Trauma Monster
“Trauma Monster” is a book tailored for armchair sleuths intrigued by unsolved cold cases, particularly those involving the tragic murders of children and young adults in a small Ontario city during the 1960s and 1970s. Barb Dorrington, a retired socialworker and trauma specialist residing in London, Ontario takes on the challenge of uncovering the truth behind these cold cases, driven by her quest to understand what befell her childhood friend, Scott Leishman, in 1968—the second of three childvictims in a short three-month span.
Dorrington conducts interviews with family members, friends, neighbors, and schoolmates of the victims, unraveling the profound impact of the trauma that festered on the entire community for decades. The underbelly of the city and its nearby towns become exposed through previously untold stories of children facing horrors, who are often oblivious to the escalating number of deaths. Sharing her own experiences of childhood and young adult trauma, Dorrington realizes her role as a ‘wounded healer’, mirroring the storytellers she encounters.
The investigation reveals that potential suspects hid behind a veneer of normalcy, maintaining families, attending church, and holding respectable jobs. The storytellers realize that their personal unresolved traumas have followed them like looming shadows for decades and that they have allowed the monsters to continue to live inside their heads and hearts. Dorrington considers the differences of trauma to the individual and the community when a killer is never caught, when the killer is caught, and when the police decide there was no killer at all, instead declaring suicide as the cause of death.
While the pursuit of absolute proof remains frozen in time without DNA evidence, Dorrington and her web sleuths paint a vivid picture of the challenges faced by families, the police, and the broader community during the 1960s and 1970s. This exploration unveils a labyrinth of new clues, exposing overlooked murders and one purportedly solved murder, where the killer’s confession may be a lie.
The trauma monster persists in communal unease, transcending generations and serving as a reminder of the unseen adversary lurking in the shadows of historical crimes. The festering trauma monster, akin to an open wound, extends well beyond the sum of all the city’s cold cases. Expression of the previously untold torment and enduring ache of those left behind, gives the victims hope of relief from the heinous crimes and a sense of liberation from the shackles of the past.
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What People Are Saying
"Barb Dorrington's expertise in trauma makes her the perfect person to re-examine unsolved murders in regards to the destruction they cause individuals, families, and communities."
- Vanessa Brown
Author of Forest City Killer
"I am amazed by the stories that Barb was able to collect from the surviving victims of the perpetrators and, at the same time, I was shocked."
- Wolfgang S.
Translator / Editor
"A stunning portrayal of murder & deceit in the London Ontario area. I feel that this new book by Barb Dorrington might actually bring some closure to the families who were & still are traumatized by these events to this day."
- Veronica M. Trudell
