i\u003eAward-winning journalist ROBERT REMINGTON is a former columnist and editorial writer with the \u003ci\u003eCalgary Herald\u003c\/i\u003e and former national correspondent for \u003ci\u003eThe National Post\u003c\/i\u003e. He has also written for the \u003ci\u003eGlobe and Mail\u003c\/i\u003e, was arts editor and sports editor at \u003ci\u003eThe Edmonton Journal\u003c\/i\u003e, and a syndicated television columnist for United Features, New York.  His journalism career has taken him to Pakistan, East Africa, India, Central Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Central America. He lives in Victoria, British Columbia.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSHERRI ZICKEFOOSE is a former crime reporter for the \u003ci\u003eCalgary Herald\u003c\/i\u003e. Her tenacious reporting on the case resulted in exclusive interviews with Jeremy Steinke's mother and other key figures in one of the most notorious crime stories in recent history. She writes daily about villains and victims, justice issues, and unlikely heroes.1\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eALL HELL FOR A BASEMENT\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Mommy, there’s bodies with blood on them.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJacob and Gareth were inseparable that spring, playing ball hockey, wrestling, and pretending to be Jedi knights engaged in a galactic struggle to save the universe. The afternoon of April 23 was a particularly good time to be a little boy. Bright, sunny, and warm, it hinted tantalizingly at the long summer days to come. Soon, the prickly pear cactus would be in yellow bloom, an anomaly in a country known for ice and snow but part of the normal cycle of seasons on the semi-arid southeastern Alberta prairie, where deep coulees hide dinosaur bones and rattlesnakes nest amid eerie outcroppings of sandstone sculpted by wind and rain.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor Gareth, it was certainly no day to be cooped up at grandma’s house. There were pretend hockey games to be won in sudden death overtime and home runs to be hit in the bottom of the ninth inning. Darth Vader’s Death Star had to be attacked, the Dark Side confronted, Imperial storm troopers vanquished, the republic restored.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe six-year-old boy gazed out the window and sighed. “Mommy, can I please go to Jacob’s and play?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSarah Penner looked at her son. He had been patient all morning, tagging along as she ran errands with his little sister in tow. Now, as they ate lunch at her mother’s house, he was growing restless and bored. He wanted desperately to see Jacob, his next-door neighbour and best friend.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe previous day, the two boys had played together all day, as usual. Gareth was supposed to sleep at Jacob’s house Saturday night, but instead he went with his grandmother to the hockey game between the hometown Medicine Hat Tigers and the Moose Jaw Warriors, who were battling for the Eastern Conference championship in the 2006 Junior A Western Hockey League playoffs. It was the hottest ticket in town, and the last-minute chance to go to the game was not to be missed. In lieu of a sleepover, Jacob’s dad, Marc, had cooked the boys hot dogs on the backyard barbecue. Sarah called Gareth home at 5:30 in the afternoon, bundled him off to the hockey game with her mother, and went out with a friend.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen Sarah got home at 10:30 p.m., Gareth was already home from the game, which the Tigers lost 4–3 in overtime, and sleeping soundly. Sarah parked her car in the driveway and noticed that the lights next door at Jacob’s house were off. Everything seemed normal.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn Sunday morning, after breakfast, Sarah headed to her mother’s house with the kids. Now, with lunch finished and Gareth beginning to fidget, Sarah agreed it was time to leave. She told her son to phone Jacob to see if he could play. If not, she would take him to the movies. Gareth darted to the phone and dialled Jacob’s number.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe family’s answering machine picked up. On the recording, Gareth heard the cheerful voice of Jacob’s mom, Debra: “Hello, you’ve reached the very happy home of —”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGareth hung up, disappointed.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“I’ll take you to the movies instead,” Sarah promised.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSarah left her daughter with her mom, gathered up her son, and made the short drive back to their house in Ross Glen, a tidy, suburban, middle-class community of mid-1970s bungalows and split-level homes in Medicine Hat, a city of 57,000 located 300 kilometres southeast of Calgary. It was about 1:15 p.m. when Sarah pulled into the big common driveway they shared with their next-door neighbours Marc, Debra, Jacob, and their 12-year-old daughter, JR.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGareth’s face brightened when he saw Jacob’s dad’s white truck sitting in the driveway. He raced next door as Sarah walked into her house, set down her keys, and began looking for the discount matinee movie coupons she would use that afternoon.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWithin a minute, Gareth was back in the front entrance, calling to his mother. “Mommy, there’s bodies at Jacob’s with blood on them. I saw them through the basement window,” he said in an urgent voice.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSarah looked at him in disbelief. Six-year-old boys have active imaginations, but Gareth wasn’t one to make up a story like that and his voice was remarkably even and calm. “What did you say?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“I think I saw bodies with blood on them. Come quick.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGareth ran back to the house next door, with Sarah following across the driveway. “You better not be lying, Gareth,” she warned. This was not something to joke about.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs Gareth pressed his face and hands to a ground-floor window, Sarah did the same. She nervously peered into the downstairs family room of her neighbours’ split-level home, shielding her eyes against the reflections on the glass. A wave of nausea hit her. She saw the body of a man lying faceup on the floor, clad in black boxer shorts. His legs were smeared with blood and he appeared to be reaching out with his arms, as if in motion. But something was wrong. He wasn’t moving. There was also blood coating his face, so much blood that she couldn’t tell if it was Marc. Behind a couch, she saw the body of Debra lying on the floor, almost on her back and in an oddly bent angle. Her legs were also smeared with blood.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSarah gasped, grabbed Gareth by the arm, and hurried the few steps back to her house. She stopped at the front door, afraid to go inside, fearful an attacker might be lurking. She pulled out her cellphone and called her mother. “Something bad has happened next door. You need to come over,” she said, describing the gruesome scene.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“You’ve got to call 911,” her mother replied. “I’ll be right there.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSarah trembled as she dialled. Talking rapidly, she told the dispatcher what she had seen. Her heart was beating hard. Could an attacker be close by, watching? Could he have broken into her house while she and the kids were at her mother’s?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eToo nervous to stay in her home, Sarah loaded Gareth in the car, backed out of the driveway, and parked on the street, waiting for her mother. She couldn’t get the horrible thought out of her head that Gareth had wanted to sleep over at Jacob’s on Saturday night.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt didn’t hit her at the time, but with all the lives lost that day, Sarah would later come to realize that something in her little boy died that bright Sunday, too. Killed in Gareth was his innocence, the thing that mothers fight so very hard to protect.","brand":"McClelland \u0026 Stewart","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46301315924197,"sku":"NP9780771073618","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780771073618.jpg?v=1767735976","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/runaway-devil-isbn-9780771073618","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}