A Twisted Faith: A Minister's Obsession and the Murder That Destroyed a Church

Hardcover
from $0.00

Author: Gregg Olsen

ISBN-10: 0312360614

ISBN-13: 9780312360610

Category: Criminals - Murderers - Biography

Search in google:

The New York Times bestselling author investigates the sensational story of a minister who seduced four of his female congregants, and hatched a cold-blooded plot to murder his wife On December 26, 1997, near the affluent community of Bainbridge Island off the coast of Seattle, a house went up in flames. In it was the shy, beloved minister’s wife Dawn Hacheney. When the fire was extinguished, investigators found only her charred remains. Her husband Nick was visibly devastated by the loss. What investigators failed to note, however, was that Dawn’s lungs didn’t contain smoke. Was she dead before the fire began? So begins this true crime story that’s unlike any other. It investigates Nick Hacheney, a philandering minister who had been carrying on with several women in the months before and just after his wife’s death. He would be convicted for the murder five years to the day after the crime. From one of the foremost names in true crime, this is a gripping and truly unforgettable story of a man whose charisma and desire rocked an entire community. Publishers Weekly Crime novelist Olsen (Heart of Ice) paints a disturbing portrait of a community undone by its appealing young pastor. On Washington State's Bainbridge Island, across Puget Sound from Seattle, the fundamentalist Christ Community Church employed youth pastor Nick Hacheney, a charismatic if not attractive young man who'd grown up in the area. Hacheney was interested in counseling troubled married couples, but paid inordinate attention to the wives. On December 26, 1997, while Hacheney was out hunting, a fire consumed his house, killing his wife, Dawn. After this tragic accident, Hacheney sought comfort from the community—particularly the women. Soon he was involved in affairs with five women, one of them Dawn's mother, telling each that the sex was part of God's plan. Hacheney's conviction in 2002 for the murder of his wife came only after several of the women confided in others about their liaisons. Using firsthand interviews with members of the community, Olsen tells an unsettling story of a man who committed murder and then used his charm and his power as a man of God to exploit his congregants and satisfy his sexual obsession. Map. (Apr.)