Welcome! I’m Duke Southard, an author, retired educator, and lecturer.
I have published seven novels, a commissioned history, and an anthology of
award-winning short stories and essays.
Please check out my blog where I write about true crime and a wide ranging variety of literary and everyday subjects.
My Programs
My programs are offered free of charge to any schools, public libraries, and educational/community groups.
Free Book
Grab a free copy of my book, The Week from Heaven and Hell
My Books
View a list of my published books, including Tainted Justice.
Recent Posts
Stacey and a Season of Hope
This is a quote from Chapter Nine (page 86) in Murder in a Small Town: The Tragic Death of Stacey Burns. The season mentioned was to be, by all accounts from friends of Stacey's, a transforming time in her life, a new chapter that would free her from the suffocation...
A Comment About Witnesses
Today, I will quote a few brief sentences from Chapter Seven of the current draft of Murder in a Small Town: The Tragic Death of Stacey Burns. This chapter centers on the importance of what I'll call the "forty-eight hour" rule in homicide investigation. A detective...
The Killer’s Entry
My last blog dealt with the method of entry used by Stacey Burns' killer to get into the house. That blog triggered some interesting responses which can be read by the general public. If any of these responses are accurate, then the theory for the killer's entry put...
A Murderer Enters the House
Those who watched the 20/20 episode which featured the Stacey Burns murder case know that the killer entered the house through the attached barn. The door to the barn was always open, at least partially because it was broken. This is my fact for the day. However, a...
As Promised- Another “Fact”
As promised in the last blog, here is another fact which was mentioned by more than one person within such a close time proximity that the chances of compared notes were slim. The fact: (I was so certain that this was true that it is included in Chapter Three)...
Fact or Fiction?
At the risk of sounding like the proverbial broken record, I will say this one more time. Without police cooperation and the resulting corroboration of "facts" I have uncovered, these "facts" will suffer the fate of being relegated to the rumor and speculation junk...
Second draft-Murder in a Small Town . . .
Since returning from the trip to New Jersey and New Hampshire, I have set to work on a new draft of the narrative of the Stacey Burns murder case. This second draft (actually some sections are in the third and fourth draft stage) will contain much new material but...
Another Police Question
This blog will also be brief, just as the last question regarding a blood smear. This has been asked before but, as the cold case detectives are surely doing, I am revisiting some aspects of the Stacey Burns murder case which I find troubling. Here it is: How did John...
Clarification-Question for the investigators
Yesterday's blog mentions a question I had for the police regarding a blood smear on the wall of the staircase in Stacey Burns' house. Just to clarify, the house has been cleaned and there is now no evidence whatsoever of a murder having been committed there. I was...
A Question for the Investigators
For a change of pace, this blog will be very brief. Here is a two part question I'd like to ask the investigators who are currently working to solve the Stacey Burns murder case if they were to allow me to do so. Whose DNA was contained in the smear of blood on the...
Motive and Integrity-Expect questions!
For my "Adventures of a True Crime Neophyte" program in New Hampshire, I added a slide entitled Personal Hard Lessons Learned. There are four lesson listed but this blog is about the third item in the list. It concerns what a writer may expect when he or she...
Frustration #2-The Police
Here is what I told a reporter while I was back in New Hampshire. "If I were a detective for the New Hampshire State Police investigating the Stacey Burns murder case, I would want to talk to me." It is now an astounding four years and five months since Stacey was...