New York Times bestselling author Caitlin Rother has written or co-authored 15 books, ranging from narrative non-fiction crime to thrillers and memoir. Among her recent titles is an updated edition of BODY PARTS with 32 pages of new developments about the Wayne Adam Ford case, and DEATH ON OCEAN BOULEVARD, the story of the Rebecca Zahau death case. Coming out in June is DOWN TO THE BONE, about the McStay family murders, and in 2026, DOPAMINE FIX, the first in a two-book deal for a new crime fiction series with Thomas & Mercer. An award-winning investigative reporter for 19 years, Rother’s stories have been published in Cosmopolitan, the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The San Diego Union Tribune, The Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, and The Daily Beast. Her more than 250 TV, radio and podcast appearances include 20/20, People Magazine Investigates, Crime Watch Daily, Australia’s World News, and numerous shows on Netflix, Investigation Discovery, Lifetime, HLN and REELZ. A popular public speaker, she also works as a writing-research coach-consultant and website designer. For fun, she binges on limited series, swims, and plays keyboards and sings in a jazzy bluesy trio called In the Lounge with her partner. Rother earned a bachelor’s in psychology from UC Berkeley and a master’s in journalism from Northwestern University.
Website & Social Media:
Website âžś https://caitlinrother.com
Twitter âžś https://twitter.com/caitlinrother
Facebook âžś https://www.facebook.com/caitlinrother/
Instagram âžś https://www.instagram.com/the_real_caitlin_rother
BlueSky âžś @caitlinrother.bsky.social
What is BODY PARTS about?
This the story behind the case of Wayne Adam Ford, a long-haul trucker who is on death row for raping, torturing, and killing four troubled women he picked up in 1997 and 1998. His case became national news when he turned himself in at the Humboldt County sheriff’s station in Eureka with a woman’s breast in his jacket pocket, saying he’d “hurt some people.” Ford had called his brother, Rodney, to help make sure he turned himself in, because he was worried he would back down at the last minute. But he knew what he’d done was wrong and he surrendered to authorities before he could kill again. Despite being in a confused state and repeatedly asking for a lawyer, he was interviewed by detectives from the four counties in California where he’d dumped his victim’s bodies in waterways: Humboldt (Kerry Anne Cummings), Kern (Tina Gibbs), San Joaquin (Lanett White), and San Bernardino (Patricia Tamez) Counties. Ford was sentenced in 2007. After death row at San Quentin was closed by the governor, Ford was moved to a prison in San Luis Obispo in 2024.
What’s new in this updated edition, now back in print as a trade paperback?
The 32 pages of new developments in the case tell the story of how authorities identified Ford’s first victim, Kerry Anne Cummings, via forensic genetic genealogy. If there is such a thing as a happy ending to a book about a serial killer, this is it. She was ID’d 25 years after she went missing and became a “Jane Doe” murder victim, which means Kerry has her name back and her family has closure by learning what happened to her. She was hitchhiking in Eureka, CA, when Ford picked her up in his truck. They had sex, during which he killed her. If you’re fascinated by serial killers or you’re researching mentally ill serial killers with unusual sexual kinks, this book is for you. If you’re familiar with the John Gardner case, the sexual predator who raped and killed San Diego area teens Chelsea King and Amber Dubois, Gardner’s mother said Ford reminded her of her son, because they had similar psychological issues. Kerry’s older sister, Kathie, read the original edition of BODY PARTS three times just before Kerry was officially identified, and recognized enough details to know that Ford’s first victim was her long-missing sister.
Who was Kerry Anne Cummings?
Born in San Jose in 1973, Kerry was only 25 when she was murdered in 1997. She was close to her sister, Kathie, both of whom grew up in Tucson. Kerry didn’t do well in school, but she tested as very intelligent. She also had a speech impediment, which made it difficult for her to fit in. But she was artistic, and she loved to draw, paint, and sew her own clothes. After high school she went on the road and met up with the Rainbow Gatherings. She called herself Flower and started doing batiking (dyeing fabric different colors and patterns using wax), which prompted her mother to describe her as “hippy dippy.” Kerry would come back to Tucson to stay with Kathie for a few months, then travel the rest of the year with her Rainbow friends, doing psychedelic mushrooms and LSD. When Kerry came home in 1995, she had a mental breakdown, shaved her head, cut herself on her forearms, reported hearing voices, and exhibited “magical thinking.” Her mother and sister had previously suffered from depression, so they got her to see a therapist, who thought Kerry might be schizophrenic. However, Kerry refused to take pharmaceutical meds, only street drugs, and took off again. She was sober for a while, but when she called her sister for the last time in late September 1997, she sounded like she was back on drugs, acting paranoid and inconsolable. It seems that Ford picked her up on her way down to see some family friends in Northern California.
What is genetic genealogy?
Genetic genealogy uses DNA profiles (created via saliva tests) in combination with traditional genealogical methods, such as gathering information to create family trees, to find known relatives. The methodology is used by consumer websites such as Ancestry.com, 23andme, MyHeritage, and GEDmatch, the latter of which allows law enforcement to use your DNA profile to help solve crimes. Investigators used forensic genetic genealogy, which adds investigative crime reports and other data to the mix, to solve the Golden State Killer case by identifying Joseph James DeAngelo as the perpetrator of 87 crimes, including murders, kidnappings, and nearly 50 rapes that didn’t result in charges because the statute of limitations had passed.
How did forensic genetic genealogy play into the Ford case?
In 2018, Humboldt County had more than 65 unsolved homicides and missing persons’ cases, and nearly 20 unidentified remains cases, including this one, dating back to 1950. After Sheriff William “Billy” Honsal was elected, he launched a cold case unit to investigate them. A forensic specialist named Andy Campbell got the necessary training and helped two part-time detectives start solving these cases using genetic genealogy. The Ford case, which involved the torso and arm of an unidentified woman who had been dismembered, was among the first that they tried to solve using this new methodology. They identified her as Kerry Anne Cummings in 2023 after her cousin Jeff had submitted his DNA to GEDmatch, hoping for this outcome.
BODY PARTS takes a deep psychological look at serial killer Wayne Adam Ford. A long-haul trucker, Ford confessed to picking up dozens of prostitutes and troubled women along California roads. He tortured and repeatedly choked them during sex, revived them with CPR, then did it again. Only four of them didn’t survive, he said, claiming that was an accident. After dismembering two of his victims, he dumped their bodies in the California Aqueduct and other waterways in Humboldt, Kern, San Joaquin, and San Bernardino Counties. Ford’s complex death penalty case made national news because he is one of the only serial killers to turn himself in and help authorities identify his victims. He was recently transferred from death row at San Quentin to a state prison in San Luis Obispo.
Originally released in March 2009, this new edition of BODY PARTS has been updated with 32 pages of new developments about the identification of Kerry Anne Cummings, Ford’s first victim, whom he dismembered and who went unidentified for 25 years. If there is such a thing as a happy ending to a book about a serial killer, this is it. The new material takes the reader through the investigative process involved in solving a cold case like this one so many years after the fact. Kerry now has her name back and her family has closure after so many years of not knowing what happened to her, after being prevented from reporting her missing to police because she was using drugs. Rother is the first to interview the Cummings family about Kerry and her troubled life before she went missing in late 1997.
Overall, the book is based on exclusive information Rother uncovered during her extensive research and exclusive interviews with Ford’s father and brother. She also interviewed, the prosecutor, sheriff’s detectives from all four counties, the defense’s sole investigator, and a woman who survived after being raped and tortured by Ford. By obtaining a court order to release sealed court files and digging through boxes of evidence and investigators’ reports, Rother was able to paint comprehensive and compelling portraits of Ford, his family and his victims. Rother’s book shows readers how Ford’s family dynamics, his severe head injury, his bouts of mental illness, and his compulsive sexual perversions led to his tragic killing spree, tearful confessions, and dramatic trial.
This is a re-release with 32 pages of new developments about the recent identification of Ford’s first victim, Kerry Anne Cummings, through genetic genealogy 25 years after her murder. So, now she has her name back and her family has closure.
BODY PARTS is available at Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Body-Parts-Serial-Killers-Compulsions/dp/0806543914.
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