April 18, 2005

The garbageman and the bestseller . . .

by

The brutal rape and murder of writer Christa Worthington has finally been solved, and according to an Associated Press wire story by Matt Pitta, the solution seems at odds with speculation in the bestselling book about the case, Invisible Eden: A Story of Love and Murder on Cape Cod by Maria Flook. Pitta reports that authorities in Truro, Massachusetts have arrested Worthington’s garbage man, Christopher M. McCowen, for the killing, after his DNA sample matched a semen sample found on Worthington’s body. Worthington, a highly successful fashion reporter, had dropped out of the business to raise her two-year old daughter in the small Cape Cod town. She was found dead in a pool of blood with her daughter clinging to her. Flook’s book covered varied speculation that Worthington had been murdered by a former boyfriend, or the father of her daughter, and it “outraged those close to Worthington for its portrayal of her as sexually promiscuous.”

Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.

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