Her head lay on the curb like a pillow. Her legs lay in the street. She showed few signs of struggle, save for a rough red groove around her neck where she'd been strangled. It was dawn on Laurel Avenue in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and within hours of identifying Kathleen Thompson's body, police had a suspect. Fifty-four year-old Evan Zimmerman was a neighbour, a former boyfriend and an alcoholic with a past that spoke not so much of violence as despair.