DownloadThe Portobello Bookshop Gift Guide 2024

Too Pretty To Live

The Catfishing Murders of East Tennessee

Dennis Brooks author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Diversion Books

Published:25th Feb '16

Currently unavailable, our supplier has not provided us a restock date

Too Pretty To Live cover

Pitch feature/interview/promo to true crime podcasts like CRIMINAL


Pitch feature/interview with radio shows, including NPR

Social media promotion around release date of the show on Discover ID

Inclusion in true crime newsletters and seasonal promotions

Told from the unique perspective of the lead investigator on the case, this stunning true crime thriller is the story of Facebook, catfishing, and jealousy, where a double-murder begins with the click of a button.In this stunning true crime thriller of Facebook, catfishing, and jealousy, a double-murder begins with the click of a button.

When Bill Payne and Billie Jean Hayworth began their romance, they unknowingly set in motion a diabolical plot that would end with them murdered in their own home, Hayworth holding their mercifully unharmed infant.

Chris was a CIA agent who was concerned about Jenelle. Seeing the cyberbullying she had endured, and worried for her safety, Chris got in touch with Jenelle’s protective parents, and her devoted boyfriend, warning them that Payne and Hayworth were a danger to Jenelle. He got especially close with Jenelle’s mother, Barbara, who thought of Chris like a son, though she had never met him. Chris claimed that surveillance of Payne and Hayworth revealed that the two of them were planning on harming Jenelle, that it was imminent, and that something needed to be done immediately. Chris promised that he would have their back if they were to act to protect Jenelle.

And so they did. Jenelle’s father, Buddy, and her boyfriend, Jamie, broke into the home of Payne and Hayworth and murdered them in their own home.

What the police investigation turned up, though, made this crime all the more terrifying. Jenelle had been Chris the entire time, catfishing her family and her boyfriend to act in vengeance on her behalf. Using forensic linguistics and diving through the brambles that Jenelle laid to cover her tracks, police were able to put together a chilling portrait of a sociopath, made all the more ruthless by the anonymity of her online life.

Bizarre and unforgettable, Dennis Brooks examines the crime and trial from all angles, bringing his expertise as the lead prosecutor in the strange and disturbing case.

ISBN: 9781682301999

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

262 pages