Unraveling Secrets: Benjamin Hale on the Mysterious Disappearance That Haunts the Ozarks
LL: Cave Mountain is so deeply researched and rooted in place, that it felt as if I was in that Jeep with you, along the mountainside, hanging out in Panera talking with folks about the crime. I’m curious about your process, the timing, your sources. Who — or what — were the sources you trusted most? Any you were skeptical of? Maybe a detail you may have initially overlooked that later changed the case?
BH: As to the last question, I do have a specific answer. To fully explain this might be getting into the weeds of the story a bit too much, but let’s give it a shot. In 1978, there were five people who were arrested; they weren’t charged with murder at first, because they didn’t have a body yet — just a disappeared child they strongly suspected was dead. One of the five was given immunity from prosecution in order to testify against the others. When I first started looking into it, no one knew why. The two others who were convicted of the murder who are still alive were both still baffled by it. The person who was granted immunity bore at least as much guilt for the murder as the others, and in my opinion, more.
