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

by Diane Fanning

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...   INCLUDES PHOTOS

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Crime, Mystery, Book Club

414 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 5, 2016

Reviews

[Lee Husemann · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great read this was! Such a tragic child custody case that ended up so horribly wrong. When I saw the list of characters at the beginning, I thought it was going to be very complicated book to follow, but it was not. Ms. Fanning obviously spent an enormous amount of time researching this book and she presented it in an easy to follow fashion. I especially liked the way the court proceedings were presented - in a story fashion rather than a court transcript fashion. I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys true crime.

[Terry · Rating 3 out of 5]

a little tedious and repetitive especially during the multiple trials with much of the same testimony and same witnesses.

[Bonnie Kernene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Laura Jean Ackerson was murdered and dismembered in 2011. She was the mother of Grant Hayes' sons and he wanted her completely out of the picture. Apparently, his wife Amanda Hayes, wanted the same. So they made it happen, and tried to make it look like they had nothing to do with it. They had made life extremely difficult in the past years, so of course, they made this new plan difficult, and extremely heinous as well. This book was well-written and well researched. I felt it was balanced between all of the focuses, but never lost sight of the actual victim, Laura Jean Ackerson. I enjoyed this book and recommend it to all who read true crime.

[Stefanie Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Laura Jean Ackerson was 27 years old at the time of her disappearance. She was living in Kinston, North Carolina, and was last seen alive in Raleigh, North Carolina, on July 13, 2011. She was reported missing by her coworkers when she failed to show up for work. She had dropped her children off to their father's house the day she went missing, and never picked them back up on the scheduled date. Their father, Grant Hayes, was in a custody dispute with Laura, and had since married another woman, Amanda. As it turns out, this miserable couple killed Laura, and did a whole host of disgusting things to her before dumping her body. I won't go into much detail about that, because I do not want to ruin the book for those unfamiliar with the case. Remains were recovered in Richmond, Texas, and were later determined to be Laura's.

This case was featured on the show Deadly Women (Beauty and the Beastly on ID Channel). As far as I can discover, Grant Hayes parents have custody of the children, and I think that is shameful. I have mixed feelings about the family members of people do crimes, because they should not be punished in a lot of cases, but they obviously failed to raise a son with any moral compass what so ever and thus should not be raising those kids. They should have went to someone in their murdered mothers family. Hopefully, the kids are well taken care of and are living the best life that they can, but the whole situation gives me the ick. Grant was given life without parole. Amanda filed `for divorce and was tried separately, but she was found guilty of murder and tampering with evidence. She is serving 13-16.5 years for the murder and 20 for tampering with evidence, to run consecutively. At the time of reviewing this book, both are still alive and incarcerated, breathing air they do not deserve to. Also, if you look up her mugshots, she looks entirely too smug and if I could go through this screen and punch that look off of her face, I would. Same goes for him. Vile human beings.

As far as the book itself went, it was decent. There were plenty of details about the case in the book, and it was clear that the author did proper research about the case before writing. The case was presented in a way that was not boring, which I appreciate. Sometimes, you get true crime books that are very dry, but this was not one. I was very interested in what was going to happen next in the case, and since I had not heard much about it beyond seeing this in the news headlines, I learned a lot. I believe that I have read a couple of other books by this author, and I think they were equally as well done. If you are interested in this book, it is currently available on Audible Plus.

[♥ Marlene♥ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. I have been reading so many true crime books and some of them I began reading but then picked other books. So I am confused and have to check my notes. What was this book about again?

Okay I remember now. It is very hard to read about women that are being abused and I feel sad for them. But then you have the mums who are being abused while they have children and I feel anger at them. Catch my drift? Many years ago I was in an abusive relationship. Back then I had very low self esteem and just took it. Then I became pregnant which was such a shock. I found out very late in the pregnancy 3 months and I still had a choice (Crazy to think about it now)

ETA: I had to check and just discovered you can have an abortion up till 22 weeks here in The Netherlands. WTF!


10 minutes later: Sorry but I was in shock for a moment.

Anyway. Back then I thought I could not get pregnant so after the first shock I was happy although not in a good place of my life back then but I swore to myself that I changed.

To make this long story (sorry) shorter. The minute my baby was born I knew I could not let her live with him. He had hardly showed up for the 3 months in the hospital so i decided to do it myself.

Best decision I ever made. So I just do not get women who let their babies witness them being abused and even let him abuse the children.

So it angered me but I decided to keep on reading and I thought this was a good book by Diane Fanning. Well written and an interesting but so sad story.

[Nat PlainJanetheBookworm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Haven’t given a true crime such a low rating for quite a while but this one just didn’t grab me. It felt slow and monotonous, and while the crime itself is abhorrent, it really wasn’t all that grabbing.

[Kathy Cunningham · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have to admit that it’s been a while since I’ve read any true crime books, but I used to be a big fan. My favorites were Joe McGinniss (FATAL VISION, CRUEL DOUBT), Ann Rule (SMALL SACRIFICES, STRANGER BESIDE ME), and Thomas Thompson (BLOOD AND MONEY, SERPENTINE). What all three authors had in common was an ability to take the facts of real life criminal cases and spin them into fascinating stories that were addictively engaging. Unfortunately, Diane Fanning doesn’t have that ability – at least not in BITTER REMAINS.

Basically, this book is a straightforward retelling of the Laura Ackerson case – a young mother is brutally murdered by her ex-husband and his second wife during a heated custody dispute. Fanning starts out by recounting the backgrounds of the principle characters – Laura, her ex-husband Grant Hayes, and his second wife, Amanda. There’s little style here; it’s pretty much just page after page of background info on where they were born, how they met, and where they ended up before Laura’s disappearance. This, along with a section on the initial police investigation following the discovery of Laura’s dismembered body, takes up just under half of the book. The rest of it is simply a recounting of Grant’s and Amanda’s trials – it’s pretty much just a list of witnesses and what they said, just page after page of itemized testimony. It gets very tedious very quickly.

The case itself is interesting, at least initially. However the evidence is so overwhelming that there is little doubt that Grant and Amanda had conspired to murder and mutilate Laura. All that’s left to find out is how the juries ruled. Fanning provides no real insight into why this murder happened or why Laura married Grant in the first place (he’s portrayed as a controlling, manipulative drug abuser and womanizer who cheated on Laura repeatedly; she knew all of this, but accepted it). Why? It’s not clear.

There is a brief Afterward in this book in which Fanning attempts to shed some light on some of the questions we’re left with, but it’s too little too late. I was left wondering why she chose this particular case to memorialize in 400 pages of text. I understand that Fanning is a popular true crime writer, with multiple awards to her name and scores of dedicated fans. Based on BITTER REMAINS, I don’t get it.

Bottom line, I found BITTER REMAINS to be a tedious read. Fanning’s earlier books might be better, but I can’t recommend this one.

[Please note: I was provided a copy of this book for review; the opinions expressed here are my own.]

[Andrea Gebler · Rating 5 out of 5]

This definitely held my attention and I hated to put it down. I could've easily finished this book in 3 sittings had time allowed.

[Keri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very quick and easy read, I knew nothing about the case so it was interesting to me until it started dragging with the trial facts over and over. Poor Laura. :(

[Mary Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I heard a podcast about this true crime case and was left heartbroken for the victim and her children — and wanting more detail than that format allows. This book is written by an award-winning journalist who researched the case meticulously. Still the same sad outcome but gives you insights into motivations, background of all the players and courtroom play-by-play. If you like Ann Rule, you’ll like this author.

[Jamie Lindemulder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Boy, do I love a good true crime book. But this book is just so sad. "A custody battle, a gruesome crime, and the mother who paid the ultimate price." I read this book because I saw a recent 20/20 episode about this case and wanted to learn more about it. Grant and Amanda Hayes are some of the sickest and selfish people that I have read about in a very long time. Not only did they commit a heinous murder for absolutely no reason, they destroyed so many lives in the aftermath. And poor Laura, she had no family except for her brother. Luckily she had the love of her close friends that sounded the alarms when she originally went missing.

[Alisi ☆ wants to read too many books ☆ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was actually one of Fanning's better books. The back stories of everyone wasn't gone into in extreme detail and the prose was decent enough. She did feel the need to write about every single witness that took the chair during both trials.

Much is made about a document that she signed (the victim) and I felt that was fairly obvious. It was a 'give me 25k and i'll give up rights to my children'. It was obviously forced and I don't think she was stupid enough to say 'aha! I got that on tape' like they perps accused. If they're using force to make her sign it, she's not going to wave a red flag in front of their faces, ya know?

And, now, I hate to victim blame but I couldn't help but feel a portion of this was the victim's fault. I hate even writing that. Not that she deserved to die or have anything to happen to her but still! Fanning, I think, recognized this and tried to say it was battered wife syndrome. In ordinary cases, I'd agree but the perp was crazy. Not crazy as in the general sense but in a clinical way. This wasn't something that just happened. This was well documented so you can't say she didn't know about this.

To top it off, a lot of the child custody problems arrose because she stupidly let her son go with him. Here you have this crazy man, not taking meds and is a known hard drug user who can flip out in seconds, and you're going to let him take your toddler with his man and his girlfriend (whom you don't know) to NY? What?

And before you say I have no idea what I'd do in that situation... Well, I do kind of know that situation. My sister had a child for her lover (another woman) who was abusive and wanted her to release all parental rights to her to prove how much my sis loved her. This was also a physically abusive relationship and the lover actually had children taken away in the past because of this. So, yeah, I kind of do understand the situation.

I dunno. It's a sad case. This is one of those 'if people had stopped enambling him and got him the mental help he needed, this probably would've been avoided' type things.

[Betsy Ashton · Rating 4 out of 5]

With true crime, you know from the cover that the story will be about a real incident, complete with murder, terrible details, and more. I read true crime for the why and how, not the who.

Fanning has set a high bar with her earlier true crime books. She delivers once again. The crime was a potent mix of two babies, a psychopathic killer, a sociopath stepmother and a mother whose life was cut short.

The story goes way beyond a custody battle that went horribly wrong. Laura Ackerson didn't deserve to be poor and to die way before her time. Her babies didn't deserve to lose first their mother and then their father and stepmother. The nexus of the problem is Grant III. The husband. The father. The controlling, belittling psychopath who destroys more than the mother of his two little boys. He destroys that family unit, the new family unit he created when he married Amanda and when they had a baby. He denies his three children access to their parents. Grant III and his Amanda set out to "erase" Laura from their lives. They want all traces of her to vanish. Thanks to excellent police work, their plans don't work right.

How the families came to their dreadful ends is the critical reason for reading this book. The why lays out the underlying psyche of a truly evil man.

Read it with the lights on. This creepy guy could be living next door to you -- or in your own house.

[Breann Bianco · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a little hard to read because of the crime committed. I don't know why but it felt personal to me, as if I actually knew who the victim was. Maybe it's because she wasn't much older than me and the crime and trial alone seems not so long ago. My heart aches for the victim and her children. This poor girl has endured so much hate, so many lies and such manipulation from her boy's father. I couldn't imagine the things she went through on a daily basis. Laura, the victim whom was brutally strangled and then dismembered and thrown into a creek, was a single mom fighting for custody of her two small children. Grant, the father, married a woman who had a nice little nest egg from her former husbands death. Grant knew what he was doing when he met Amanda. He took all of her money and turned his wife against the mother of his children, Laura. It was so smart that Laura kept a log of all the interaction between her, Grant, and Amanda. This book brought tears to my eyes because I just can't even fathom how any person, let alone two, can just completely erase a person, the mother of his children, off the face of the earth because she was winning a custody battle.

[Karen Bullock · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book for 2 reasons: the first was the eye catching cover, the 2nd was the info blog on the back. I have lived in NC, not too far from where Laura lived (but several years before) & I currently live in Katy, TX....it is always interesting to read about true crime when you live in the area. This story, while very sad was also very aggravating in the fact that it is just amazing how quick one person can overpower and isolate another human being that they supposedly care so much for. I truly do NOT understand how women let men control them and isolate them from family and friends!!! It is a countless tale told through many a true crime books. The outcome is almost always very bad. Ms. Fanning did an outstanding job of telling the readers, Laura's story. Grant and Amanda Hayes deserve so much more then what they received, in my opinion but at least they are behind bars.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a sad true story about a young mother who lost her life battling for custody for her children. I have never read a true crime book before, so I didn't know how it was going to flow. I am not only shocked but mortified why what happened to this woman. I can only imagine what it was like to be there in person. To sit through the long days, and weeks of the trials. To be the friends of Laura and not know if she's alive or dead. To be the people involved with the case out looking for her, photographing evidence, etc. Most importantly to be those children that are now parentless.

As I read this story, I couldn't put the book down. It pulled me in from the very beginning. The author did a very good job detailing the cases and everything leading up to it. It breaks my heart knowing these children will grow up knowing the horrible truth of their parents.

[John Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well-told, disturbing story. Fanning stayed quite impartial throughout the book; however, at times it was difficult to discern the point of various sections because of her failure to opine. There were presentations of information from & Gran't custody battle that made little sense without clarification. Overall, it is an intriguing story and a cautionary tale for those seeing warning signs in dangerous people around them.

[Laurie · Rating 5 out of 5]

As with any true crime novel, you start with the death and work backwards forensically. In this case, it wasn't a question of "who dunnit" or even "why." The question centred on where and how. Once those questions are answered, you're left with broken pieces: of family, relationships, innocence...none of which can ever be put back together.

[Kristine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is well written and well researched.

The remains were found very close to my sister's home, which is why I was interested when I heard about the book.

The subject is angry making, but I am glad to hear what the verdicts were in the case - well deserved for him, she probably should have been given more.

[Babette Philpott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gut wrenching crime

Definitely a very brutal murder. This book is such a detailed account of this case that you feel you are sitting in the jury box. My heart goes out to these precious children and to Laura's loved ones.

I am currently downloading another book from this great author.

[Shay · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a great read. Lots of details and details also loved the photos at the end.

Such a great and simple read. It's a novel you don't want to put down. A good read. Would recommend.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, this case is insane. My only compliant is the primary narrator’s voice was annoying. The book was so informative and detailed. It gave such a better look into this case and the life of all involved. Such a sad, sad story.

[Ronnie Cramer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Workmanlike account of a rancorous custody battle that ends in murder, though it does fall into the common trap of telling the story once in the first half, then telling it again (via courtroom sequences) in the second half.

[Koren · Rating 3 out of 5]

An husband and wife kill and dismember the mother of his children so they dont have to deal with her over custody issues. The first half of the book was interesting but the second half dealt with both of their trials, which was largely repetitive.

[Esequiel Contreras Jr · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have always enjoyed reading Diane Fanning's books.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5stars really. Lots of courtroom information which gets a bit long winded sometimes . Such a terrible crime and Grant and Amanda deserve jail for the rest of their lives.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first Diane Fanning book and I was not disappointed. I proudly boast that she lives in my sweet little Virginia town of Bedford. I will be reading more and think it will be Secret City.

[Randi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bitter Remains is a tragic true crime story. The material is presented in a straight forward chronological manner.

[Diane Waddington · Rating 5 out of 5]

great book what a custody battle cannot believe what some people will do to get custody of their kids.

[Kristy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was good but the trials were a little tedious...especially since the two trials are basically the same info. Still good read. There are definitely evil people in this world and it is scary.