SAMANTHA COOPER, 30’s, an ambitious and fiercely independent reporter for the Austin American-Statesman, sees her work as a means for bringing truth and justice to the world. She has ADD and has trouble relaxing or sitting still. She is hardworking and ambitious and feels unappreciated by her husband, Will. A Baptist minister and his wife raised her and her three brothers in a conservative home. She idolized her older brother Tommy as a child and wants her father and Tommy to reconcile.
ALAN CRAWFORD, 60’s, Samantha’s boss and respected editor of the newspaper, despises political correctness, modern technology, and social media. Working with women makes him uncomfortable. Chain-smoking and general crankiness are his major flaws.
DAVIS ROSS, 20’s, a bright and flamboyant Statesman intern, becomes a valuable asset to the cold case investigation because of his creative research skills.
DANIEL PARRA, 30’s, an unmotivated sheriff’s detective, spends his days investigating drug deals and petty crimes. A gunshot injury in a Houston drug bust led him to a boring but safe job in Marble Falls. Badgered by Samantha for answers about the cold case, his passion for detective work is reignited. Closing the Marble Falls cold case becomes personal for Parra because he has two girls of his own.
CHARLIE BURTON, 60’s, incarcerated in Oklahoma State Penitentiary for the rape of a teenage girl, distrusts authority after his arrest for drug trafficking in the 80’s. He has disconnected from his family and life outside of prison. His family DNA has connected his son Jesse and his brother, Randy, to the Marble Falls cold case. He becomes secretive and angry when Samantha confronts him with new evidence. He sends cryptic poems and letters with details about the missing girls to Samantha.
PASTOR KEVIN MCDONALD, 60’s, began his career as a Baptist minister at Fellowship Church in Marble Falls and has risen to power at a large evangelical megachurch in Houston. He adopted Tommy, Samantha, and two other children whom he raised with his wife, Laura. He disapproved of Tommy’s path as a drummer and disowned him. A highly conservative Christian, he believes the means always justify the end. He is intelligent, charismatic, and ruthless.
TOMMY MCDONALD, 40’s, the drummer for the rock band Vertigo, lives alone in a trailer park in Pasadena when he is not touring with his band. He is estranged from his family and father, Pastor Kevin McDonald, who disapproved of his path as a musician. He has struggled with heroin addiction in the past. He has never dealt with his childhood trauma, and when Samantha seeks him out as an adult, he is defensive and scared as his childhood secrets are revealed to her.
WILL COOPER, 30’s, a tech geek gaming software engineer, met and fell in love with Samantha over their shared obsession with Dungeons and Dragons. He is a defensive hothead with poor social skills. Samantha’s ambition and her demanding career leads him into an affair with one of his co-workers. He hates his boss, which eventually leads to an angry confrontation and his firing from his gaming company and a new career path in augmented virtual reality. When he realizes he might lose Samantha, he recommits to their marriage.
MELANIE CROWLEY, 50’s, has lost her career and marriage and spiraled into depression because of Casey’s murder. She believes Jesse Burton, Casey’s high school boyfriend, was the killer. She confirms that Casey and Jesse had a romantic relationship. Casey was her best friend, and she has never fully recovered emotionally from her death.
EVELYN BELL, 40’s, experienced vivid dreams and a feeling of connection to her missing twin sister her entire life. When she learns that her twin is one of the missing girls from Marble Falls, she becomes an essential witness in the case. She donates her kidney to Rachel to save her life from diabetes complications after they are reunited.
SHELIA CONROE, late 50’s, Charlie Burton’s ex-wife, lives in Oklahoma City, where she works as a hairdresser. A troubled marriage with Charlie led to their divorce when police arrested him for rape. She does not trust Charlie because of his history with drugs. She raised Rachel Kersey as her daughter and changed her name to Ashley Burton to keep her safe. She is very protective of her children and has worked her entire life to support them.
JESSE BURTON, 40’s, a detective in the Oklahoma City Police department, is estranged from his father, Charlie, who he does not trust. He is protective of his mother, Shelia, who raised him as a single mother. His anguish over Casey’s murder led him to become a police officer. His friendship with Tommy in high school puts investigators on the right path. He wants justice for Casey, who was his first love.
ASHLEY BURTON, 40’s, lives in Oklahoma City, where she works as a bartender. As a foster child, she has struggled with her self-identity her entire life. She fled an abusive foster family in Marble Falls to live with Shelia and changed her name from Rachel Kersey to Ashley Burton to hide her identity. She develops a new healthy family relationship when she is reunited with her twin sister Evelyn, who donates a kidney and saves her from diabetes complications. When she reunites with Tommy, a romantic relationship forms that inspires him to write a song about her.