Giving the Lost Boys Back Their Names: Lise Olsen’s The Scientist and the Serial Killer and the Search for Houston’s Lost Boys

(Right to left) Investigator reporter and true-crime author Lise Olsen discusses her book with moderator, Michelle Pitcher at BookPeople on Wednesday, April 9, 2025.

If you’re looking for a thrilling read for true-crime lovers, Lise Olsen’s The Scientist and the Serial Killer: The Search for Houston’s Lost Boys is for you. Investigative journalist Lise Olsen focuses on a forensic anthropologist’s quest to identify long-lost victims of a vicious killer in Houston, known as the Candyman in The Scientist and the Serial Killer: The Search for Houston’s Lost Boys.

Olsen, an investigative reporter and true-crime author, visited Austin for a book-release event at Book People for The Scientist and the Serial Killer: The Search for Houston’s Lost Boys on Wednesday, April 9, 2025. 

I sat at the back of the crowd, my eyes fixed on Olsen and the moderator, Michelle Pitcher. But what stood out most was the sign—its bold letters declaring, The lives of the missing matter. Beneath the words were haunting sketches of missing boys and young men, their names and ages carefully inscribed below each face.

As the event begins, a hush falls over the crowd. Olsen takes the lead, her soft-spoken voice gently guiding everyone into the conversation. She paints a picture of an almost unrecognizable Houston in the 1970s—a city known for being the home of NASA, yet hiding a darker, lesser-known history beneath its space-age sheen. Soon, a string of missing boys led to their killer, Dean Corll, infamously known as the “Candy Man,” who had been a local sweet-shop owner who recruited two teenage boys to lure their friends to parties, where they were brutally tortured and murdered. 

But Olsen’s book doesn’t center on Corll; it focuses on the boys he killed, reclaiming their stories and reminding us of who they were before their lives were stolen. It tells the remarkable story of a woman who fought to restore their names and dignity. With newly uncovered details, The Scientist and the Serial Killer draws readers into a chilling yet deeply human narrative, showing why these long-buried crimes still resonate decades later. 

In the end, Olsen’s work is more than just an investigation, but a reminder of what’s possible when we choose to care. By honoring the lives of the boys who were nearly forgotten, she proves that storytelling can be an act of justice. And maybe that’s the most powerful lesson of all: that even in the face of horror, people have the power to make the world better: one truth, one name, one story at a time.