Last night at our Sisters in Crime meeting I had the honor of hearing from Sheila Wysocki. She is a private investigator who feels called by God to use her gifts to solve unsolved cases around the country, but primarily in Texas and Tennessee. She also has a podcast called Without Warning. Sheila reluctantly entered the field when, as a wife and mother, she felt God urging her to look again into the rape and murder of her former college roommate. At the time it had been a cold case for decades. She solved it. Because of the attention that drew, other families of victims came to her asking for help. Now she is highly sought out, counting forensics expert Mark Gillespie as her friend, and she usually takes the “messy” cases, as she describes them. The ones that are fraught with small-town politics, cover-ups, or fraud. While she is glad for people like the Innocence Project who focus on setting free those falsely accused, Sheila’s focus is on the victim’s family, the ones who want answers, who want to know the truth about how and why their loved one died. Her mix of intelligence, determined grit, and compassion makes her the unstoppable force she is. Glancing around the room last night, I could tell by the inspirational gleam in every eye that my fellow mystery writers were soaking up every word, just like I was, eager to use her stories and experience in a novel or short story. But we make up our murders; she’s true crime. Her plots and characters are real, not fictional. She lives through other people’s pain, and brings them answers. She brings them truth. And I know that God will continue to help her through not only the darkness and danger of the cases, but also the emotional and spiritual weight of carrying another’s burden. God bless you, Sheila Wysocki.
#sistersincrime #sistersincrimemidtn #sheilawysocki #withoutwarning
