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When Laurie Taylor first contacted me about investigating her mother's unsolved murder, I remember being very skeptical.

That's an occupational hazard in law enforcement.

FBI profilers have a well-developed sense of skepticism about the tales we are told and those who tell them.

We question everything and everyone. It is, after all, part of how we go about solving mysteries.

My first impression was that Laurie was in way over her head. The death occurred in Mexico, which meant she was dealing with not one government crime-solving agency, but two.

Laurie was not in any way qualified to do this work. She used to work in sports marketing and now was a housewife living in Orange County, California.

These occupations do not generally help people to develop the skills needed to solve an international criminal case.

But then I remembered, well, I used to be a nurse for Pete's sake, but Laurie Taylor is persuasive, very persuasive. So I took on her case.

Most people, true crime fans at least, fantasize about catching a thief or trapping a murderer in a web of lies.

The crime procedures on TV make it seem really easy to solve mysteries as if they were a puzzle or a game of widths.

But real-life crime-solving isn't like that at all. It takes serious patience, impeccable organization, a sharp memory, a relentless desire to find the truth, and an unwillingness to take no foreign answer.

Most people simply don't have these skills. And even more importantly, most criminal investigators don't have the desire, time, or clearance to allow a private citizen into an investigation in any real way.

Doing so could slow down the process or put them in danger, either actual physical danger or legal danger.

Laurie Taylor is the only exception to this rule that I have ever encountered. She slowly proved to me and my fellow law enforcement professionals exactly how serious she was.

She was determined to solve her mother's murder.

Laurie's dedication won me over, and in the end, I agreed to work with her.

As a retired FBI agent, I choose how to spend my time and I rarely get involved in investigations anymore.

But this case, I simply could not walk away from.

We were lucky enough to solve the murder, but the end came with a disturbing and painful price.

Solving a mystery can be a mixed blessing. The truth may not be what you hope to find, or what you imagined it might be.

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