Runaway Devil: How Forbidden Love Drove a 12-Year-Old to Murder Her Family

In 2006, 12-year-old ""J.R."" and her 23-year-old boyfriend Jeremy Steinke murdered her mother, father and younger brother. Collecting information on the couple's troubling relationship, immersion in the local goth scene and obsession with violent music and films, Calgary journalists Remington and Zickefoose piece together the puzzle of a young girl's turn to familicide, a ""culture did it"" approach balanced by the considerable possibilities that Steinke corrupted the smart young girl, or vice-versa-that a charismatic young J.R. lured Steinke into murder. Ultimately, the authors manage at best to humanize the senseless tragedy of two deeply disturbed people, but don't look too hard for answers; the result is less like a genuine attempt to understand the tragedy than an exploitative narrative sounding the alarm against exploitation. As is unfortunately characteristic of true crime involving youth culture, this case has a schizophrenic approach to the goth subculture, which they describe as both misunderstood (demonized) and having played a prominent part in the couple's crimes. Still, those who want a solid, sensationalist crime account that gets into the heads of its subjects should find this a page-turning thrill.