 Reichs writes she has always wondered who the girls were and how they came to be buried under the parlor.The other inspiration the story is based upon is revealed in-story in chapters 29 & 30, where the Kidnapping of Colleen Stan is recounted and later discovered as the inspiration of antagonist Menard (copycat crime).The dedication at the start of the book reads; "To Deborah Minor and my baby sister Harry".