Combining the drama of a true crime story with the detail of a police procedural, Finding Amy chronicles the investigation into one of the most shocking murders in recent Maine history. Twenty-five-year-old Amy St. Laurent was attractive, intelligent, and responsible. One October evening, she went out to show a friend from Florida the exciting nightlife of Portland’s Old Port section. She played pool. She danced. And then she disappeared. The police investigation into her murder riveted the state of Maine for months.
This inside account of the investigation alternates between Kate Clark Flora’s objective tale of dedicated police work and the dramatic recollections of then-Lieutenant Joseph K. Loughlin, who oversaw the case. From the first call to a Portland detective about a missing woman to the police’s growing certainty that she had been murdered, from the heroic efforts to locate the body to the flight from Maine of their chief suspect, and from the painstaking work of collecting evidence and building a case to the struggles over jurisdictional questions to the twists and turns of the eventual trial, Finding Amy is a dramatic story of brutal murder and exemplary police work.
“Finding Amy is an enthralling reconstruction of the murder investigation of Amy St. Laurent, a bright and lovely young woman who disappeared one October night in 2001 and who was found in a shallow grave seven weeks later. It begins with the first report of Amy's disappearance and follows some dedicated cops as they doggedly piece together information, formulate and reformulate theories, eliminate suspects, then fix their sights on a chillingly remorseless psychopath. Instinct, experience and good police work eventually bring the killer to justice even though for weeks there was no body, no crime scene, and no witnesses.
“What distinguishes Finding Amy from other books of true-crime reporting are the two intertwined narratives. The captivating whodunit storyline of noted mystery author Kate Clark Flora is interspersed with the sobering and sometimes moving first-person behind-the-scenes log of Captain Joseph K. Loughlin who headed up the search for Amy and her killer. The result is a highly compelling read from the opening page to the bittersweet final lines. This is true-crime reporting at its best.”—Gary Braver, author of Flashback.
“A remarkable chronicle of the search for a young woman that brought together multiple jurisdictions in an extraordinarily cooperative and focused effort. Loughlin and Flora give us a compelling and moving
behind-the-scenes window on the investigation, trial, and—most of all—the impact of Amy's story on the lives and hearts of the investigators.”—Margaret Press, author of A Scream on the Water
