In January of 2002 a surveyor working near the Michigan/Wisconsin border made a grisly discovery. Just over the guardrail on the road he was working sat a headless, handless body. Unbeknownst to investigators at the time it was Tim Wicks, a part time jazz drummer who died at the hands of his “friend” Dennis Gaede in the culmination of a crime spree so bizarre and audacious that it seems like fiction. Gaede is a Moriarty like villain whose criminal machinations kept him on the run for years, until fate finally proved that justice can be delayed, but not denied.

Award winning journalist Gina Barton spent four years tirelessly investigating the case and brings her in depth knowledge to the reader in her book Fatal Identity. Available at Amazon or through the author’s own site, Fatal Identity is a must read thriller for anyone interested in true crime.

Dateline did a story on the case with Gina Barton’s help which aired in 2005, here’s a snippet of it:

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This is the story of the monsters that live among us, and how they insinuate themselves into our lives. Everyone should read this book to understand the mind of people like Dennis Gaede, as least as much as we’re able.