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by Ron Jr. Peterson (Author)
The true story of a trailblazing detective's search for a beautiful college coed who vanished without a trace.
In 1981, detective Kay Schucker was the lead investigator in the high-profile missing persons case of Old Dominion University student Janice Starr. The beautiful coed disappeared without a trace from ODU's Norfolk, Virginia campus. Among the only leads was Janice's diary, which included detailed journal entries about her daily activities. As Kay studied the diary--going several years back--she learned that Janice, a US Army veteran, had faced the same challenges in the military that Kay did in law enforcement. They were both women trying to succeed in a man's world. Feeling a kinship toward Janice, Kay became consumed with unraveling the mystery of Janice's disappearance and possible death. As the investigation unfolded, Kay began to suspect that Janice had an affair with her ROTC professor at ODU, Army captain Dwight Beddingfield--a well-respected family man married with three kids. Kay was warned by superiors to tread lightly in her investigation of Beddingfield and cautioned not to dig too deeply. But she soon uncovered a life insurance scheme and discovered that Janice had been assigned a series of dangerous tasks by Captain Beddingfield. Did these circumstances play a role in Janice's demise? Was the highly regarded Beddingfield actually a killer? If so, what did he do with Janice's remains?Author Biography
Runaway Groom is the fifth book by bestselling true crime author Ron Peterson, Jr. He is the author of Under the Trestle, recognized as one of the top one hundred true crime books of all time, and Chasing the Squirrel, optioned as a television series on a streaming service with Los Angeles-based Urban Legends Film Company. The Oxygen television network based a 2025 television show on his book In the Wind. Peterson is a Radford University journalism graduate, where he played NCAA baseball and was an editor with the university newspaper. His professional experience includes a background in television advertising, developing ad campaigns for Fortune 500 companies. Peterson makes his home in the historic downtown of Smithfield, Virginia.
