Bøger af Nick Van Der Leek

In CHRISTMAS STAR the world's most prolific true crime author tackles brand new evidence related to the unsolved JonBenet Ramsey case, in a brand new way.The new last photo of JonBenet Ramsey released in January 2019, 23 years after the murder, is fully analyzed. Besides giving the last photo the True Crime Rocket Science treatment, CHRISTMAS STAR also delves deeply into the unique pageantry surrounding the Ransom Note.

The biggest revelation from the Second Confession is Chris Watts' story about taking his girls to CERVI 319 while they were still alive. Watts said it, the Rzucek lawyers repeated it on Dr. Phil along with the Rzuceks themselves. The Weld County District Attorney assigned to the Watts case has also signed off on this version. The media have since reported on this version as fact. Finally, social media has recycled this version as if it's fact. Even a few credible YouTubers have commented on this aspect as if it's reliable. The popular mythology surrounding this case - as it stands now - is that Watts killed the girls early on Monday morning at the Anadarko site. We know this because the source - Chris Watts - told us.ANNIHILATION reveals a terrifying counter narrative. Not only is the popular mythology wrong, but the truth is far worse, far more horrible and far stranger than we have dared contemplate.

Questions remain around the mysterious death and disappearance of 11-year-old Gannon Stauch. What really happened? Where did the crime happen?Why? What was the murder weapon? How was the poor child's body disposed of not once, but twice?Taking on one of his trickiest assignments yet, true crimes' most prolific star investigates 36-year-old Letecia Stauch, the stepmother of the boy that disappeared from Colorado Springs on January 27th, 2020. "The 32-page Stauch Affidavit provides clues to the tangled web of Letecia's heart, and mind. But it also reveals her exact movements immediately before and after Gannon's disappearance. In Boy, Interrupted, I've tried to unravel who this person is by following where she went, and what she said and did afterwards."Nick van der Leek applies sophisticated investigative techniques honed through his analysis of the world's highest profile cases, to the heartwrenching story of the little boy from Lorson Ranch whose life was so cruelly interrupted.

In the early hours of August 13, a Ring doorbell camera records 34-year-old Shan'ann Watts arriving home in Frederick, Colorado from a business trip at 01:48. The pregnant mother enters her home on Saratoga Trail and is never seen alive again. Shan'ann's 33-year-old husband Chris Watts is seen on his neighbor's doorbell camera from 05:27 onward. The camera records Watts backing his truck into the driveway, then heading back into the house and out to the truck several times. Although no bodies can be seen on the camera, during one of the trips to his truck he appears to be walking backwards, dragging something.Exactly what happened in the 3 hours 39 minutes between those two camera recordings remains unclear and uncertain.RAPE OF CASSANDRA undoes the distortions, untangles the web that exists on both sides of the crime, and probes deep inside the fabric and psychology of the crime scene to find the signal buried in the noise. During the sentencing hearing on November 19, 2018, Weld County District Attorney Michael Rourke said investigators don't know the exact sequence of events. Because of the gruesome manner the bodies of his two children, Bella [4] and Celeste [3] were disposed of, investigators haven't been able to establish time of death either. Were the children killed before or after their mother?RAPE OF CASSANDRA investigates the exact sequence of events, from the time of the first death in the Watts home, to the disposal at the Cervi site, to how and why a "normal" family man wreaked a holocaust against his own family, and ultimately, himself.The Discovery Documents reveal how Watts' story of the crime comes about. Eventually Watts is prompted: "Did Shan'ann do something?" But even Watts' confession isn't reliable.In the moment that Chris Watts steps forward out of his quiet, introverted self and rises as the hero in his "confession", Shan'ann falls as the villain, a convenient, symbolic and of course cowardly distortion of the truth.So what is the truth?Watts was undoubtedly devoted but weak during his marriage, inspired but duplicitous during his affair, and the murders themselves were the ultimate manifestation of his quintessential cowardice. But his resolve to murder didn't arise in a vacuum. It germinated in a troubled paradise; that aspect has to be acknowledged as well. That aspect is RAPE OF CASSANDRA's terrifying terra firma.

Why the girls? Why did he have to murder Bella and Celeste?In TWO POLLYANNAS the dynamics of the children are added to the criminal psychology. What do the children reveal about the Watts couple that we don't already know...?

The second narrative in this ground breaking and definitive series covering the Chris Watts case drills deeper. It explores unseen, murky themes - identity, back story, poverty and invalidation - floating behind the walls of the Watts home. In BENEATH THE OIL, for the first time the full extent of how Chris Watts was locked-in is revealed, as well as why he may have broken out of his deeply dysfunctional marriage the way he did.

In the second narrative in the SILVER FOX trilogy true crime rocket scientist Nick van der Leek analyzes the Chris Watts case in a brand new way - through the prism of marriage. "We want to see the marriage while standing in his shoes, and then step into Shan'ann heels, and feel out the view from there. We don't want glimpses through selfies - we want a longer, slower pan through their marriage, so that we can feel our way to something we haven't seen before. I call it weddedness. How wedded were each of these people, and how did that drive the wheels towards inevitable annihilation?"SILVER FOX WEDDED HUSBAND WEDDED WIFE also integrates the latest news, analysis and dramatizations into the most authentic and up-to-date account of the Watts case available anywhere.

"The last chapter in particular is grueling and grotesque..."The fifth book in Nick van der Leek's definitive TWO FACE series on Chris Watts does exactly what the title claims: it drills deep through the mountain of Discovery Documents.The fifth narrative not only makes sense of the 1960 pages of discovery, it also integrates the video footage for the first time into a seamless narrative. Missing pieces are found and new insights revealed and contextualized in the most comprehensive assembly of facts and psychological analysis around this puzzling case yet. The main focus of the narrative is on the three hour FBI interview with Chris Watts on Tuesday night, August 14, and the astonishing follow-up interrogation leading to Watts' confession the next day.Drilling Through Discovery does nothing less than uncover Watts' thought process leading up to the murders.

No one has been able to say why - until now."As we navigate our way through the monster's murky psychology, pushing through his dark impulses and penetrating his despicable motivations, will we find ourselves far from familiar places, or troublingly closer to them?"

RESURRECTION saved the most vital clues - on MOTIVE - for last. REVELATIONS, the 4th in this series, does exactly the same. The last chapter, The Method and the Madness, is horrific, and terrifying. It is the author's attempt, together with Juror13, to provide a plausible scenario for what actually took place at 256 Bushwillow Crescent on Valentine's Day. This final part of the narrative has been assembled by contextualising all the evidence, testimonies and timelines. The author painstakingly provides over 50 references for each carefully considered set of variables. Together with America's Juror13, both writers build a very compelling scenario. But the REVELATIONS go even further than the final chapter. If the other chapter titles are anything to go by ('14 Unanswered Questions', 'Glass Houses', 'Sex Kitten', 'Sultans of Swing', ...) the 4th eBook ventures boldly where angels - and many South African journalists - fear to tread. And possibly for good reason. During the process of writing and researching REVELATIONS the author experienced strange computer instability and crashes. He believes his computer was consistently targeted and attacked over several weeks. The hacker (or hackers) deleted 5 folders of sensitive information before the author sent an email to [a possible source of the hacking] warning that further attacks, and every subsequent deleted folder, would result in massive coverage across his social media networks. This email was not acknowledged, nor responded to, except the attacks and hacking ceased immediately after this email. Is there something the public isn't supposed to see? Is the media hiding something? Is there massive multi-level collusion in play? And who is the mysterious Juror13? Van der Leek digs deeper in REVELATIONS than ever...but, to what end? The author states that "Book four has been timed for release just prior to the State's presentation of final argument on August 7. '14 Questions' of vital importance have emerged, via my research. If we acknowledge their importance, but the state prosecutor, or the court, does not, we must ask, why not? Is it because the answers can't be found or can't be proven, or does it lie outside the courts jurisdiction, or is it because by asking these questions it puts counsel (and possibly even the court itself) in a bad light?" "As society we have an interest in this case" Van der Leek writes "and we need to be satisfied that the standards of the law and the standards of justice meet *our* standards. The law in fact is based in part on the modern or contemporary consensus of society; on what is socially acceptable, on our norms for behaviour, and on activating these when fine lines are crossed." "We're paying attention to this case because we want to understand why this terrible incident took place, and how this can - and does - happen, all too often. We live in a dangerous society. Just how dangerous is one of the key REVELATIONS in this narrative." "Just as the three chapters on motive were added at the last moment to complete RESURRECTION (following Peet Van Zyl's groundbreaking testimony), so too was REVELATIONS fast-tracked to become the fourth narrative in this series, rather than the fifth, as originally planned." "I want to make clear from the outset," Van der Leek writes, "that while RECIDIVIST ACTS and RESURRECTION both dealt exhaustively with all things Oscar, some of the chapters in REVELATIONS are not all about Oscar. And besides calibrating the merits of the case the reader will notice plenty of new REVELATIONS emerging. Many unsettling mysteries remain in our society, clinging and cloying to the fabric of society like burrs. They persist stubbornly alongside the unknowns of the Oscar trial narrative. The question - if we live in a just and equitable society - is why?" Van der Leek concludes that in the process of writing REVELATIONS "...some of the shockers I uncovered...shook me to the core."

Is Oscar's narrative, as a man, a valid one? Is his narrative of uniqueness, being exceptional, beating the odds, and enjoying no special advantages, authentic? Is it fair for a disabled man to compete with artificial limbs across both Olympic Games (able-bodied and disabled)? By examining his intentionality, and responses to reasoned criticism (especially by the IAAF, writers such as Sokolove and McEvoy, and scientists such as Dr Ross Tucker) Book #3 in the Oscar Pistorius Murder Trial series seeks to shed light more specifically on Another Oscar. Why would a disabled man seek to portray himself so aggressively as able-bodied? Not only on the athletics track, but off it. Are there consequences to the - sometimes constructive, sometimes painstaking, often exhausting - process of constantly manufacturing oneself (and one's narrative) for public consumption? Is there a cost to permanently projecting a persona of masculinity and invulnerability? Yes, if the rewards are great, the costs to the individual are proportionately great, because the compulsion to protect and conceal only increases. There are financial incentives involved in maintaining this fake diplomacy. But what sort of personal toll are we talking about? And who else is affected? And in the final analysis, how do we tell the real Oscar from the gleaming fake? Ray Wicksell, Oscar's former agent and manager, and a man who broke the 4 minute mile 24 times, shares his firsthand experiences with Oscar. Oscar and Wicksell's two daughters trained together, and attended the same meets with Oscar. Oscar was a close friend of the Wicksell family, which is why Ray Wicksell's account is both groundbreaking and moving. He shares the very real sentiments that "the world loved Oscar because he was lovable." Legal experts (including Ulrich Roux and David Dadic) discuss the possibilities of an appeal, which is Oscar's best hope at this point, of finding his way towards Resurrection. The media also provides a mountain of clues, most just sound and fury, but some messages stand out as significant. The failure of the media to participate in the specific narrative that Resurrection attempts to uncover shows the media - even this late in the game - don't want to burn their bridges with one of the greatest media stories in modern history. In case he comes back. In case he's acquitted. But by first participating and perpetuating Oscar's story to an unsuspecting public, and then failing to reframe this narrative when its validity is clearly called into question, the media mechanism also reveals itself as a fundamentally flawed, financially incentivised mechanism, and one prone to bias. Discernment, it turns out, is a precious faculty, and common sense in the world of sport, celebrity, and even the law, is fairly uncommon. By piecing together mountains of testimony, social media, and various disclosures by all the major players in Oscar's melodrama - not least of which are Oscar's and Reeva's own words - Nick van der Leek does what thus far has not been revealed. Not by the media. Not by the social media rumour mill. Not even by the state prosecutor. Van Der Leek manages to put it all together to reveal Another Narrative. And with it, a compelling case for MOTIVE is put forward for the first time. Note: Resurrection is the third in the series of 5 Oscar Pistorius Murder Trial eBooks. Resurrection specifically interrogates the validity of the various Oscar Trial narratives. Digital Rights Management applies to this manuscript. It may not be quoted from other than with the express permission of its author.