To the Last Breath

In To the Last Breath: Three Women Fight for the Truth Behind a Child's Tragic Murder, a true-crime nonfiction book, Edgar Award-winning American author Carlton Stowers tells the story behind the 1994 murder of two-year-old Renee Goode and the three women who relentlessly pursued her killer. Their efforts highlight the indomitable drive and spirit of a trio of unforgettable characters, the failure of law enforcement, and the dark depravity of a father's greed.

The story opens with the exhumation of Renee Goode's body in October of 1994. This is the first exhumation of a body in the history of Brazoria County, Texas. It is a move ordered, in large part, because of the victim's grandmother, Sharon Couch, who has worked tirelessly to find the real cause behind Renee's mysterious death. Joining her in her crusade is Sue Dietrich, a veteran police offer who takes on the case when it nearly goes cold. Assistant District Attorney Jeri Yenne adds her formidable skills into the mix, and the three women are soon on their way to not only discovering that Goode's death was anything but natural, but that the girl's own father, Shane, was the murderer.

From there, Stowers takes readers back in time to 1987 and the beginning of Shane's relationship with Couch's daughter, Annette. Shane and Annette meet, fall in love, and marry, but from the beginning, their union is a rocky one, full of break-ups and reunions. During one of their brief periods of calm and reunification, Shane impregnates Annette. After another break-up, Annette learns she is pregnant. Shane makes it clear that he does not want the baby and encourages her to abort the fetus. Annette refuses, and she and Shane divorce. Six weeks after the finalization of the divorce, Annette gives birth to Katherine Renee Goode, whom Annette calls Renee.



As Renee grows up, Shane has nothing to do with her. He is not even sure what her name is, and he certainly never makes time to see her. Once Annette pursues child support through the courts, Shane demands a DNA test. It confirms he is Renee's father. After that, he makes halfhearted attempts to have a relationship with his daughter, but little Renee is abjectly terrified of him.

Then, on January 22, 1994, Annette allows two-year-old Renee to spend the night at her father's house in a well-intentioned attempt to help father and daughter have at least some semblance of a relationship. Renee enjoys an evening with her half-sisters and cousin.

By the next morning, Renee Goode is dead.



In a lax autopsy that is, at best, cursory, the medical examiner rules the death natural but can not definitively determine a cause. He cites fluid in the lungs as a contributing factor. Annette and her mother, Sharon, suspect foul play—and Shane—from the start. However, with a natural death and only Annette and Sharon's suspicions, it isn't enough to sway law enforcement, and the police refuse to investigate the death as a homicide.

Sharon is no stranger to police procedural processes or the inner workings of the law. After her son inadvertently killed a childhood friend in a prank gone wrong, Sharon worked closely with his defense team. From there, she became a private investigator. She knows, with both a professional's conviction and a grandmother's intuition, that Shane Goode killed her granddaughter.

What she uncovers is startling. Before he had even laid eyes on his daughter, Shane took out a $50,000 life insurance policy on her—a fact he denied when confronted after the fact by Annette. Not at all coincidentally, Shane had taken out a life insurance policy on Tiffany, his daughter with another woman, at the same he took the policy out on Renee. With a chill, Sharon realizes that if he got away with Renee's murder, Tiffany may well be next.



She takes her concerns to Sue Dietrich, a homicide investigator with the Alvin, Texas, police department. Sue herself had lost a daughter around Renee's age, so this case feels very personal indeed. Compelled by Sharon's evidence, Sue reopens the investigation into Renee's death with greater vigor. After the exhumation, the coroner rules that Renee had been squeezed to death—likely the result of suffocation.

With all fingers pointing to Shane, prosecutors charge him with his daughter's murder. One of those prosecutors is Jeri Yenne, an aggressive Assistant DA. She works alongside Brazoria County's lead prosecutor—who coincidentally happens to be Sue Dietrich's philandering ex-husband. Stowers documents the events leading up to, during, and after trial, in which Shane's fate is determined. However, as is the case with the justice system, the three women encounter legal roadblocks and politically motivated confrontations at every turn. They persevere, and they bring Shane Goode to justice—and, finally, lay Renee to rest.

To the Last Breath includes photographs and notes on the text.