Colleen Hatteras: The Heart and Casualty of The Waiting

Overview

Colleen Hatteras is a civilian volunteer in the LAPD Open‑Unsolved Unit, serving as the team’s investigative genetic genealogy (IGG) expert. A former stay‑at‑home mother of two college‑age daughters, Hatteras transitioned into cold‑case sleuthing after her children left for school. She joined the unit about two years before the events of The Waiting, recruited by Detective Renée Ballard because of Hatteras’s skill at building family trees from DNA and her relentless online research. Although she had no law enforcement background, her ability to unearth leads made her a vital member of the team—and her openness about her emotions often made her its most human presence. Her murder at the hands of the Pillowcase Rapist, Andrew Bennett, becomes the novel’s central tragedy and forces Ballard to confront questions of responsibility, trust, and the cost of justice.

Plot Role

Hatteras appears in chapters 3 through 51, appearing in the unit’s Monday meetings, researching the Pillowcase Rapist case, and contributing to the Black Dahlia investigation. Her genetic‑tree work initially leads the team to Judge Jonathan Purcell as the prime suspect, but she later expresses doubt when her building family tree fails to connect to the judge—a doubt that proves prescient when the true rapist is revealed to be Andrew Bennett. Hatteras also pitches in on the Black Dahlia case by researching missing‑persons records and reaching out to the Lost Angels site. Her most significant action occurs off‑page: after Ballard sends her home, Hatteras uses her own initiative to contact Andrew Bennett directly, leading to her execution‑style murder. Her death propels the final act, spurring Ballard to break ethical boundaries to find Bennett without waiting for official homicide detectives.

Motivations and Traits Shown Through Actions

A Self‑Described Empath

Hatteras is portrayed as someone who relies on emotional intuition. She closes her eyes and “hugs” a stack of unsolved case files to “connect” with victims (chapter 25). Ballard tolerates this because of Hatteras’s track record, but it also leads to moments of frustration when Hatteras oversteps personal boundaries, such as asking about Ballard’s personal life.

Relentless at the Keyboard

Ballard describes Hatteras as “relentless at the keyboard,” and the novel repeatedly shows her working late, checking in on weekends, and volunteering for extra tasks. She is the first to find Rodney Van Ness on LinkedIn, calculates the prom timeline to suggest conception timing (chapter 34), and quickly locates Victor Best and Andrew Bennett through online searches. Her drive, however, also makes her overzealous.

Boundary‑Crossing

Hatteras uses Ballard’s DMV password without permission—obtained from Anders Persson—to run checks on suspects (chapter 48). When Ballard confronts her, Hatteras dismisses the violation as no different from using Ballard’s logged‑in screen. This behavior reflects her disregard for protocol in favor of getting results quickly. It also foreshadows her decision to contact a person of interest alone, an action that violates unit rules and leads to her death.

Visibility and Vulnerability

In chapter 37, Hatteras lingers in the office until Ballard sends her home, and in chapter 51, Ballard leaves a voicemail offering an undercover stakeout, knowing the word “undercover” will entice her. Hatteras’s eagerness to move beyond her computer role makes her visible to a killer who sees her as a threat.

Chronological Arc

1. Introduction (ch. 3): Ballard describes Hatteras’s background and her role on the team, noting her nosiness and her value as an IGG expert.
2. Early Work (ch. 10): Hatteras expresses doubt that the genetic tree she is building connects to Judge Purcell, buying time for the real investigation.
3. Prom Discovery (ch. 34): Hatteras calculates the timeline of Mallory’s pregnancy and identifies the prom venue and prom date, moving the case forward.
4. Person of Interest Locating (ch. 48): Hatteras finds Andrew Bennett’s real estate bio and runs his DMV using Ballard’s password.
5. Last Contact (ch. 51): Ballard leaves a voicemail inviting Hatteras to an undercover stakeout, but Hatteras never responds. Ballard goes to Hatteras’s home and discovers her body.
6. Posthumous Role (ch. 52–55): Ballard uses Hatteras’s computer, phone records, and notes to track Bennett, and ultimately arrests him for Hatteras’s murder.

Relationships

Renée Ballard

Ballard acts as Hatteras’s de facto supervisor and occasional protector. She admires Hatteras’s skills but is frustrated by Hatteras’s boundary‑pushing. When Ballard finds Hatteras dead, her guilt is immediate: “Had Ballard not trained her well enough?” (ch. 52). She later makes the case personal, telling detectives she takes responsibility.

Anders Persson

Persson and Hatteras are described as a “formidable team”—Persson for internet tracking, Hatteras for genetics. Persson shares Ballard’s password with Hatteras, an ethical breach that contributes to the final tragedy.

Maddie Bosch

Hatteras meets Maddie when Maddie starts volunteering. They work together on the Black Dahlia case and the Pillowcase Rapist. After Hatteras’s death, Maddie is among those stunned; Ballard texts the team, and Maddie calls immediately.

The Unit at Large

Hatteras is somewhat isolated—the only non‑sworn, non‑former‑officer volunteer. She frequently asks to join field operations, but Ballard denies her, citing lack of training. This tension makes Hatteras’s solo contact with Bennett a fatal act of defiance.

Key Decisions and Consequences

Theme and Symbol Connections

• Cold‑Case Investigation and Justice Delayed: Hatteras’s work on the Pillowcase Rapist shows how genetic genealogy can revive decades‑old cases, but her murder demonstrates that pursuing justice can be dangerous even for those not in uniform. See cold‑case investigation and justice delayed.
• Trust and Secrecy in Law Enforcement: Hatteras hides her contact with Bennett from Ballard, breaking the trust necessary for a functional team. See trust and secrecy in law enforcement.
• Vicarious Trauma and Emotional Survival: Hatteras’s empathic nature, while a strength, makes her emotionally vulnerable. Ballard’s therapy sessions touch on this, and Hatteras’s murder is the ultimate trauma for the unit. See vicarious trauma and emotional survival.
• Mentorship and Legacy: Ballard trained Hatteras but could not fully protect her. Hatteras’s death forces Ballard to reassess how she mentors her volunteers. See mentorship and legacy.
• Ethical Boundaries in Policing: Hatteras’s death results partly from a cascade of ethical lapses: using unauthorized passwords, working off‑book, and going solo. See ethical boundaries in policing.

Symbol: Hatteras’s home office, with its dust outline where her computer was stolen, symbolizes the erased digital footprint of a person who gave everything to her work. Her body is found in a closet, a hiding place that metaphorically represents the unseen sacrifices of civilian investigators.

Five Book‑Specific Questions and Answers

1. Why was Colleen Hatteras killed?
Hatteras was murdered by Andrew Bennett, the Pillowcase Rapist, whom she contacted directly after identifying him as a person of interest. She made a 29‑minute call to him the afternoon before her death (ch. 53), and he used a fireman’s friend tool to break into her home, strangled her with a computer cord, and stole her computer and backup drive (ch. 52–53).

2. How did Ballard find Hatteras’s body?
Ballard became concerned when Hatteras did not answer her phone or email. Knowing Hatteras’s address from her volunteer application, Ballard drove to El Segundo, found the garage door up and the interior door ajar, and discovered Hatteras dead in the bedroom closet (ch. 51).

3. What was Hatteras’s main skill in the Open‑Unsolved Unit?
Hatteras was the team’s investigative genetic genealogy (IGG) expert. She built family trees from DNA sequences to identify suspects in cold cases, as seen in her work on the Pillowcase Rapist and Black Dahlia investigations (ch. 3, 10, 34, 37).

4. Did Hatteras violate any rules before her death?
Yes. In chapter 48, she used Ballard’s DMV password without permission to run checks on Andrew Bennett, and Ballard warned her that it was illegal. More critically, she contacted Bennett alone without informing the team, violating the unit’s policy against solo field work.

5. How did Hatteras’s death affect the unit and Ballard?
Ballard took full responsibility at the press conference and crossed ethical lines—asking Persson to illegally hack phone records—to find the killer. The unit’s morale collapsed, and Ballard acknowledged that the victory “felt hollow” (ch. 56). The murder also triggered an internal review that threatened the unit’s existence, as Captain Gandle predicted a “shitshow” (ch. 52).

For more on the novel’s conclusion, see the ending explained. For additional discussion, visit the questions and answers page.