Q&A with Caitlin Rother Author of Body Parts #Q&A

 

Today's guest is Caitlin Rother, author of the true crime, Body Parts. Caitlin is here with us today to tell us more about her new book! 

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 Cosmpolitan, 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 ➜ https://caitlinrother.com  

Twitter ➜ https://twitter.com/caitlinrother 

Facebook ➜ https://www.facebook.com/caitlinrother/  

Instagram ➜ https://www.instagram.com/the_real_caitlin_rother 

BlueSky ➜ @caitlinrother.bsky.social

 

 

BODY PARTS takes a deep psychological look at serial killer Wayne Adam Ford. I noticed in a lot of crime shows that there are signs in the person's past that maybe we might have missed that would show the evil side of that particular person. In Wayne Adam Ford's case, did you unearth in your research any signs that pointed to his evil side before anyone found out about him?

 

Caitlin: First of all, although Ford did commit heinous rapes and murders, he had numerous pre-existing psychiatric diagnoses, and I don't equate mental illness with evil. But even before the severe head injury he suffered after being hit by a drunk driver and knocked 40 feet down a freeway embankment while trying to save the life of a car crash victim, he definitely was asking his girlfriend to do kinky sex practices that made her uncomfortable years before he killed anyone. (These practices evolved over time and were later diagnoses as paraphilias, which is like a fetish times 10). He was discharged from the Marines after having a mental breakdown, when he had to be sedated and restrained with Haldol, so his psychiatric problems were evident early on, but he didn't get the treatment he needed. He suffered from chronic depression and self-medicated with alcohol, which eventually caused parts of his brain to atrophy and only made his behavior and depression worse.   

 

 

Q: Let's say your readers aren't familiar with this case. Can you describe Wayne Adam Ford?

 

Caitlin: Ford was a long-haul trucker who raped and killed four women and dismembered two of them, which makes him a serial killer. But as I explained above, he is a complicated guy, and he is the only serial killer I've ever known to turn himself in, which is why I chose to write a book about this case.  No one is all good or all bad, which is why his family never suspected him of being capable of doing any of this, because they saw him as a handsome, polite young man who joined the Marines, sang a mean Elvis tune at karaoke, and drove a school bus. But inside, he had dark compulsions and impulses he couldn't control that led him to pick up at least 50 troubled women up and down California, mostly sex workers and drug addicts. He had rough sex with them, choking them until they passed out and resuscitating them with CPR. These four victims, he said, were the only ones he couldn't bring back, so he claimed their deaths was accidental. He dumped their bodies in bodies of water, two in the California Aqueduct, one in a ditch, and one in a slough. He tried to help the authorities identify his first victim, whom he dismembered, by taking them to the riverbed where he dumped some of her body parts, but they never found her head and she remained a Jane Doe for 25 years. 

 

 

 

Q: What do you believe might have helped Wayne Adam Ford so that he didn't choose this path or do you believe that they already have it born in them to do this awful acts?

 

Caitlin: I believe that he had genetic and environmental contributors that he could not control (such as the head injury, plus the fact that his mom was apparently bipolar and tried to kill herself multiple times, AND she told him that he was the product of rape). He grew into a sexual predator from there, so it was a mix of nature vs nurture. If he had gotten better follow-up mental health treatment after his discharge from the Marines, this may not have happened, but somehow I doubt it. His urges were very dark and ran pretty deep, and he didn't push for that treatment. He drank and had rough sex with women instead.  

 

Q: What happened for them to transfer him from death row at San Quentin to a state prison in San Luis Obispo?

 

Caitlin: Gov. Gavin Newsom decided to dismantle death row at San Quentin to turn it into a rehabilitation facility, so he transferred all death row inmates to other prisons throughout California. 

 

 

 

Q: Are you for or against them doing that?

 

Caitlin: I don't take positions on that sort of thing. Newsom doesn't believe in the death penalty, because he believes that it discriminates against people from low socioeconomic backgrounds and people of color, who too often are found innocent after it's too late. 

 

Q: What project are you working on next?

 

Caitlin: My next true crime book, DOWN TO THE BONE, comes out June 24, 2025. It's about the McStay family murders, a family of four who mysteriously disappeared from their home in Fallbrook, California, and whose skeletal remains were found nearly four years later in two shallow graves in the High Desert, about 100 miles from home. I've also got the first in a new series of thrillers coming out in 2026, which I'm really excited about.  

 

 Q: Thanks for this interview, Caitlin. Do you have any final words?

 

Caitlin: Yes, this edition of BODY PARTS is an updated re-release with 32 pages, or 10,000 words, of new developments, specifically involving the identification of Ford's first victim as Kerry Anne Cummings. If there is such a thing as a happy ending to a serial killer book, this is it, because that poor woman now has her name back and her family has closure and knows what happened to her all those years ago when she went missing. I interviewed her family so that I was able to pay a tribute to Kerry and talk about who she was before she became a victim, which I wasn't able to do in the original edition, which came out in 2009. RIP, Kerry. 

 

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.