A Deadly Wandering

Furfaro and O’Dell are two rocket scientists working at ATK Systems, where they help build rocket boosters. Jim was driving the Saturn headed from Logan and Keith was his passenger. Jim had two daughters: Cassidy (age 3) and Stephanie (age 7) at the time of his death. Jim studied mechanical engineering and Keith was an expert handyman who fixed everything around the house. 

Terryl is a victims advocate working for the Cache County attorney’s office. She gets involved in Reggie’s case through her friendship with Jackie Furfaro and eventually pushes for the case to be brought to trial. She had a traumatic childhood due to an alcoholic father whom she didn’t get along with. She uses it now as a source of empathy for trauma victims she works with. One of Reggie’s most vocal opponents, she was particularly outraged by his seeming lack of remorse but changed her mind after witnessing Reggie break down telling his story at a state legislators’ committee hearing.

Bart is a Utah state trooper who arrived on the scene after the accident and drove Reggie to the hospital. He has a reputation as a bit of a bulldog who follows up on his hunches and doesn’t let cases he gets invested in go easily. He pursues Reggie’s phone records and eventually hands the case to Singleton. He wants the full weight of the law brought on Reggie.

An American cognitive neuroscientist who Richtel describes as having the aesthetics of a “hipster musician.” Gazzaley is one of the world’s foremost experts in the science of attention. He teams up with Dr. Strayer to bring a deep neuroscience perspective to research on distracted driving. Gazzaley wants to figure out a way to train humans to expand and improve their capacity for attention, one method of which is through a video game he designed called Neuroracer, which has the potential to reverse or rewire some of the brain’s signs of aging. 

Jackie is a computer programmer and Jim’s wife. She raises her daughters in a media-rich household, with television and video games, believing it does little harm. Eventually, she finds a new partner in a family friend named Gary and forgives Reggie for his role in the accident after all of his public service work.

Linton is the chief deputy county attorney at the Cache County attorney’s office; he is also the lead prosecutor for the state after Terryl convinces him to take on the case. Linton is not familiar with driving and texting laws or even how dangerous driving and texting is until he contacts Dr. Strayer. As a kid, he was sexually abused by a member of the Mormon Church, which informs his view on the difference between spirituality and the institution of religion. His silence and shame allowed him to empathize with Reggie’s situation. Despite a heated court battle, he ends up concluding that Reggie is a good kid who made a mistake.

Bunderson is Reggie’s defense attorney who first instructs him not to apologize to the victims’ families due to the risk of it being seen as an admission of guilt. He is a hands-on lawyer who fights for Reggie and eventually gets Reggie a plea agreement.

Leila and Megan are, respectively, Keith O’Dell’s wife and daughter. Leila is a bookkeeper at a local electrical contractor. She thinks that her husband’s death is just an accident until Reggie gets a lawyer, after which she begins seeking justice for her husband. At Reggie’s sentencing, Megan says how painful it was to get married without her dad there to walk her down the aisle. Leila keeps in contact with the investigators and later writes her senator to encourage him to take on texting and driving.