When four mothers in Southern California finally had their kids in school full-time, they didn’t turn to Pilates or pickleball. Instead, they became The Carpool Detectives — and decided to investigate a murder.
Their story unfolds in The Carpool Detectives: A True Story of Four Moms, Two Bodies and One Mysterious Cold Case (Random House), written by Chuck Hogan, the New York Times bestselling author known for The Town and co-author of The Strain trilogy with Guillermo del Toro.
Hogan details how four friends — Marissa Pianko, Nicole Landset Blank, Samira Poulos, and Jeannie Wilkinson — solved a gruesome double homicide that had eluded veteran law enforcement for more than a decade.
From School Drop-Off to Cold Case Sleuthing
The case began with the 2005 discovery of a suburban businessman and his wife, found near their wrecked SUV in a Los Angeles County canyon. Millions of dollars were missing, their family business shuttered, and the police had no leads.
In 2020, Pianko — a former forensic accountant — learned about the case in a UCLA journalism class. She quickly became obsessed. Eventually she recruited her friends: a political opposition researcher, a digital advertising project manager, and a freelance writer.
