Ron Franscell's book signing tonight is shaping up to be a reunion, but not a happy one.

His new book, "Fall," is a narrative account of the tragic deaths of Casper sisters Amy Burridge and Becky Thomson. Several people who knew the girls plan to come tonight to the book signing, from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Roberts Commons Ballroom at Casper College.

In 1973 two men kidnapped them from a parking lot and drove them to the Fremont Canyon Bridge. The men raped Becky, both of them did, and they pushed the girls over the bridge to fall to their deaths. Amy, 11, died from the impact, but Becky, 18, lived to crawl out of the canyon, where she was rescued by a couple on a fishing trip.

The book tells the story of her attackers, Ron Kennedy and Jerry Jenkins, and of Becky, who lived in Casper until 1992, when she returned to the bridge and apparently jumped to her death.

Bill Hambrick was principal at Fairdale Elementary School, where Amy was a student, at the time of her death.

Amy was a vivacious girl, he said, a real delight.

"It was a horrible shock for us," he said. "It was just unreal."

The school, now gone, remembered Amy with a plaque in the front hall, and Hambrick, president of the Casper College board, wonders where it is today.

He said he would come to the book signing, to buy the book and to support the author.

Franscell grew up in Casper and was a student at Kelly Walsh High School, and a neighbor of the girls, at the time of their attack.

He studied journalism at Casper College and graduated from the University of Wyoming, then worked at newspapers including the Star-Tribune, the Gillette News Record and the Denver Post. Today he's a managing editor at the Beaumont Enterprise in Texas.

"I think so much of him," Hambrick said. "He's really followed this right on through."

Franscell took a year off to research and write the book.

"The fact that it was such a fresh memory 30 years later made me wonder, what's the nature of community memory that it would be so fresh?" he said. "If you happen to talk to somebody that was a kid around that time in Casper, they'll tell you pretty much the same story: 'After that I couldn't ride my bike after dark. I couldn't go down to the grocery store by myself.'"

He interviewed more than 150 people for the book and looked through stacks of records.

It's not a gentle book, he said, but people who have read it say it's not overly gory, either, it's the truth.

"I want it to ring true with people in Wyoming," Franscell said. "I really would like for the book to be a success. I want people in Wyoming to say, yeah, yeah, you got that."

Dave Dovala, investigator on the case and later Natrona County sheriff, plans to attend the signing to buy the book for himself and his children, who were young at the time of the crime.

"I read the book," he said. "It's all truthful."

Now he's retired, and at 68 likes to ride his motorcycle. He still thinks about Becky. They became close after her attack. Dovala gave her away at her wedding.

"You know, sometimes you don't think it's going to happen here, and it does," he said.

Lisa Pearce Icenogle will write a story about the book for the alumni magazine at Casper College, where she works in community relations.

She was a close friend of Becky Thomson's when they both worked in radio in Casper in the 1980s. The story tells how the women were close, and Becky relied on Lisa for strength and a place to confide her thoughts.

"Why it happened is one of those things that will never be answered," Icenogle said.

Becky called her the day of her death, but Lisa wasn't at her phone.

"I wondered, 'Gosh, what if I had talked to her? I wonder if this would have turned out differently.' I've made peace with that now."

The events around the sisters' deaths are still painful to people in town, and there may never be answers, the author said.

"At its heart, "Fall" is a story about one woman's search for equilibrium, for solid ground beneath her," Franscell said. "She might never have found the answers for herself, but her search leads the rest of us to some answers."

Reach Barbara Nordby at (307) 266-0633 or at barbara.nordby@casperstartribune.net.