A Murder in Searcy

On the morning of September 26, 1974, the body of Fern Cowen Rodgers was discovered on the floor of her home in Searcy, Arkansas. The sixty-eight-year-old socialite was murdered, sometime in the night, by two bullets fired into her head.



This is the story of that crime and the subsequent investigation and trials. It's a tragic tale that would eventually play out—in bits and pieces—in magazines and newspapers throughout the United States.


Authors Deana Nall and Mike Allen provide a fresh look at the decades-old murder—based on court records, police documents, and personal interviews—showing exactly what happened in a crime that captured the attention of an entire state, and beyond.