Gone in the night

On a late summer evening in 1988, seven-year-old Jaclyn Dowaliby put on her favorite nightgown, said good night to her family, and went to bed. The next morning, Jaclyn's bed was empty. Four days later, her lifeless body was found in high weeds a few miles from the Dowaliby home in Midlothian, Illinois, a middle-class suburb of Chicago. The sensational crime triggered intensive news coverage. With cameras and reporters following their every move, law enforcement authorities were pressed to find, charge, and convict the killer fast. Based on the demeanor of Jaclyn's parents and plausible but incorrect assumptions about the physical evidence, the authorities started and ended their search in the Dowaliby home. In November, Cynthia and David Dowaliby were charged with their daughter's murder. The prosecution theory was that Cynthia killed Jaclyn and that David disposed of the body. Political maneuvering and media manipulation provided a sturdy foundation for the prosecution case. The Dowalibys' supporters were pared down to a few close friends, their lawyers, and one sympathetic stranger - a top-notch Chicago cop intent on proving their innocence. The stunning result of a three-week trial in 1990 raised more questions than it answered and only fueled the fire storm of controversy surrounding the case. Enter an intrepid group of Chicago journalists and a blue-chip law firm committed to finding the truth. What they discovered was shocking. Among the journalists were David Protess and Rob Warden, who make Gone in the Night an unforgettable firsthand account of a family's perseverance against the stacked odds of an imperfect legal system.