Dead Center: The Shocking True Story of a Murder on Snipe Mountain

This true story follows expert marksman Janice Dodson who, making it look like a hunting accident, killed her husband for his life insurance, and then married her next victim, causing a Colorado District Attorney and his investigators to substantiate their suspicions and bring this killer to justice. Reprint.

With all other murder cases I have worked on in the past twenty years, once the trial and sentencing were over, I put the case behind me. This case was different. Even though the trial had been over for two years, I could not get this case out of my head. I also had another reason for writing this book. Although we convicted one person for murder, a few of the details continued to bother me. I have never been sure this person did it alone. I am hopeful that this book will bring forth new information about a possible accomplice, if indeed there was one. The initial investigation lasted over three years, but we kept working on it after the arrest to the time of trial, which was almost five years after the murder. It seemed that every time we sent evidence to the crime lab to be tested the results led to more questions, rather than providing answers. This was particularly true with the firearms evidence. At one point, well into the forensic testing, we exhausted the firearms analysis capabilities of the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and asked the FBI Lab for assistance. This is the only case I have worked on where I felt we could not have obtained the result without the help of FBI laboratory experts. This book is different from other crime related books in a few ways. Since I wrote it from the perspective of the prosecuting attorney, details of the investigation and trial take center stage. I trust the reader to be able to follow the evidence as the investigation uncovered it, even though some of the firearms evidence is fairly complex and detailed. I have also included details from the trial. The forensic evidence is unique and exciting. The characters involved, several of whom are from the piney woods of East Texas, add flavor to this true tale of unmitigated greed, where one hunter became the hunted. I would like to hear your opinion: Do you think one person alone committed this murder? Send me an email at snipemountain@aol.com.