One of the best long reads of the summer

A mystery in six parts

She was the PTA mom everyone knew. Who would want to harm her?

By Christopher Goffard | Sept. 3, 2016

The Call The Power Couple Limbo The prosecutor The Trial Ruin

Chapter 1
the call
By Christopher Goffard

The cop wanted her car keys. Kelli Peters handed them over. She told herself she had nothing to fear, that all he’d find inside her PT Cruiser was beach sand, dog hair, maybe one of her daughter’s toys.

They were outside Plaza Vista School in Irvine, where she had watched her daughter go from kindergarten to fifth grade, where any minute now the girl would be getting out of class to look for her. Parents had entrusted their own kids to Peters for years; she was the school’s PTA president and the heart of its after-school program.

Now she watched as her ruin seemed to unfold before her. Watched as the cop emerged from her car holding a Ziploc bag of marijuana, 17 grams worth, plus a ceramic pot pipe, plus two smaller EZY Dose Pill Pouch baggies, one with 11 Percocet pills, another with 29 Vicodin. It was enough to send her to jail, and more than enough to destroy her name.

for the rest: http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-me-framed/#chapter1