Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery

I’m almost never interested in true crime writing, but found this book after an article I recently read regarding this heinous case. Kolker does an incredible job here— he treats each woman (and her family) with a gentle decency and grace, compassion, and genuine curiosity. I couldn’t put it down; it was some of the best non-fiction writing I’ve ever read.By bizarre happenstance, I was a few pages from the end of the book when the news broke that they finally arrested the suspected killer (July 14th 2023). I burst into tears at the news, genuinely surprising myself. The book had moved me so deeply, engaged me so thoroughly, and enraged me so fiercely on behalf of the victims and their families, that it felt like a true miracle to see this monster finally found and arrested. God rest the souls of these women, their families who are still alive and those who have passed on without ever knowing what happened, and God bless Kolker for shining a light (beautifully) on this horrific case.

Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery, by Robert Kolker, delves into the biased way the people we look up to as authority, that keep us safe and in peace, ignore the disappearance of many young women due to their occupation; prostitution. Lost Girls is a non-fiction journey through the search of the serial killer who was, specifically, murdering young prostitutes in the Long Island-New York area. Kolker goes farther than just investigating the crimes, but actually digs deeper into the stories of some of these girls to further understand the lives of the murdered women and for the audience to see inside the world of prostitution. Kolker looks into the lives of five of the girls, Maureen, Shannan, Melissa, Megan, and Amber, that were murdered by the unknown serial killer. All of these women were escorts advertising on Craigslists, young moms, had a troubled childhood, and had some kind of substance abuse. Maureen, an aspiring model, became a mom at age sixteen, and eventually slip up from her baby’s dad. Melissa, who acted like she was black, whose mother worked too much to pay any attention to her. Shannan was a girl who had the talent of singing. She had other sister, but she was the only one that grew up is fosters homes. Her mother seemed not to care, or if she did she was too busy worrying about her boyfriend. Megan was born with a mother who seemed to love her, but her grandmother found good enough excuses to take custody away from her and get her welfare check to pay for her living expenses. Megan rarely saw her mother. The most aggravated story is Shannon’s. She was last seen in Oak Beach running out of a house screaming and pounding on doors, screaming that someone was trying to kills her. She ran off into the darkness and was never seen again. She called the police and it’s like they didn’t bother to listen to her and never went to look for her. Many people saw her running hysterically, and no one cared to help her. When the police found out she was an escort, they did not bother to search for her. That was the problem with all of these girls, they were prostitutes, and police said they were probably off with a client, or thought that that’s the risk they put themselves into. Kolker describes events in so much detail that some time while reading the book I felt frightened. It’s haunting how so many people, all with very similar lives, could be missing and for the police not to think that there is something wrong. Kolker describes in detail a couple of phone calls Melissa’s little sister would get, after her disappearance. It was a man who would ask and make comments about Melissa. It was creepy and haunting. The last call she received he said, “I’m watching your sister’s body rot” (214). Just that gives your body chills. These missing girls were paid no attention to until their remains were unearthed, and even after, the police were in no hurry to find their cause of death or their murderer. As Kolker claims,“Shannan and all the others were failed by the criminal justice system not once but three times. The police had failed to help them when they were at risk. They’d fail again when they didn’t take the disappearances seriously, severely hobbling the chances of making an arrest. And they’d failed a third time by not going after the johns and drivers” (364). Lost Girls is divided into two section or books. The first goes into detail about the missing girls’ lives, how they started escorting, and the last time they were seen. He makes the picture for us of how their families were and how they were. These girls lived with drug abuse, parental neglect, and poverty. And that is what led them into prostitution. The second part goes into the police investigation and the lives of their families after their disappearance, and how the police dropped the ball. They let go of valuable clues and suspects that could have led to the murderer, but instead they put the blame on these girls, who no matter what their occupation was were the victims. This book is not a book you read to enjoy. It’s a book you read to inform yourself. To be aware that our criminal justice system isn’t so fair, like they claim, and that obviously they are not here to keep us ALL safe, or bring justice because they have failed to do so in this case, and I would say it was negligence. Kolker puts us right in the middle of his investigation and opens our eyes to how our country might not be as fair and brings “justice for all” as our “Pledge of Allegiance” claims.

I loved this book. It delved into the inside lives of important women. Awesome.

I must admit, I chose to read this book because it was listed as a New York Times Notable Book for 2013. I'm not usually a true-crime fan, but this story seemed quite gripping, and I felt sorry for these five women whose lives were almost nonexistent even before they died.Mr. Kolker obviously did a lot of work in tracking down the details of these women's pasts and how their bodies came to be found in marshland on a forgotten barrier island. The first half of the book talks about their childhoods, mostly about how awful they were. Other commentators have noted how hard it is to keep the details of each individual woman's story straight, as most of them were so similar in their experience of absent parents, foster care, abuse, drugs, and poverty. I had a lot of trouble myself, and had to go back in the book a few times to make sure what I was remembering about one woman was in fact the truth. Pictures of each woman would have helped a great deal, but there are none in the book.Their families and friends of the victims are given a lot of book time, probably too much. The amount of dysfunction every single one of them demonstrates becomes numbing after a while. Half of them accuse the other half of playing to the news cameras. The other half accuses the first half of not being upset or sensitive enough. Some are genuinely sympathetic, but most are alternately self-pitying, self-aggrandizing, and self-deceptive. And the 24 hour news cycle covers it all with salacious glee.There is also a lot of book time given to the community where the women's bodies were found. These people make Greenwich Village seem like Mayberry. They're almost totally cut off from the outside world, and they like it that way. All the outsiders coming into the area for the investigation seemed to bother them more than the dozen bodies that were discovered. And don't even get me started on how petty resentments between neighbors all of a sudden turned into accusations of murder, warranted or not.The police in charge of the investigation didn't come off as particularly intelligent or sympathetic either. They seemed more interested in dismissing the missing persons reports because the women were prostitutes, then covering their butts after actual bodies were found. The one cop mentioned by name who is even remotely heroic or motivated is a canine cop named Mallia who, along with his dog, discovered the bodies in the first place.I understand the book was meant as a commentary on how easy it is for women to sell themselves for sex in the internet age, and how dangerous their lives are. It was meant to humanize the faces of those who most of society considers, "throwaway people", prostitutes, drug addicts, the homeless. It was meant to show how callous and dismissive the police and society can be when these "throwaway people" go missing or are found murdered. But what came across to me most strongly was how pathetic and sad and similar these women's lives were.And here's the thing: each and every one of these women made a choice. It may have been the best choice out of a bad bunch, but they still made it. Yes their childhoods were terrible, yes their families were dysfunctional and poor, yes they were probably doomed from the time they were toddlers. But their profession was their choice. And not a one of them didn't have the opportunity to make different choices. Did they deserve or ask to be murdered? Of course not. The killer deserves to rot for what he did, and may still be doing. But to hold all of society responsible for these women's deaths is ridiculous.I'm giving this book three stars because a lot of it was very well-written, but there were enormous holes in the narrative. As others have commented, there is next to no firsthand information about the investigation itself. Sloppy as it seemed to the families and the media, I find it hard to believe that's the whole story. Second, the lack of pictures is a serious drawback, if only because it makes it that much harder to keep the women straight. This does them a huge disservice, and was part of the reason the author wrote the book in the first place, to make them known as individuals. A third problem is the lack of a conclusion. I understand the investigation is still ongoing, and that's no reason for journalists not to write about it, but a book would be more appropriate when there is more information.Overall, it was a very sad book. And I feel like I need a shower after reading it.

Well written and well researched. A page turner. The girls, all escorts who lost their lives to a serial murderer, and amazingly, heinous crimes unsolved.The lives of the girls are laid bare, the poor police handling and the aftermath of the murders, families wanting answers and refusing to give up.This book was used to make a Netflix documentary on the case.

fast and easy, no hiccups

Agree entirely with first reviewer - could not have said it as well. We condemn these girls and treat them as disposable. The account of what happened to these escorts is factual and yet compassionate. It is thorough as far as we know and the author has organised the material remarkably well. Sad but true.

This book is partly true crime, part social commentary.In 2010 a number of bodies were discovered in Long Island. They were women in the sex trade, murdered and dumped. The killer has never been found. This book does not offer any new leads in that direction.Rather the author reconstructs the lives of five women from their childhood to what is known of their last days. He then describes how family and friends dealt with their loss. He also covers the official investigation and interviews also the “internet detectives”.He uncovers generations of broken homes, sexual trauma, alcohol and drugs. He details the shift in sex work from the street to the internet, with no reduction in risk or improvement in life chances. Their lives were by the end marginal and “off the grid”. The families believed their daughter/mother/sister were seen as prostitutes, a fact which stymied the intensity of the investigation. So no one was charged.The author closes with comments on the status of sex work in the United States. It is widespread but criminalised and unregulated. The consequence is stark – by a distance the principal cause of death in sex workers is homicide.Kolker is a diligent journalist and empathetic interviewer. He examines the tragedy from multiple angles. It struck this reader how the loss of secure blue-collar work has eroded the working-class community and family. There are also some deeply unpleasant characters in this book, and inadequate men who poison the lives of those around them.Now 2021 a new police commissioner, a woman, is committed to re-examining the case. In New York legal changes have to a degree decriminalised prostitution - but made it safer?. In Atlanta a man slaughters women in a massage parlour – in broad daylight, concealing neither himself, his weapon or his deeds.

Fairly good overview of the Long Island Serial Killer mystery.