CHOSEN BY O, THE OPRAH WINFREY MAGAZINE for "One of its top 20 best true crime books of all time.”
Penny was 17 when her 25-year old brother Chris, a British junior doctor, was brutally and inexplicably murdered in 1978. Missing for ten months, with his lawyer girlfriend Peta Frampton, she can still recall the sense of paralysing shock that ricocheted through her family the day they received confirmation from the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office that two tortured corpses, found off the Guatemalan coast in Central America, were those of Chris and Peta.
Taking a year out to travel the world, in a chance meeting in a bar on a remote Belizian caye, they had met the charismatic 37-year old Californian skipper, Silas Duane Boston. With him, were his 12 and 13-year old sons, whose mother he had killed ten years before. Taken in by his charms, Chris and Peta agreed to crew for Boston.
Two weeks later, Boston subjected them to three days of torture, including tying heavy engine parts to their limbs and necks and putting plastic bags over their heads. In this state, they were thrown overboard fully conscious.
Back in England, Chris’s parents, went to unbelievable lengths to try establish what had happened to them and bring their killer to justice and they succeeded in securing some crucial evidence. However, with Boston, their suspected American killer proving to be highly elusive; the victims two British citizens; the maritime murder occurring in Guatemalan waters; no scene of crime evidence, the case very quickly went cold. The international crime was deemed too complex for any law enforcement to solve and no country was prepared to pick up jurisdiction.
Life, of course, moves on and eventually papers over the cracks of loss and bereavement but the pain, and the nagging perplexing question of why they were killed, and in such an horrific way, was never far from the surface. They were forgotten, but not by their respective families. Their brutal and inexplicable murders were to haunt them for almost four decades.
Graduating with an English Literature degree from Lancaster University in 1982, Penny moved to London to study Journalism at City University. Experiencing something of a baptism of fire as a reporter on a North London local newspaper at the time of the Broadwater Farm Estate riots in in 1985, she learnt the trade and knew that writing was in her soul. It proved a good training ground but the appeal of attending extravagant press functions and styling photo shoots was ultimately more alluring, and she was appointed Health and Beauty Editor for Woman magazine in 1986. Working on the mainstream national title for five years, she developed a life-long passion for fashion and beauty.
A freelance journalist and public-relations consultant for thirty years, it was in October 2015 that the thought came to her from out of the blue to use the internet to track down Chris and Peta’s suspected killer and his two sons. Taking her evidence to Greater Manchester Police (who had investigated the crime in 1978), she requested that the case should be reopened, which led to a full-blown international police, FBI and Interpol investigation. It was her discovering Boston and his sons on the internet that was to ultimately lead to his arrest in Sacramento at the age of 75 in 2016.
Until ruled out by DNA, Boston was the prime suspect for the California Golden State Killer series of crimes. He proved to be one of America’s most prolific and elusive serial killers having spent 50 years on the run.
Dead in the Water is a story of unbelievable twists and turns, highs and lows and ultimately, serendipity. If this true crime story were fiction, you wouldn’t believe it. It reveals the far-reaching power of the internet and social media and a family’s boundless, undying love for one of their own.
As the international police investigation progressed, being a trained journalist, it was natural that Penny should write a book about the catastrophic event that had devastated her family. Penny says: “A lot of journalists have shown interest in this, the most unbelievable of true stories, but I wanted to take ownership as I felt it was mine and the Frampton's story to tell. I have been meticulous in my research and I believe I have told the story accurately and fairly. My primary aim is for my book to immortalise and be a lasting testament to my beloved brother Chris and his and Peta’s all too brief lives. With gap years and foreign adventures now so commonplace it also holds relevance and currency for today’s generation. If this story makes just one person think, before they place themselves in a potentially vulnerable situation and in the company of a stranger, then it will have been a story worthwhile recounting. Certainly, there can be fewer more isolated places than a lone boat out at sea.”
For further background information on the case and the author, please visit her website www.pennyfarmer.co.uk and Facebook @BookDeadInTheWater page
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