Bitter Remains: A Custody Battle, A Gruesome Crime, and the Mother Who Paid the Ultimate Price

The bestselling true crime author of Under Cover of the Night recounts Laura Ackerson’s disappearance and murder in North Carolina, the discovery of her remains in Texas, and the aftermath.

On July 13, 2011, Laura Jean Ackerson of Kinston, North Carolina, went to pick up her two toddler sons. It would be the last time she was seen alive.

Two weeks later, detectives searching for the missing mother made a gruesome discovery on the shores of Oyster Creek near Richmond, Texas - the dismembered body parts of a young woman whom they were able to identify as Laura Ackerson.

Laura’s ex, Grant Hayes - the father of her two sons - and his wife, Amanda, the mother of his newborn daughter, both pointed the finger at each other as the one guilty of murdering Laura, cutting up her body, and then transporting and disposing of the remains.

This is the haunting true crime story of a devoted mother, a disturbed couple, and how these horrific events came to pass.