The year is 1982 in a small town 100 miles west of Chicago. Betty Jo didn't come home. Betty Jo's mother knows in her head and heart that the only way Betty Jo wouldn't come home is if she were dead. She can't make anyone in the town believe her. [Silence The Dead] is based on a real-life murder case. Eventually she is found and buried. Years pass with no one brought to justice. In 2013 the authorities in Grand Point, Illinois eventually listen and exhume the corpse of Betty Jo Dean who was just 17 years old at the time of her murder. They see that she was buried only in her underwear. Grand Point’s mayor, Mac Bassett, who “had imagined all sorts of horrors,” insists that the flesh-less, loose skull in the coffin is not Betty Jo’s. Flash back to 1982: on the last night of her life, Betty Jo hooks up with a new boy friend. The following day, after Betty Jo has gone missing and the boy is also found dead, Chicago reporter Jonah Ridl arrives in Grand Point to investigate, only to learn that local law enforcement is concealing the truth. Back to the present... Bassett discovers that the cover-up is still going on after nearly 20 years and is still just as deadly. The ending was a bit of a let down...but life sometimes is just not nearly as exciting as fiction. Perfect for real crime fans ( )