“Once upon a time, it was the best of times and the worst of times and they all lived happily ever after.”
So goes the fairy tale, but as we all know, real lives rarely resemble fairy tales. In fact, sometimes they turn out more like the opposite of a fairy tale.
Yesterday, I wrapped up my ten-part series on the tragic Betty Van Patter case, no closer to a solution than before I started. A dwindling number of people who know what happened to Betty are still alive and not one of them is talking.
Throughout the series, I tried to remain neutral and fair towards everyone involved. That’s how I operate, both by nature and training. The fact I could come to no definitive conclusion brings me little satisfaction.
For Betty’s three kids, it’s been 49 Christmas seasons since their mother disappeared, which casts a pall over what, at least in the fairy tale, should be a time for joy.
So for them what would some sort of closure look like?
If charges were filed in the case, that might lead to a trial and the possibility of convictions, which would represent a measure of justice in the case.
But even just knowing for certain who ordered her death and who carried it out would bring the family some sense of peace. They want to know why she was killed.
All stories have beginnings, middles and ends. Great story-tellers know this and develop skill at constructing these basic elements, including character development, pacing and plot points, ledes, transitions and kickers.
Novelists and conspiracy theorists have a distinct advantage when it comes to story-telling — they can make up the “facts”. Journalists have no such option. All we can do is follow where the documentation takes us. And in the case of Betty Van Patter, therefore, all we can say is that it was not a fairy tale.
Nobody lived happily ever after.
***
Death of a Bookkeeper: Who Murdered Betty Van Patter?
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