Eli Sanders, "While The City Slept"

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"While The City Slept: A Love Lost to Violence and A Young Man's Descent Into Madness," is a compassionate and clear-eyed account of the 2009 murderous attack on Seattle residents Jennifer Hopper and Theresa Butz. Teresa Butz was killed. Isaiah Kalebu, a mentally ill man who had spent much of his life in and out of underfunded courts and deficient mental health programs, is now serving life in prison with no parole for the crimes.

Eli Sanders won a 2012 Feature Writing Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on Jennifer Hopper's testimony during the trial. He called her the bravest woman in the world.

The book follows the paths of these two women, who were getting ready to be married when they were attacked. It tracks Kalebu's path as well and digs into the mental health and criminal justice systems that failed to serve families like Kalebu's and the thousands of others like him.

This a story about forgiveness and compassion.

Jennifer Hopper works with the Angel Band Project on a music therapy program for survivors of sexual/domestic violence.

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