There are some stories that stay with you long after you’ve finished reading them. This is one of those stories.
Before we tell you about a murder, an investigation, or the questions that have remained unanswered for decades, we’d like you to meet Paula Garrett.
A Young Mother Named Paula
Paula Garrett was just 22 years old. She was a young mother living in Muncie, Indiana, raising her four-year-old son, Eric.
Her family remembers her as a spirited little girl who was forever getting into something. Once, as a toddler, she ran straight down a dock and into the water, sending her family scrambling after her. Another time, she slipped out of the house and wandered off, leaving her mother searching the neighborhood.
Paula grew up, became a mother herself, and worked to provide for her little boy.
Eric remembers her teaching him to ride a bicycle. He remembers her kindness and the love she gave him. And he remembers something else. The theme song from the television show Welcome Back, Kotter. It was a show he loved as a child, and even decades later, hearing that familiar music reminds him of his mother.
It’s such a small thing, isn’t it? A television theme song. But when you lose someone you love, sometimes the smallest memories become the most precious.
Eric didn’t get nearly enough of them.
The Night Everything Changed
On March 25, 1979, Paula Garrett was murdered in her home.
Eric was there.
He was only four years old when someone entered his mother’s bedroom and brutally attacked them both.
Paula died from her injuries. Eric survived, but suffered nine skull fractures and permanent damage that left his right side partially paralyzed.
In a single night, a little boy lost his mother, suffered life-changing injuries, and became the surviving witness to a terrible crime.
And what happened afterward would shape the rest of his life.
A Case That Never Went to Trial
Police investigated Paula’s murder, and a suspect was arrested and charged.
But the case never went to trial.
The prosecutor ultimately dismissed the charges, citing insufficient evidence. No one was convicted of Paula’s murder.
For Eric and his family, the decision left questions that have never gone away.
Why did a case that initially appeared so promising end without a prosecution? What happened to the evidence? And why, after so many years, has Paula’s family still been unable to obtain the answers they desperately want?
Eric has spent decades trying to understand what happened, speaking with witnesses, examining records, and questioning the decisions made during the investigation.
He has his own beliefs about who was responsible and why the case was never prosecuted. Those beliefs are central to his story, but they remain allegations rather than findings established by a court.
And that distinction is important. Because this isn’t just a story about identifying a killer. It’s also about a family trying to understand why justice never came.
More Than Forty Years of Questions
Imagine growing up knowing that your mother was murdered.
Imagine living with the physical consequences of the attack that took her life.
And imagine reaching adulthood, raising your own questions, searching through records, and discovering that the answers you need may be no easier to obtain than they were when you were a child.
That’s the reality Eric describes in Unprosecuted.
The book brings together his memories, his family’s experiences, interviews, historical reporting, and years of research into the circumstances surrounding Paula’s death.
Some accounts conflict. Some questions remain unresolved. Eric acknowledges that he cannot prove everything he believes happened.
But there’s one thing he is determined to accomplish. He wants his mother’s life to be remembered. Not simply as a victim in an old murder investigation.
As Paula.
A daughter. A young woman. A mother who loved her little boy.
Why This Story Matters
True crime often focuses on the mystery. Who did it? What was the motive? What evidence was overlooked? Those are important questions, and Unprosecuted explores them.
But there’s another question worth asking.
What happens to the people who are left behind?
For Eric, the consequences didn’t end when the headlines faded or the investigation stalled. They followed him through childhood and into adulthood.
And behind his search for accountability is something deeply human: a son who wants the world to remember his mother. Paula was only 22. She should have had decades more to live, to laugh, to raise her son, and to make new memories with him.
Instead, Eric has spent much of his life holding on to the few memories he has.
Including a bicycle ride. And a television theme song.
Discover Unprosecuted
Unprosecuted by Eric Garrett is a deeply personal account of a mother’s murder, a surviving son’s search for answers, and the troubling questions surrounding a case that never reached trial.
It’s a story about loss, perseverance, and the enduring need for truth and accountability.
But most of all, it’s Eric’s way of making sure Paula Garrett is not forgotten.
Explore Unprosecuted by Eric Garrett at Genius Books.
