This is exactly right.

This story contains adult content and language.

Listener discretion is advised.

It is thought that he put the knife to her throat and told her she had to sign that document.

I'm Kate Winkler Dawson, a nonfiction author and journalism professor in Austin, Texas.

I'm also the co-host of the podcast Buried Bones on Exactly Right, and throughout my career,

research for my many audio and book projects has taken me around the world.

On Wicked Words, I sit down with the people I've met along the way, amazing writers, journalists,

filmmakers, and podcasters who have investigated and reported on notorious true crime cases.

This is about the choices writers make, both good and bad, and it's a deep dive into the

unpublished details behind their stories.

Author Diane Fanning is known for covering high-profile cases like Casey Anthony and John

Bonae Ramsey. But not with this book. In the summer of 2011, Laura Jean Ackerson left to pick up

her two sons from her ex-husband's home, and she was never seen alive again. Diane digs into this case,

which leads us from North Carolina down to Texas. Her book is called Bitter Remains, a custody battle,

a gruesome crime, and the mother who paid the ultimate price.

How did you run across Laura Jean Ackerson's story?

Because I'm used to seeing, you know, Michael Peterson, those kind of really bigger cases, Casey Anthony.

And this is not a case that got a ton of publicity.

I hadn't heard of it.

No, it hadn't gotten a lot of publicity.

But I think the fact that I was living in Virginia again,

...