Helen Aragona’s bright, lively young daughter had it all: Phyllis was in love and engaged to be married to a sweet, caring man, Scott Gasperson. She worked for Scott’s father in one of the many businesses he owned in her North Carolina hometown. Scott and Phyllis shared a place in the country with dozens of rescued animals. Phyllis had a weakness for anything with fur or feathers. But one day the couple disappeared. Workers showing up to the store where Scott was the manager found it had been robbed, but neither Scott nor Phyllis could be found. Then a deputy searching in the woods found Scott’s car and, beside the car on the ground, the murdered Scott. He had been shot in the head, execution style. At that point rumors began flying that Phyllis had murdered Scott to get his insurance money. Helen’s life, already turned upside down became a nightmare. She began getting harassing phone calls and detectives followed her every move, thinking she could be meeting Phyllis. But Phyllis wasn’t behind what happened to Scott — instead it was a Cuban refugee who was part of the Witness Protection Program and who was acting as a double-informant for both NCIS and the FBI, without the agencies knowing about the other one. 

The Last Place You’d Look (May 2011, Rowman & Littlefield) tells the story of a missing woman and what happened to her and her family.