Description
In February 2014, Aspen socialite Nancy Pfister was murdered in her own home—brutally bludgeoned, wrapped in a sheet, and stuffed inside a locked closet. The question was: Who did it?
Fewer than twelve hours after her body was found and without any evidence, police decided a married couple from Denver had killed her. Within a few days, they arrested and charged Nancy Styler, a friend of Pfister's who'd had a falling out with her after a business deal went sour, and Dr. Trey Styler, Nancy's disabled husband, who recently lost the family home, his medical practice, and any hope of a peaceful retirement for himself and his wife. Eleven days later, police also arrested and charged Kathy Carpenter, Pfister's underpaid and overworked personal assistant and closest friend.
Months later, Trey Styler, who was slowly losing his grip on reality as he battled with mental illness, confessed to the crime. Rampant speculation spread about whether he was involved at all—or if his confession was that of a man on his deathbed—because a medical condition appeared to have left him barely able to walk, much less carry out such a heinous crime.
In Guilt by Matrimony, Styler's widow, Nancy, reveals the answers to the biggest mysteries of this case and recounts the trauma of being falsely accused and imprisoned for a first-degree murder she had no knowledge of. And, in the only interview before his death, Trey gives his account of that fateful day.
New York Times bestselling author Daleen Berry covers this compelling story from the inside, following the Stylers from their fairy-tale life in Denver to the morning of their simultaneous arrest to Nancy's release from jail and her attempts to rebuild her shattered life. Filled with details from exclusive interviews, a close look at the botched small-town police work, and first-person accounts of what really happened, Guilt by Matrimony is the definitive look at a shocking murder that rocked Aspen.
About the Author
Daleen Berry is an enterprising writer whose national journalism career has seen her write about important social topics such as filicide-suicide, domestic violence murders, sexual crimes, and mental illness as a contributor to the Daily Beast, the Huffington Post, and xoJane. Berry's book, Sister of Silence, has received both critical and popular acclaim, while broadcast journalist and former NPR Morning Edition host Bob Edwards called Berry a "magnificent storyteller." Berry has become a national speaker at conferences, colleges, and schools around the country. Most recently, she was invited to give a TEDx talk at Connecticut College. In 2011, she founded Samantha's Sanctuary, a 501(c)3 charity to help educate and empower abused women and children. Berry has received awards for investigative journalism and for her weekly columns. In 2012, Berry's as-yet-unpublished book, Lethal Silence, took first place in the Pearl Buck Award in Writing for Social Change category, given jointly by West Virginia Writers and the Pearl S. Buck Birthplace Foundation.
Geoffrey C. Fuller has made a living as a freelance writer-editor for 20 years, working with both fiction and nonfiction. He has edited literary and trade journals, as well as more than 75 books. Two titles he edited, The Devil's Son: Cap Hatfield and the End of the Hatfield and McCoy Feud and Monongah: The Tragic Story of the 1907 Monongah Mine Disaster, the Worst Industrial Accident in US History, were nominated by the Independent Book Publisher Association for Benjamin Franklin Awards. Monongah placed third nationally in 2008. His writing has appeared in newspapers and on radio, in literary and commercial magazines, and in anthologies, textbooks, and gift books. Fuller is the only writer to have been awarded prestigious West Virginia literary fellowships in all three categories: fiction, nonfiction, and memoir. In 2012, his crime fiction piece, "Figure-Ground," placed first in Writer's Digest's national contest. His novel, Full Bone Moon, was published in 2011 by Woodland Press.
0
0
