Without Pity

In Without Pity: Ann Rule's Most Dangerous Killers, Rule details 12 true crime cases that have haunted her throughout her career as a crime writer. I've always loved her writing style but this book just was not my favorite. Since we're reading about 12 cases, it doesn't let the reader really sit with the facts of the crime. Most of the case studies stayed around 40 pages each, which isn't bad but I felt like I couldn't dive right in and let the case consume me like some of Ann Rule's other works.

But let me tell you, the second to last story really got to me. It was titled "The Lost Lady" and detailed the disappearance and eventual death of Marcia Moore. This one bothered me for a number of reasons. So this is the one I want to talk about in my review today. Marcia Moore studied psychology and astrology and her much of her published works showed the interaction between the two. Shortly after marrying her husband, a well known anesthesiologist, they began experimenting with daily Ketamine use while trying to find a way to market "Ketamine Psychotherapy." Ketamine was a relatively new drug in the 70s and they had no idea what injecting 50 mg a day would do to Marcia. But they did it anyway.

 

Her husband came home one evening to find Marcia missing. Her kimono was thrown on the floor and all her personal belongings were on the table. But she was nowhere to be found. Two years later, her partial skull was found a mere 15 miles away from her home. They believed she wandered away in a drug induced haze and her death followed soon after.

 

Ann Rule shared updated details on this case in 2003. So I decided to do some internet sleuthing and discovered that this case has never been solved. But what is even more weird....Marcia's son, Christopher, went missing in 2010. His family assumed he was distancing himself from them, so they never filed a missing person's report. But several of his students created the Facebook Group, Where Is Mr. Roof? A former student was listening to a true crime podcast about an unidentified John Doe who was found in November 2010, in the woods, wearing a beanie with the name Chris stitched into it. She had a gut feeling that she knew it who it was. Christopher Roof remained a John Doe for over a decade before he was positively identified in September 2021.

It just feels like an odd coincidence that both Marcia and Christopher died mysterious deaths. Nearly 40 years apart and on opposite coasts, they both died in the woods, alone. I'm about to let this case completely consume me, so get ready for more books on this one.

Looking for other books by Ann Rule?

The Stranger Beside Me

Lust Killer

Lying in Wait