As promised in the last blog, here is an update on the progress of my work on Murder in a Small Town: The Tragic Death of Stacey Burns.

1. Obviously, there has been no new information coming from official sources. The closest I’ve come to hearing anything from anyone in authority is the rumor (and I stress, RUMOR) that a state police officer told a member of the Burns family at the fall golf tournament that an arrest would be made very soon. Remember, this is in the rumor category, but if that statement was made, I guess I’d like a definition of the word “soon.”

2. I have revised the first four chapters which recount the events of Mothers’ Day weekend in 2009 according to information that I have at my disposal. These chapters will no doubt undergo further revisions in a future draft. I am in the process of revising the remaining fourteen chapters, including “fleshing out” sections for which I have obtained more details. For example, my visit to the home of Stacey Burns in early October provided me with details of the crime scene which previously had been only described to me by others. I expect that a second draft will be completed by the end of January, 2014. Unless something happens between now and then, the final chapters (Arrest, Trial, and Conviction) will not be written.

3. When this second draft is complete, it will still have some major elements missing. These elements have been explained in previous blogs. Basically, what is missing could be supplied by the New Hampshire State Police, (without jeopardizing the investigation, if there is one still going on) the Keane family, (who are now dealing with another loss of monumental proportions) Ed Burns, and a few peripheral people who have chosen not to take part in the project. (Michael Brabant, Eric Thor and others)

As any writer will tell you, the rewrite process is sometimes tedious and time-consuming but is a necessary step in producing a quality piece of work. This is certainly true in this case. Once again, if anyone out there would like to add a perspective to this book, please contact me.

I’ll close with a quote from a newspaper article about Jeff Stelzin’s visit with the Wolfeboro Police Commission. “This has not become a cold case,” Strelzin says. “Cases that do not have a quick arrest often have periods of activity and then dormancy, and then are active again. This case has been active for the last couple of months.”  The article is dated February 17, 2011, twenty two months ago! I guess it is in a dormant period right now?

Duke