Her boyfriend Trader confirmed the two were having sexual problems close to her time of death. "Yeah, but people do things without people knowing. People kill, bury, divorce, marry, change sex, go nuts, give birth, without people knowing. People have triplets in the bathroom without people knowing" (78).
The way in which Jennifer committed suicide surprised investigators. Modest Jennifer never even wore a two piece bathing suit yet she was found naked when she took her own life. "In suicide studies there used to be a rough rule that went: The more violent the means, the louder the snarl at the living. The louder they said, Look what you made me do" (170). Jennifer made a bold statement to her family and friends when she took her life. She shot herself three times in the head. This is feasible, yet very unusual in a suicide case. "But yet, three bullets, like the opposite of three cheers. What a judgment. What highness. What ice. She hurt the living, and that's another reason to hate her" (170).
Colonel Tom, Jennifer's father, took the death of his daughter very hard. He tried to convince himself and others that his "faultless" daughter had to have been murdered. Jennifer's demise caused him fright and disbelief. He couldn't bring himself to the realization that no one had done this Jennifer; she had done it to herself, with disregard for her father's feelings. Colonel Tom pressured Mike daily to tell him the new developments of the case, giving himself false hope that everything was going to turn out alright in the end. He relied heavily on Mike not just in this case but in many others, putting stress on her. "He held it out toward me, saying, "Bring me something I can live with. Because I can't live with this"" (29). Colonel Tom trusted Mike to make sense out of Jennifer's death for him, affecting her on many different levels.
As Mike investigated Jennifer's suicide she stumbled upon the fact that Jennifer's life paralleled her own.