Author returns to local ‘scene of the crime’

In the summer of 1977, Terri Jentz and her Yale roommate, Shayna Weiss, made a cross-country bike trip. On June 22 they pitched a tent at Cline Falls State Park.

While they were sleeping, a man in a pickup truck deliberately ran over the tent and attacked them with an ax. No one was ever arrested.

Both women survived, but Shayna suffered from amnesia leaving Terri alone with memories of the attack. Their friendship was shattered.

Fifteen years later, Terri returned to Redmond “to solve the crime that would solve me.” She made an extraordinary discovery: the violence of that night was as present for the community as it was for her.

Her interviews with the townspeople yielded a terrifying revelation: many said they knew who did it and he was living in their midst.

Terri set out to discover the truth about the crime and its aftermath and to come to terms with the wounds that broke her life into a before and an after. Ultimately she found herself face-to-face with the alleged axman. The result of her investigation was her book “Strange Piece of Paradise.”

Terri Jentz will read and sign books at Paulina Springs Books on Friday, May 12, at 6:30 p.m.