SoCal True Crime Author Talks Cold Case With 'Body Parts' Book Release

RIVERSIDE, CA — "I hurt some people." The chilling words of Wayne Adam Ford, admitting his deadly obsession, launched a work that was years in the making for Southern California author Caitlin Rother. Her book, "Body Parts: A Serial Killer's Deadly Compulsions," offers new insight into Ford's first victim, identified in a cold case DNA reveal 25 years after her brutal slaying.

"Body Parts" is slated for rerelease on Feb. 25, and in March, she has multiple book signings scheduled across southern California.

Rother is the author and co-author of 15 true crime books that delve into the minds of some of Southern California's most notorious killers and mysterious, high-profile deaths. She is an award-winning investigative journalist and a New York Times bestselling author. She writes both fiction and nonfiction stories, with a new fiction series currently in the works.

Rother's deft touch and detailed investigation guide the reader through difficult subject matter, leaving readers engrossed. Her thorough investigation dives not only into the capture and incarceration of a killer but also into what she believes drove his descent into madness. He admitted to the slaying and the dismemberment of four women and was sentenced to death in a San Bernardino County court in 2006.

"In Ford's case, he was a marine stationed at Marine Base in El Toro at 19 when he learned first aid and CPR," she said. "He was out on a date one night when he saw a car crash and stopped to see if he could help the injured and bleeding passenger. He placed his hand over the victim's carotid artery to try and save the guy's life, the same technique he would later use to cut off oxygen to the women he choked during rough sex, and then revive them with CPR."

While attending the injured passenger, a drunk driver hit him, knocking him down an embankment. Ford sustained a traumatic brain injury, and his family said he was never the same after waking in the ICU nine days later. It is unknown if that was a factor in his deadly compulsions. Still, while working as a long-haul trucker, he admittedly murdered and dismembered multiple women. Though a handful were found and identified, Rother believes there may be more.

Her 2025 release of the best-selling narrative non-fiction work "Body Parts " details previously sealed testimony and interviewed key players in the case, including Ford's brother and father. The book has been referred to as "intimate and psychologically resonant" into the identity of Wayne Adam Ford’s first victim – Kerry Anne Cummings of Tucson, Arizona, who went missing in 1997 and ended up in Humboldt, where her remains were discovered.

"Everything they knew about his first victim was based on her torso," Rother said. She had given birth, but not much else was known. "We had no idea, except that she was 25 and had some drugs on her, a weird can opener, and a tattoo with rose petals."

The rest came later, thanks to familial DNA.

"A cousin registered for a DNA website, offering police the opportunity to 'backward-engineer' missing person cases," she said. The story of that journey is detailed in the 10,000 words added to the narrative, with extensive updates about Cummings, how she came to California, and where her life ended.

Now, her family knows what happened, which, for Rother, is what matters.

"There’s never really a happy ending to a serial killer story, but this is the closest thing to it," Rother told Patch. "She has her name, and her family has closure.”

Rother is holding a series of book signings for "Body Parts" across Southern California:

In San Diego County:

• Saturday, March 1, from 12 to 2 p.m. at Bay Books, located at 1007 Orange Avenue, Coronado.
• Sunday, March 2, from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Barnes & Noble in Carmel Mountain, located at 11744 Carmel Mountain Road, San Diego.

In Riverside County:

• Saturday, March 8, from 1 to 3 p.m. at Barnes & Noble, Galleria at Tyler, 3485 Tyler Street, Riverside.

In Orange County:

• Saturday, March 15, from 2 to 3 p.m. at Book Carnival, located at 347 S. Tustin Street, Orange. Rother will discuss "Body Parts" during this signing.

Preorders of her next release, "Down to the Bone: A Missing Family's Murder and the Elusive Quest for Justice," due for publication in June 2025, are available on Amazon.com.