Chase the Devil

Murder and Obsession on Florida's Gulf Coast

Tony Adame

$49.99

Hardback

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English

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
06 May 2025

True crime; Violence in society; Sexual abuse & harassment

A police detective and an investigative journalist team up in secret to try and solve a series of rapes and murders from the early 1980s on Florida’s Gulf Coast, hoping to crack the cold case that has passed through generations of detectives. On December 31, 1984, Tonya Ethridge McKinley was out with friends celebrating New Year’s Eve and the start of her new life in Pensacola, Florida. Finally free from an abusive relationship, she was just weeks from her 24th birthday and moving toward becoming the person she’d always wanted to be. When Tonya’s body was found dumped on the side of the road, half-naked, raped, beaten, and choked to death in the early-morning hours of New Year’s Day, it was the first of two unsolved rapes and murders in the same area in the first two months of the year. Chase the Devil takes readers back to that rainy December night in 1984 and barrels forward like a freight train, moving across the decades and diving into the details of the crime and inside the lives of the victims and their families, the suspects, and the law enforcement officers who kept the case alive. With original reporting and unprecedented access to investigators, case files, and FBI reports kept hidden for decades, investigative journalist Tony Adame immerses readers in the investigation and tries to answer the questions of what really happened to Tonya that night and who took her life.

By: Tony Adame
Imprint: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 216mm, Width: 140mm,
Weight: 395g
ISBN: 9798881805265
Pages: 198
Publication Date: 06 May 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Chapter 1: New Year’s Eve, 1984 Chapter 2: Devil’s Point Chapter 3: Our Darling Chapter 4: Tonya Chapter 5: Fumble Chapter 6: Casefile 1985 Chapter 7: Web of Lies Chapter 8: Quantico Chapter 9: Prime Suspect Chapter 10: The Shoebox Chapter 11: ReneeSassy@aol.com Chapter 12: Rabbit Hole Chapter 13: Dying in Spanish Fort Chapter 14: Chuck and the Missing Girl Chapter 15: The Civilian Chapter 16: Endgame Chapter 17: “A Deep, Dark Hole” Chapter 18: Old Dogs Chapter 19: The Pharmacist’s Son Chapter 20: The Retirement Party Epilogue Appendix: Personal Journal (May 2019–May 2020) Acknowledgments Bibliography Index About the Author

Tony Adame lives on Florida’s Gulf Coast and is also the writer and host of the award-winning podcast and long-form series The Sheriff: Murder, Lies & Revenge in Okaloosa County. His work has been honored by the Florida Society of News Editors and the Associated Press Sports Editors Awards. Tony has worked at The Wichita (Kan.) Eagle, Pensacola (Fla.) News Journal ,and the Northwest Florida Daily News. Chase the Devil is his first book.

Reviews for Chase the Devil: Murder and Obsession on Florida's Gulf Coast

Chase the Devil is an intimate and engrossing account of how the rapist and killer of a young woman in Gulf Coast Florida was arrested, after thirty-six years, through use of familial DNA and old-fashioned detective work. Author Tony Adame was granted full access to the case files and, quite unusually, was in the room when decisions were made. It shows.--David DeKok In the world of contemporary true crime, entertainment, a focus on morbid details, and sensationalism tend to reign supreme. Tony Adame's Chase the Devil is the antidote. A procedural that follows the dictate of Joe Friday on Dragnet--just the facts--Adame makes the most of his unprecedented access to a cold case investigation to tell a compelling story of justice delayed through all of its dark, blind alleys with a guiding light of clarity and humanity.--Drew Morton, PhD Tony Adame's backstory of Chase the Devil is an added bonus of a thirty-six-year-old cold case that Pensacola Police thawed, and then solved in 2020.--Bitty Martin