A mother's new beginning ends in a living room bound by tape, cord, and silence-and a child vanishes into the trees. April 12, 1981. In the tiny Sierra community of Keddie, three victims are discovered inside Cabin 28 and twelve-year-old Tina Sharp is missing. Hours earlier, the night sounded ordinary. By morning, it held an unsolved murder and an absence that would haunt generations. In Cabin 28, Colin J. Mercer reconstructs the hours before and after the crime with investigative clarity and empathetic restraint. The scene is tight: a front room turned battlefield; a back bedroom where three boys survive. The questions are stark: Who crossed the threshold? Why did they stop where they did? And where did Tina go? This isn't folklore. It's the record-911 timelines, interviews, bindings, and a hammer later dragged from a pond. Adhesive pulled from tape yields a profile tied to a living suspect. An old cassette preserves an anonymous call that seems to name the lost child before the public ever could. The cabin is long demolished; the evidence, stubborn. This book contains no images-only cinematic narrative written in the style of a detective-investigator. Middle build: you'll move through fixed anchors-a 08:05 call, a living room of ligatures, a home invasion mapped by blood and movement; a cold case revived by a found hammer, a sealed cassette, and laboratory work on medical tape; the geography between Keddie and Camp 18; the legal posture that keeps names sealed and rumors out. You'll see what can be said cleanly, and where the record stops. Reader promise: You won't be asked to believe what isn't on paper. You'll walk the routes, weigh the timings, and sit with the families and investigators who have carried this weight. Along the way, you'll feel the press of motive-the intimate kind that turns homes into scenes-and the costs of uncertainty when justice can't quite cross the finish line. What does a town remember when the room is gone? What does a voice on magnetic tape still owe the dead? This Book Is For Readers Who... - want true crime grounded in documents, not conjecture - are drawn to precise timelines, forensics, and chain-of-custody realities - are compelled by cases with living stakes and careful compassion - follow a cold case from first light to present-day re-examination - seek the human story inside an abduction that never stopped echoing - prefer investigator-level detail with cinematic restraint - want a close study of a home invasion that still resists easy answers Perfect For Fans Of... - Gregg Olsen's If You Tell - Ann Rule's The Stranger Beside Me - Michelle McNamara's I'll Be Gone in the Dark - Robert Kolker's Lost Girls - John Douglas & Mark Olshaker's Mindhunter Within these pages, you won't find certainty masquerading as closure-you'll find the truth that can be proven, and the hurt that won't let go. Open the door to Cabin 28 and step inside.