Loss of Faith
by
Detective Michael L. Varnado and D. P. Smith
(Published 2002 by iUniverse.com, Price 14.95 US, 228 pp, Photographs)
My name is D.P. Smith, and I am the co-author of “Loss of Faith:
The Dead Man Walking’s Forgotten Victims.” I would like to share with you a little
bit about “Loss of Faith” and how I came to write it with Detective Mike Varnado.
I first met Detective Mike Varnado in April 2000. Mike wanted to write a first person
account of his experiences as lead investigator into the brutal rape and murder of
Faith Hathaway in Washington Parish, Louisiana, in May 1980. Above all, he wanted to
shift the focus of attention from the perpetrators of crime to the forgotten victims. He also
wanted to add his voice in support of the death penalty as the appropriate punishment
for those among us who prey on the weak and commit the most heinous of murders.
A week after graduating from high school and one day before she was to report
for induction into the Army, Faith Hathaway vanished from her small hometown of
Mandeville, Louisiana. One week later, Detective Mike Varnado found Faith’s
decomposing nude body deep in the woods of Fricke’s Cave in rural Washington
Parish. She had been raped and stabbed to death. Detective Varnado headed the
investigation into the case that ultimately culminated in first-degree murder
convictions for Robert Lee Willie and an accomplice.
Robert Lee Willie was executed four years later at Angola Penitentiary, but not
before he met and was counseled in his final days by Sister Helen Prejean of
“Dead Man Walking” fame. Indeed, Sister Prejean’s book, “Dead Man Walking: An
Eyewitness Account of Capital Punishment in the United States,” is based on her
experiences as spiritual advisor to two death row inmates, one of whom was
Robert Lee Willie. Sean Penn’s character in the film “Dead Man Walking” is modeled in
large measure on Robert Lee Willie. One need only look at the photographs in
“Loss of Faith” to see the haunting physical resemblance between Willie and
Matthew Poncelet, Sean Penn’s character in “Dead Man Walking.”
It was been a remarkable and eye-opening experience for me in co-writing
“Loss of Faith” to see that crime leaves permanent scars not only on the families
of victims, but also on the lives of law enforcement officers who are entrusted
with the responsibility of investigating these brutal cases.
You can read more about Detective Varnado and the senseless murder of
Faith Hathaway by the real-life Dead Man Walking at
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/angel/.
“Loss of Faith: The Dead Man Walking’s Forgotten Victims” is available
at Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, BooksaMillion.com, and at the online
bookstore of the publisher, iUniverse.com. |