One of the few true crime books I return to multiple times. This case fascinated me. Casey did an excellent job from start to finish.

It has always surprised me that there are still so few books about the prolific numbers of murders of women and girls in SE Texas. There have been enough to fill multiple volumes. I am glad Ms. Casey decided to cover a portion of them.

Deliver Us is a well done rundown on some of these murders, both solved and unsolved, of women and girls in the area along I45 between south east Houston and Galveston.

Casey does a very capable and restrained job of highlighting and not overshadowing the victims with their killers. There is no sensationalism here. There is no glorification of the killers or excuses made for their behaviors. She focuses a great deal on the girls and women and their lives leading up to their disappearances. She gives the victims' families a chance to tell their stories, and brings a much needed touch of humanity to these extremely sad cases.

When she does discuss the actual circumstances of the crimes and the suspects, it is very matter of fact, without feeling the need to add salaciousness to these acts, and she manages to also refrain from glamorizing the men responsible, which is something that more crime authors should be aware of in their own writings.

By keeping the main framing around the victims, the investigators, and the families, she does in fact, help give voice to the ones who can no longer speak.

I hope Ms. Casey does some sort of updated epilogue edition, as so much has come out since the original publication. Things went from decades of little progress to a sudden flood of it in three of the highlighted cases (and an additional 4th in Oklahoma).

Long time suspect, William Reece's confessions to the murders of Tiffany Johnston, Kelli Cox, Jessica Cane, Laura Smither, as well as his disclosure of the locations of the bodies of Jessica Cain and Kelli Cox allowing finally for their recovery, has at long last, officially brought answers to the murders of these four girls and women.

Decades long suspicions were finally vindicated and the families are at long last able to see some measure of justice with Reece being convicted in OK for the murder of Tiffany Johnson. I just wish Chief Stout were still alive to finally see Reece convicted of a murder. Not for his Texas victims at this point, but the OK murder conviction at least ensures he will never be paroled on the kidnapping conviction of Sandra Sapaugh.

Another aspect that is deserving of highlight in a follow up edition, is the Smither family's choice to forgive William Reece, even before his confession. The Smither family are an amazing example of not letting three more lives be further destroyed by what Reece did to their daughter and sister.

Here is David Smither's article on his choice to forgive William Reece.

https://www.ncregister.com/commentaries/how-i-learned-to-love-my-sister-s-murderer

Gay Smither has said similar things in interviews after this time. The Smither family, are quite extraordinary people, who despite their own tragedy and sorrow, have reached out and helped so many others. May God continue to grant them peace as they continue their lives and hopefully now have at least some answers to this most heart breaking experience.

I hope Ms. Casey and others like her continue to highlight the unsolved murders of the area and continue to give voice to the victims and their families, in hopes that more of these may be solved and prevent even more tragedies in the future.

Of all the true crime novels that I’ve read, this one focused on the victims—rather than the killers— the most. I especially appreciate the years of research done to tell everyone’s stories- the victims, the survivors, the convicted, and the detectives. I was also a fan of the way the story was outlined, chronologically and with fare and attention given to each story, rather than an overarching story with some small side notes of others.

3✨

I think this was a very hard story to tell. Mostly because she chose to cover 3 decades. So it makes sense it was very open ended, but it felt all over the place.

4.5 stars

More than 20 women died and were found along the I-45 highway road in Texas. Some cases have suspects whom could be prosecuted, some involves corrupted policemen, some had the highly likely innocent people in jail, some missing evidences, clash of opinion between the professionals and majority of the cases still unsolved. Put that on a screenplay, it is definitely an interesting movie to watch but when in reality, it's the horrible thing that could ever happened. Spanning from early 1970's to 1990's, the biggest questions are: were these the work of a serial killer and why the place was used as body dumping ground?

While some other works of true crime focus more on the predator and the crime, this book put the victims under the spotlight, highlighting of who they were and their lives in which make a reader better familiar with them, their families and the impact that their death brought to the community in general. The crime is hideous but the author's writing is excellent. Pretty obvious that the author did an amazing job in investigating the case although there is an update regarding 2 Jane Does that had been identified in 2019. With the advance of technology and in the light of some very old cold cases that been solved recently (the Golden State Killer and the Hwaseong Murder Case) I really hope, these cases will be solve soon.