From John Douglas—the legendary FBI criminal
profiler, #1 New York Times bestselling author, and inspiration
for the Netflix show Mindhunter—comes
a chilling journey inside the mind and crimes of Larry Gene Bell, one of the
most dangerous serial killers Douglas confronted, and the desperate effort to
identify and catch him.

On May 31, 1985, two days before her high
school graduation, Shari Smith was abducted from the driveway of her family
home in South Carolina. Based on the crime scene and the abductor’s repeated
and taunting calls to the family, law enforcement quickly realized they
were dealing with a sophisticated and highly dangerous criminal. A letter arrived
the next day entitled “Last Will & Testament,” in which Shari, knowing she
was to be murdered, wrote bravely and achingly of her love for her parents,
siblings, and boyfriend, saying that while they would miss her, she knew they
would persevere through their faith. The abduction rocked her quiet town,
triggering a massive manhunt and bringing in the FBI, which enlisted profiler
John Douglas. A few days later, a phone call told the family where they could
find Shari’s body.

Then nine-year-old Debra May Helmick was
kidnapped from her yard, confirming the harsh realization that Smith’s murder
was no random act. A serial killer was evolving, and the only way to stop him
would be to use the study of criminal behavior to anticipate his next move
before he could kill again. Douglas devised a risky and emotionally fraught
strategy to use Shari’s lookalike older sister Dawn as bait to draw out the
unknown subject. Dawn and her parents courageously agreed.

One of the most haunting investigations of
Douglas’s storied career, this case details how the
eerily accurate profile he created—alongside his carefully
crafted and stage-managed manipulation of the killer’s psychology—combined with
dedicated police work and cutting-edge forensic science to end a reign of
criminal terror. As Shari’s family took incredible personal risks to lure her
killer from the shadows, Douglas and the FBI pushed criminal profiling to its
limits, culminating in one of his most dramatic and
effective confrontations with a sadistic and remorseless killer.