Innocent Victims: The True Story of the Eastburn Family Murders

Written by Scott Whisnant

Narrated by Chris Andrew Ciulla

On Mother's Day, 1985, the bodies of Kathryn Eastburn and her two young daughters were found in their Fayetteville, North Carolina, home. Katie, an air force captain's wife, had been raped and stabbed to death. Kara and Erin's throats had been slit. Their toddler sister, Jana, was the only survivor of a bloody killing spree that terrified a community still reeling from the conviction, six years prior, of Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald for the savage slayings of his pregnant wife and two daughters.

The Cumberland County Sheriff's Department soon focused its investigation on US Army soldier Tim Hennis. Detectives and local prosecutors built their case on circumstantial evidence and a jury convicted Hennis and sentenced him to death. But his defense team refused to give up. Piece by piece, they discredited the state's case, exposing false testimony, concealed evidence, and prosecutorial misconduct. At a second trial, Hennis was found not guilty and released from death row.

But an even more stunning turn of events was yet to come. Twenty-five years after the murders, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation tested a crucial piece of DNA evidence from the crime scene. The shocking results led to an unprecedented third trial to determine Tim Hennis's guilt or innocence.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Oct 15, 2019
• ISBN: 9781515941583

Scott Whisnant

Scott Whisnant is a former editor and writer for the Morning Star (Wilmington, North Carolina). As a courtroom reporter he covered the case of Tim Hennis, who had previously been convicted of murder and was sentenced to death before the state supreme court awarded him a retrial. Whisnant is the author of Innocent Victims, which details the historic case.

Reviews for Innocent Victims

[Bella · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Despite knowing the outcome of this case, it always frustrates me when law enforcement and the judiciary will not be of the opinion to test everything of relevance to either have a sound prosecution or find the real perpetrator. This is also a case of prosecutorial overreach, tunnel vision by police and poor evidence handling and testing that can never claim a good prosecution in good conscience under the constitution. Everyone is a victim in this case and nothing can claim to Belinda Roberts resolved. A very interesting presentation of the facts, the chronology, the court cases and the dubious outcomes. This is no Jeffrey McDonald case, this is an entirely different case, however it would seem that the prosecution treated it the same.

[relativelybooktastic · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

* I received this book in exchange for my honest feedback*

Innocent Victims follows the true story of the Eastburn family murders. The Eastburn Family Murders were made famous for many reasons in my opinion.1) the alleged killer is a military man and the family was a military family. 2) The first case that was tried 3 times on one suspect.
This book left me with mixed emotions. I don't know if Tim Hennis did this as he didn't have a decent and fair trial. At that time labs were faking results so the prosecution could have more wins, as a result innocent people have died. I believe that if he did the crime he should be punished but if he didn't and the killer is still out there.

[marlene9nl · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

on Wednesday, September 13, 2006 Iwrote about this book....


Thanks for sharing. I wanted to read it but then at the beginning of the book I noticed they were referring to the story of Jeffrey MacDonald a lot. I knew a bit about that case but had not read Fatal Vision by Joe McGinnes about this case, so I read Fatal Vision first.

This book has a lot of similarities with that story.
It was a very good read but if there is one thing I cannot stand if when I read a book and then discover they never caught the killer(s).
Afterwards I searched the Internet but it seems case is not solved.
Very well written.