SILVIA PETTEM
THE BOOK LODE, LLC
Historical Research & Writing
WELCOME
I grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, then followed my mother’s advice to go somewhere “different” for college. In 1965, I moved to Boulder, Colorado. Now, more than five decades later, my roots are still in the East, but my heart – and my passion for researching and writing about history – is in the West. Colorado has remained my home. Here you will learn more about my books, articles, current projects – and about me. Thanks for visiting my website. (Visitors to www.boulderjanedoe.com are redirected here, as that site has now merged with this one.)
Stumped on a cold case? Need historical context for a research project? Looking for people or places in Boulder County, Colorado? Contact me for more information.
Silvia Pettem © 2021
COLD CASE CHRONICLES: MYSTERIES, MURDERS & THE MISSING will be released by Lyons Press (subsidiary of Rowman & Littlefield) in spring 2021. The book tells the stories of victims –– some missing, some murdered and some with changed identities. All are true, and each are mysterious in their own ways. The cases in this nonfiction narrative date from 1910 through the 1950s and include evolutions in forensics, as well as historical context in order to view the men, women and children through the lens of time.
–––––––––––– ANOTHER CASE, STILL UNSOLVED ––––––
Little Miss Nobody is Still Without Her Name, by Silvia Pettem
Several years ago, while working with my local sheriff’s office on the case of “Boulder Jane Doe” (a then-unidentified murder victim from 1954), my research led me to Prescott, Arizona. There, I came across the case of an unidentified little girl whose likely murdered body was found in the desert in July 1960. What struck me was that both communities shared a similar compassion and concern for their victims… read more
PODCAST ON The Long Term Missing –– SHATTERED LIVES RADIO: Pettem interviewed by Donna R. Gore
REVIEW ON The Long Term Missing –– DEFROSTING COLD CASES, by Alice de Sturler
When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.
Sherlock Holmes (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
RESEARCH SPECIALTIES:
Long-term missing persons
Unidentified remains
Cold case homicides
Boulder County, Colorado, history