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Wednesday, January 21, 2009 9:41 AM Crime story to thrill Friends of the Wilson County library By Janelle Clevinger | Times Staff Writer Many times, a reporter doesn't have the space in a newspaper or the time during a newscast to give the reader or viewer all the details he or she would like to share about a story. Such was the case for one area television reporter who thought that a particular murder, and the Raleigh homicide officer who spent so much of his time investigating it, deserved to have its story told more fully. Amanda Lamb, WRAL News' crime reporter and author of "Deadly Dose - The Untold Story of a Homicide Investigator's Crusade for Truth and Justice," will talk about her book at the Friends of the Wilson County Public Library's annual meeting Thursday evening. The annual meeting portion of the evening will last from 6:30 to 7 p.m., followed by Lamb's discussion. "We are always trying to come up with people to draw people to our programs," said Faye Boykin, president of Friends of the Library. "We like to promote a variety of topics." Boykin enjoys reading crime novels and liked "Deadly Dose." "I thought Amanda did a great job of telling the story," Boykin said. "She wrote about things that would not have been out there for public knowledge and really got into detail about the families that were involved." Lamb's book tells the story of the investigation into the death of Eric Miller, a young pediatric AIDS researcher and new father, who was poisoned by his wife, Ann Martin. Miller died in Raleigh in December 2000. Martin, who was also a scientist, eventually pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, but it took over four years to send her to prison. During those four years, Raleigh Police Department homicide detective Chris Morgan devoted most of his time to investigating the case and gathering the evidence needed to put Martin behind bars. "I wrote the book partly because Chris Morgan asked me to," Lamb said. "He spent four-and-a-half years of his life on this case and was so passionate about it. And because it ended in a plea and never went to trial, no one knew how much evidence had been amassed." Lamb said that she and Morgan developed a good working relationship as reporter and investigator, and he felt that with her skills as a writer and her knowledge of the case, they would be able to convey the story of Eric Miller's death correctly and in detail. "Morgan wanted Eric's daughter, Claire, to know the truth about what happened," Lamb said. "She had not yet turned 1 when her father was killed. Someday she will want to know what really happened." Writing the book was cathartic for Morgan. "Investigators wrestled with the outcome of that case because there was never a clear motive for the killing," Lamb said. "It was clear that Ann wanted Eric out of the way, and she had several boyfriends." But none of those relationships seemed serious enough to warrant killing him, Lamb added. In addition to discussing the details of the Miller case, Lamb will also talk about the process of writing a book and how she went about getting the book published. Morgan, who has retired from the Raleigh Police Department, now teaches law enforcement classes, including some at Wilson Community College's Coastal Plains Law Enforcement Training Center. Lamb is hoping that he will be at Thursday evening's program to talk about his experiences as an investigator in the Martin case and as a collaborator on "Deadly Dose." "He is an old-school cop and bigger than life in both stature and experience," Lamb said. "He's the real deal and quite a character." Lamb has been a reporter for WRAL since October 1994. She and her husband are the parents of two young daughters. "Deadly Dose" is Lamb's second published work. Her first book, "Smotherhood," was published in 2007 and is a collection of humorous essays about parenting in the 21st century. Lamm's discussion at the Friends of the Wilson County Public Library's program is free of charge and open to the public. It will be held in the library's first floor assembly room. Guests are asked to enter through the Jackson Street entrance. For more information, contact Faye Boykin at 243-2756. ON THE MAP runs on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays. If you have a story that you want to share, e-mail jclevinger@wilsontimes.com or call 265-7811. If you have an event that you would like to enter on our community calendar, go to www.wilsontimes.com and click on the link for submitting information to the calendar. |
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