The Stephanie Crowe Murder Case
A Defense Attorney’s Inside Story
of coerced confessions of innocent teenage boys
Donald E. McInnis
She’s So Cold — Second Edition 
REVIEWS
She’s So Cold is a true story about three boys whom the police believed killed a twelve-year-old girl. The author, Donald E. McInnis, is an experienced criminal defense attorney who defended one of the young boys. He wrote this book to expose an interrogation tactic far too often abused by police and prosecutors in their zeal to catch and convict suspected criminals. . In the morning of 21 January 1998, a family of Escondido, California, awoke and discovered the most horrifying and unbelievable scene. Beautiful, 12-year-old Stephanie Crowe, the middle child of three, was lying dead on her bedroom floor after being stabbed multiple times in what must have been a frenzied and terrifying attack. Her family, asleep in the same house, had heard nothing, and there was no sign of forced entry into the home. With no evidence of forced entry, the Escondido police detectives become convinced it was an inside job and focused their attention on Stephanie’s 14-year-old brother, Michael, who appeared to be strangely unaffected by his sister’s murder. 
In a series of long, ruthless interrogations, using the Reid Technique of psychological Interrogation,* the police were able to get Michael to say he “knew he killed her but couldn’t remember how.” This confession was never supported by any physical evidence. What followed next was a series of nightmarish events leading to the arrest of two other boys who were interrogated, arrested, and prosecuted along with Michael for the murder of Stephanie.
Think this couldn’t happen to you or your child? You are wrong!
In the last several decades, thanks to DNA testing, hundreds of teenagers and adults have been exonerated and their confessions found to have been coerced by the police through psychological manipulation.
The author explains the Reid Technique of interrogation, its nine steps of psychological deception and illustrates how this alternate form of the “Third Degree” produces false confessions. This true story is based on the actual videotaped interrogations, police reports, court hearings and the personal insights of an attorney who has both prosecuted and defended accused suspects.
Donald E. McInnis, tells it all in a fascinating, if not horrifying, word-for-word recreation of the police interviews of these terrified boys. In doing so, he reveals the inherent flaws in psychological interrogation tactics and our criminal prosecution system.
DOWNLOAD/READ
She’s So Cold – Chapters 1 and 2.
She’s So Cold – Reid Technique of Interrogation
She’s So Cold – Children’s Miranda Warnings and Bill of Rights
*In the Reid Technique, interrogation is an accusatory process. The goal of the Reid Technique is to isolate the suspect, psychologically wear them down, and then make the suspect comfortable with confessing to a crime that the police believe he committed.
