Carpool Detectives: A True Story of Four Moms, Two Bodies, and One Mysterious Cold Case by Chuck Hogan

By Philippa Tracy

Reading this book took me back to the start of the Covid pandemic and the time just before lockdowns when the world became, as the writer says, “contactless and sterile.” There is a lot in here about Covid and how it impacted everything we did for a long time. But this book is not about Covid, it is about four truly impressive women. All of them mothers, who in 2020 had been struggling with their identities since becoming mothers. With a shared interest in true crime, they pooled their collective intellectual resources and research skills, when they decided to investigate a 15-year-old cold case. Against the odds, they would go on to solve the double murder. Their investigation not only served as a respite from the tedium of Covid stay at home orders, it would also significantly change their lives.

Set in Los Angeles, this work of non-fiction, is based on a crime that happened in 2005. However, some of the names and other details have been changed to protect those involved. It started with the disappearance of an apparently successful couple in their 60s. Several weeks later, the bodies of Angela and Joel Watkins were discovered at the bottom of a ravine in a remote canyon, a long way below the highway. The bodies were not inside, but close to, their wrecked SUV. What initially appeared to have been an accident, was later re-assessed as a double murder. This was a family with financial difficulties, and, like many families, its fair share of secrets. The Watkins’ son, Andrew, was an accountant for their business. Both he and his brother-in-law, Greg, were behaving suspiciously at the time of the disappearance; it was not clear to the women whether they had been suspects in the original enquiry.

These four women were determined to uncover the truth about who might have wanted to murder Joel and Angela Watkins and why. During the course of the narrative, we learn a lot about the case and the four women: Marissa, Jeannie, Samira and Nicole. We learn which had given up a corporate career when their children were born, which had Covid anxiety, and what motivated them to pursue answers in this case. And pursue it they did with dogged determination, even though they were not able to access the original police files.

It was a tough task to keep going when faced with endless brick walls and at times potential danger to themselves and their families. Despite the challenges of Covid lockdowns and home-schooling young children, the new “thankless task of mothering in a bunker”, they did their best to conduct socially-distanced interviews, hold regular Zoom meetings, and track down copious amounts of useful information.

It started with Marissa trying to reinvent herself by pursuing a certificate in investigative journalism, and coming across the Watkins case. It ended with four women solving the cold case, creating a close bond, and going on to work with the Sheriff’s Department to tackle a new cold case of a serial killer from the 1980s, who may have killed 20 women.

What had impressed the District Attorney’s office, was their “ability as women to get people to trust and confide in them things that they would not share with law enforcement figures.” They became emotionally invested in this case because they cared. And most importantly, “Motherhood no longer defined them – it was now one of many hats they wore.”