A mystery solved

Matt Birkbeck's A Beatuful Child is one of the most haunting true crime books I've ever read. The story that begins with a common enough crime -- a woman is killed by a hit-and-run driver in Oklahoma City in April 1990. But the police investigation soon uncovers other horrific crimes and several enduring mysteries.

The victim, known as "Tonya Hughes" at the time of her death, had lived under a series of false names for over a decade. The man who claimed to be her husband was a federal fugitive. Years earlier he had pretended to be her father when she lived under the name of "Sharon Marshall".

Franklin Delano Floyd had kidnapped her from somewhere. He had abused and exploited her and her son. And, as a final insult, he refused to reveal her real identity. so that her famility could have some closure.

Birkbeck refused to let the story end there. Even after he published A Beautiful Child in 2004 he kept searching for "Sharon Marshall"'s family.

He persisted through years of disappointment. Finally, in 2014, the painstaking work of dozens of professional and amateur investigators uncovered the truth:

"Tonya Hughes"/"Sharon Marshall" was Suzanne Marie Sevakis born in Livonia, Michigan in 1969.

Finding Sharon tells the story of that investigation. Along the way Birkbeck fills in asome of the blanks In Sevakis's short, tragic life.