Based on an award-winning article published in O, The Oprah Magazine, Latus has crafted a heart wrenching memoir about two intelligent, attractive sisters--one of whom escaped years of abuse by men--and one who did not.
At once a confession, a call to break the cycle of abuse, and a deeply felt Love letter to her baby sister, Amy Lynne Latus, If I Am Missing or Dead is an unforgettable read..
This beautifully written memoir will move readers from the first to the last page.
How, she wondered, did two seemingly well-adjusted, successful women end up in strings of physically or emotionally abusive relationships with men? If I Am Missing or Dead is a heart-wrenching journey of discovery as Janine Latus traces the roots of her own -- and her sister\'s -- victimization with unflinching candor.
Haunted by this, Janine Latus turned her journalistic eye inward.
Amy died in silent fear and pain.
It took nearly two years before her killer, her former boyfriend Ron Ball, was sentenced for her murder.
It took more than two weeks to find Amy\'s body, wrapped in a tarpaulin and buried at a building site.
Coworkers and neighbors and family members plastered Missing posters with Amy\'s picture across the county.
Helicopters went up and search dogs went out.
Amy was missing.
Immediately, Janine\'s blood ran cold.
She was on a business trip to the East Coast, savoring her freedom, attending a work conference, when she received a call from her sister Jane asking if she\'d heard from Amy.
Ten weeks later, Janine Latus had left her marriage.
A marriage in which she felt afraid, controlled, inadequate, and trapped.
A marriage in which she felt she could do nothing right and everything wrong.
A marriage others emulated.
That same spring Janine Latus was struggling to leave her marriage -- a marriage to a handsome and successful man.
If I am Missing or dead this obviously has not protected me...
Based on his criminal past, writing this out just seems like the smart thing to do.
Today Ron Ball and I are romantically involved, it read, but I fear I have placed myself at risk in a variety of ways.
In April 2002, Janine Latus\'s youngest sister, Amy, wrote a note and taped it to the inside of her desk drawer.
Based on an award-winning article published in O, The Oprah Magazine, Latus has crafted a heart wrenching memoir about two intelligent, attractive sisters--one of whom escaped years of abuse by men--and one who did not
