Before midnight on March 19, 1950, several startled bystanders watched two men force a screaming young woman into a car and drive away from Saint Joseph's Hospital in Vancouver. One of them yelled out that she was his wife and was drunk. That was the last time anyone saw JoAnn Dewey alive. Her battered, naked body washed up on the banks of the Wind River seven days later. Suspicion quickly fell on two brothers, Turman and Utah Wilson, who fled town before police caught them in Sacramento. Their arrest and sensational trial captivated and divided the peaceful community. Author Pat Jollota uncovers the chilling details of this tragic story.
Pat Jollota came to Vancouver, Washington, in 1982 from Los Angeles, where she had spent twenty-two years as a civilian employee of the Los Angeles Police Department. Her late husband was a sergeant at that department. She was elected to the Vancouver City Council and served there for twenty years. She was named a First Citizen of Clark County in 2012. She has published two books for the Clark County Historical Society, as well as four volumes for Arcadia Publishing.