GRAVE ACCUSATIONS: A Suspicious Death, a Husband's Arrest, a Fight for Justice—a True Story

Police reporter Egger, Associated Press Award recipient for her work with New Mexico newspapers, delivers a compelling true-crime story involving Paul Dunn, a 16-year veteran of the Farmington, N.Mex., police department. In 1994, his estranged 31-year-old wife, Monica, died by gunshot while their children were in the house. Paul, age 35 and inside the house at the time of the shooting, was suspected of pulling the trigger; he was fired from the police department and, despite passing polygraph tests, indicted by a grand jury. Because of extensive pretrial publicity, the trial was relocated to Gallup, N.Mex. Paul claimed Monica had committed suicide, and the defense read her suicide letter ("I just don't have any more strength or power to go on"), which outlined funeral arrangements. Did Monica accidentally shoot herself while trying to manipulate her husband with a suicide threat? Egger calls this defense theory "the only thing that makes sense." The jury deliberated only an hour before finding Paul not guilty. Egger recounts the couple's stormy, adulterous marriage, the horror of Monica's death and the media frenzy surrounding her funeral, spotlighting Paul's emotional turmoil as he lost custody of his children and was ostracized by fellow officers, relatives and townspeople. An appendix includes Farmington citizens' praise for Paul's police performance, Monica's suicide letter and the grand jury foreman's statement that Paul wouldn't have been indicted if the grand jury had seen it. Egger has skillfully combined Paul's and others' memories with a variety of sources, including court documents, interviews, testimony and press accounts into a potent psychological drama. (Nov.)