About

The author, Kelli Martin, grew up in a small town in Hood County,  Texas, where five (5) generations of her family lived, and helped build Granbury in various ways. Granbury is just 35 miles southwest of Fort Worth and only 70 miles from Dallas.  Hence the name of the book, "Homicide in the Hood: Murders that Haunt a Small Town Girl."

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About the "The Hood" (Hood County, TX - Granbury, County Seat)

Granbury was officially formed in 1871.  The quaint little town of Granbury has a dark, seedy past that many residents are unaware of, as so many people from all over the country have moved to Granbury in recent years.  They are  clueless about the brutal homicides that have occurred over the years, some of them remaining unsolved.  There's obviously more than what's in this book.

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When these homicides occurred in the 1980s, most of Martin's childhood, they really rocked the little town, population 2,000, and only about 6,000 residents in the entire county which covers 437 square miles. 

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Chapter 1 of the book, "Growin' up in the Hood," orients the reader to "the hood," Hood County, Texas.  There is a rich and interesting history.  Although it has grown exponentially since these homicides occurred, it still has a small town feel.

 

Inspiration for the Book 

Martin was friends with a young lady, 19, who was murdered when Martin was only 20 years old.  She did not write about this case in the book to respect the sister's wishes.

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Other brutal slayings of women in the 1980s had a significant impact on Martin growing up, which eventually led to her 30 -year career in the field of criminal justice.  She went to high school with four sisters, the oldest being murdered Martin's senior year in high school two doors down from her grandmother's house. 

 

In 2019, Martin connected with a sister of a murder victim. They became immediate friends and Martin finally started writing this book in April of 2023.  Martin had always wanted to write a book, and this was her passion, helping these families.  Her only intent in writing this book was to help the families get answers after decades of waiting for justice for their loved ones! 

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A Victim-Centered Approach

When Martin began the project, she knew she was going to reach out to the families. She was already friend's with Holly Palmer's sister, Dolly.  Because of Martin's background as a criminologist and researcher and her decades of experience actually working "in the system," Martin knew best-practices tell us victims need a voice. Their families need a voice, they actually have a "legal right" to have access to certain information and be informed of certain actions or proceedings relating to their perpetrator's crime against them or a loved one. 

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Martin tracked down family members or friends out of 5 of the 6 main cases covered in the book.  She let them know about the project and explained she was friend's with Holly Palmer's sister Dolly, (because everyone around here knows about Holly Palmer's case).  Martin has made many new friends throughout this process and is so thankful for the opportunity to tell these stories with so much support from victims' families, friends, family, classmates, teachers, current and former co-workers, and the military veteran community.

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Martin wanted this book to honor victims, humanize them, and give their families a voice after all of these years of suffering, torment, frustration, and anger - a chance to be heard, to be a part of this. She had some skeptics at first, but it's because they don't know her.  The families are behind her, as are many others.

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Families and friends of these women were allowed to make contributions to the book.  Most of these write-ups by the family members and friends are included in Chapter 10 of Homicide in the Hood: Murders that Haunt a Small Town Girl - "The Victims and their Families Deserve Justice." 

 

Collaboration with Law Enforcement

Martin communicated with both the Hood County Sheriff Roger Deeds and Granbury Police Chief Mitch Galvan early on to inform them of her book project.  They were both very supportive.  They inherited these cold cases, and our county and city has grown so fast year after year, that these cases were pushed to the side, although not intentionally.  This is not uncommon for other jurisdictions to experience the same thing. 

 

One case, Chapter 4 about the murder of Sheila Vandygriff. required Martin to contact Bosque County Sheriff's Department, a few counties over, because the young woman was kidnapped in Hood County, and drive to the other county and murdered.  They assured me they were going to start from scratch and work the case with fresh eyes. 

 

The unsolved cases covered in the book began being worked after many long years of inactivity, because of Dolly Palmer's persistence with her sister's case (Holly Palmer) and Kelli writing this book.  And as of the publishing of this book in late 2024, evidence has been sent to a forensic lab for testing with modern techniques and technologies in several of the cases after decades!

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