A death in White Bear Lake: the true chronicle of an all-American town

In 1962, Jerry Sherwood gave up her newborn son, Dennis, for adoption. 20 years later, she set out to find him - only to discover he had died before his fourth birthday.

The immediate cause was peritonitis, but the coroner had never decided the mode of death, writing 'deferred' rather than indicate accident, natural causes, or homicide.

This he did even though the autopsy photos showed Dennis covered from head to toe in ugly bruises, his clenched fists and twisted facial expression suggesting he had died writhing in pain.

Harold and Lois Jurgens, a middle-class, churchgoing couple in picturesque White Bear Lake, Minnesota, had adopted Dennis and five other foster children.

To all appearances, they were a normal midwestern family, but Jerry suspected that something sinister had happened in the Jurgens household.

She demanded to know the truth about her son's death.