She's So Cold

Think this couldn't happen to your family? Think again.

In January 1998, the small town of Escondido, California, woke up to the breaking news that 12-year-old Stephanie Crowe had been brutally stabbed to death in her own bedroom. Her lifeless body had been discovered about 6:30 a.m. by her grandmother.

The Escondido police, finding no physical evidence that could lead them to the killer, began questioning Stephanie's older brother, Michael Crowe, and two of his friends, Joshua Treadway and Aaron Houser.

Following long hours of intense interrogation that stretched well into the night, Michael, then Joshua, "confessed" to the murder. Aaron maintained his claim of innocence. Although the boys had been advised of their rights to remain silent and to be represented by an attorney, they waived their rights. They and their parents naively believed that because they were innocent, they had nothing to fear. Three weeks after the murder, all three boys were arrested, charged with murder, and held in juvenile hall.

In She's So Cold, Donald E. McInnis guides the reader through the twists and turns of a gripping real-life mystery that changed forever the lives of fifteen people and cost the San Diego District Attorney his job.

In an effort to prevent this type of injustice from occurring to others, the author has proposed a new Miranda warning specifically worded for juveniles, as well as a Children's Bill of Rights.

She's So Cold is the story of a broken system. A system stacked against families and, most of all, against children.

This is a second edition of She's So Cold. Under the tutelage of award-winning investigative journalist, author, and editor Larry M. Edwards, the book has been substantially revised and restructured to highlight the relevancy of this case to current police and justice-system reform efforts and the Black Lives Matter movement. It provides a greater focus on the criminal-justice system, the inability of children to understand their constitutional rights, and the harm police officers and prosecutors can, and do, inflict upon impressionable and easily manipulated youth who are treated as though they have the experience and mental capacity of adults.

Praise for She's So Cold . . .

Midwest Book Review: ". . . a powerful read. . . . Donald E. McInnis does an outstanding job of pinpointing the problems of juvenile prosecution methods. . . . No reader of true crime or juvenile rights should be without this outstanding book. . . . Law professors will find She's So Cold holds much fodder for classroom discussion and debate."

Linda Starr, Executive Director and Clinical Professor of Law at the Northern California Innocence Project says, "It is unimaginable what our justice system does with juveniles. I hope the changes as you have suggested are made."

Donald E. McInnis is a former California Deputy District Attorney and Deputy Public Defender who represented Aaron Houser in the Stephanie Crowe murder case.