Quite a Girl

The Cold Case of Stephanie Casberg and Life in a World of Murder

Cathie Pelletier

Six decades after a Milwaukee girl was found murdered, the case remains open in the hopes that her killer might still be found.

On a summer’s night in 1969, Stephanie Casberg finished her waitress shift at Marc’s Big Boy. She was a beautiful girl with auburn hair who had just graduated from high school. In four days, she would turn eighteen. Her dream of finding an apartment and buying a GTO convertible was within reach. Stephanie embodied the spirit of the 1960s. She loved a good party, wanted to go to college, learn foreign languages, and see the world. It was just past midnight when she changed into jeans and left the restaurant.

But Stephanie would remain seventeen forever. Two days later, a family fishing near an abandoned bridge saw the remains of a body scattered on the riverbank. Inside a paper bag was the head of a young girl with auburn hair.

Sheriff Joe Blessinger was called to the riverbank that day. How would he ever begin to track down the depraved person who had done this? In Quite the Girl, Cathie Pelletier takes us along as we also meet Diana April, a member of the family fishing at the bridge; Charles and Mary Casberg, the parents; and Stephanie’s last boyfriend who took her to the senior prom. We travel from 1969 to the present and the most recent attempt to solve the murder.

In hoping to recreate the world that Stephanie Casberg had known, Pelletier conducted dozens of interviews and did extensive research. Neil Armstrong was about to step on the moon. The Concorde would take its first flight. The Zodiac Killer and Charles Manson dominated headline news. And those songs blasting over the airwaves would become musical classics.

Pelletier interviewed retired Wisconsin police officers, managers of Marc’s Big Boy where Stephanie worked, waitresses who worked with her, friends who knew her well. Two letters Stephanie wrote before she died in which she discusses her social life brought her spirited, fun-loving voice to life.

In 1969 there was limited forensics when it came to solving murders. As the years pass and new investigations are conducted, Pelletier also writes of murder ballads, of blood typing and fingerprints, the birth of DNA, serial killers, and FBI profiling. And she pays tribute to the murders of several other young women who were killed in the same decade as Stephanie—and in the same vicinity. Could there possibly be a connection?

Quite the Girl so honors the memory of Stephanie Casberg that she lives anew on the page and opens the door to a long-awaited breakthrough for justice.

Cathie Pelletier was born and raised on the banks of the St. John River, at the end of the road in Northern Maine. She is the author of twelve  novels, including The Funeral Makers (a New York Times Notable Book), The Weight of Winter (winner of the New England Book Award) and Running the Bulls (winner of the Paterson Prize for Fiction). As K. C. McKinnon, she has written two novels, both of which became television films. After years of living in Nashville, Tennessee Toronto, Canada and Eastman, Quebec, she has returned to Allagash, Maine and the family homestead where she was born. 

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Endorsements & Reviews

Praise for Cathie Pelletier

“Cathie Pelletier anatomizes this two-day tempest in Northeaster, a historical re-creation of personal experiences so dramatic that they have lingered for decades in local and family lore. It’s touching to see the faces of real people who went through the ordeal.” The Wall Street Journal 

“In this excellent example of narrative nonfiction, Pelletier follows several families, many of whom experienced tragedy or hardship during the storm. Pelletier also delves into the physical destruction that the storm left in its wake and the science of blizzards. This book will appeal to readers of narrative nonfiction and climate nonfiction in particular.” Booklist

"Northeaster is an amazing piece of work, giving us a riveting story. The storm is the framework, but the picture it holds is of the characters themselves, how they lived their lives, how they faced adversity. Incredibly, not only can this scenario happen again. One day it will." Bernd Heinrich, author of Ravens in Winter and The Snoring Bird

"Northeaster is a meticulously researched, compassionate, and all too real account of the interface between megastorm and human civilization, a tragedy that is too often reduced to numbers and statistics. Set in America's last frontierland, the state of Maine, Cathie Pelletier cracks open the door to victims's lives before the storm and the immeasurable loss they suffered after it." Porter Fox, author of The Last Winter