A mother's search for the son she gave up uncovers terrifying secrets in a Minnesota town in this "masterfully depicted true-crime tale" (Publishers Weekly).
A finalist for the Edgar Award, A Death in White Bear Lake is "a distinguished entry in the annals of crime documentary," and a vivid portrait of the all-American town that harbored a sadistic killer (The Washington Post)..
Why did authorities dismiss evidence that marked Dennis as an endangered child? Could Lois Jurgens's brother, a local police lieutenant, have interfered in the investigation? And most disturbing of all, why had so many people who'd witnessed Lois's brutal treatment of her children stay silent for so long? Determined to find answers, local detectives and prosecutors rebuilt the case brick by brick, finally exposing the shocking truth behind a nightmare in suburbia.
She demanded to know the truth about her son's death.
To all appearances, they were a normal midwestern family, but Jerry suspected that something sinister had happened in the Jurgens household.
Harold and Lois Jurgens, a middle-class, churchgoing couple in picturesque White Bear Lake, Minnesota, had adopted Dennis and five other foster children.
This he did even though the autopsy photos showed Dennis covered from head to toe in ugly bruises, his clenched fists and twisted facial expression suggesting he had died writhing in pain.
The immediate cause was peritonitis, but the coroner had never decided the mode of death, writing "deferred" rather than indicate accident, natural causes, or homicide.
Twenty years later, she set out to find him-only to discover he had died before his fourth birthday.
In 1962, Jerry Sherwood gave up her newborn son, Dennis, for adoption.
A mother's search for the son she gave up uncovers terrifying secrets in a Minnesota town in this "masterfully depicted true-crime tale" (Publishers Weekly)
