Donna M. Kshir, the author of Fallen Star: Author, Activist, Murderer, shares when she met Star Myers.

'When I met Star Myers, she wasn’t a headline.

'She wasn’t the woman the public would eventually come to know through court records and news reports.

'She was a mother.

'A veteran.

'An author.

'A volunteer in her children’s school.

'Star was a child rights activist who dedicated years of her life to helping abused women and children.

'Star was compassionate, intelligent, funny, and generous. She had a beautiful smile and contagious laugh. She touched countless lives and inspired many people—including me.

'When I learned she had been arrested in connection with the death of her husband, Richard Lee Bork, I felt disbelief unlike anything I had ever experienced.

'How could someone who spent years advocating for others become the person accused of taking a life?

'How does a marriage unravel so completely that it ends in violence?

'What happens between the person everyone admires and the person standing before a judge in a courtroom?

'Those questions refused to leave me.

'The headlines told people what happened, but they never explained how.

'As I searched for answers, I found myself looking far beyond one horrific night. I found a lifetime of trauma, addiction, deception, broken relationships, emotional manipulation, poor choices, and warning signs that were too impossible to ignore.

'None of those things excuse murder.

'Nothing ever could.

'Rick Bork lost his life. His family lost a son. A brother. A loved one.

'Justice matters. Accountability matters. Victims matter.

'But I also believe something else matters.

'Understanding how lives unravel before they become headlines.'