"There isn't much information on Cheryl. She was found in a ditch in Harris County, Texas, in 1989. Her body showed no obvious marks of violence, and the coroner ruled that her death was natural. She was unidentified for more than fifteen years. The sketch artist who made the reconstruction above drew her in that odd, coy pose with her hand over her face to show the corpse's distinctive jewelry, and to conceal the fact that wild animals and birds had eaten away her eyes and the flesh of the upper part of her head. The illustration is mesmerizing: it's hard not to fixate on the promise of her smile, on the awful possibilities of what might be revealed when she finally draws her hand away."