On Sunday, I had written a post for Forbes that I had not yet put up on the site when the horrific news about the Powell case roared out of Washington State.
Because of the breaking news, I delayed the original post. It is up on the site now.
In the past, as a crime writer, I’ve rarely had difficulty speaking to victims’ family members. I’ve laughed with them over funny remembrances, cried with them for their loss, and talked with them about the conflicting emotions that arose in the courtroom.Somewhere along the line, with some families, that dynamic has changed. It is a problem I am facing more often—and right now, it is an obstacle in my work on a book about the deaths of teenagers Calyx and Beau Schenecker, whose mother, Julie Powers Schenecker, has been charged in their murders.
I’m not sure how it happened, but the once tabloid-only practice of paying for interviews has grown far more common, albeit through more subtle means.