Tempe, site of Ursula Brink’s murder, is linked in the novel to a cold case whose unanswered questions outlasted the investigation and shaped the work of Ursula’s mother, Hedda Brinker. Ursula was a student at Arizona State University when she was murdered during spring break of her junior year; the crime remained unsolved despite sustained efforts to identify a perpetrator.

Ursula Brinker’s Murder

Ursula was the only child of Hedda and Toby Brinker. Born in 1938, she was remembered as bright, outgoing, and popular, with a record of achievement that included cheerleading, serving as student-body treasurer, and graduating as valedictorian of her class. She was murdered in Tempe during her junior year at Arizona State University. The account also identifies the year as 1959.

The identity of the person or persons responsible was never established. Toby believed the killer might have been unusually well connected and suspected that a cover-up explained the failure to make an arrest. Yet private investigators he hired found neither a viable suspect nor evidence of a cover-up. The case remained open decades later, preserving the distinction between a family’s suspicion and what investigators could substantiate.

The Case’s Afterlife

Ursula’s death continued to haunt Toby, who, according to Hedda, never recovered from the loss. After Toby died, Hedda sought help from the Vidocq Society, a group of retired law-enforcement and forensic professionals that considered old cases. She hoped it would take up Ursula’s murder, but the society declined. Its refusal left the case unresolved and gave Hedda’s efforts a further direction.

Hedda later founded The Last Chance, a private organization intended to help other people. The novel presents this work as an outgrowth of her hope that someone might eventually solve Ursula’s murder: the original case remained open, but the search for answers became a reason to assist families facing other unresolved crimes.

Narrative Significance

Tempe’s association with Ursula’s case gives the city a specific place in the novel’s account of enduring family grief and cold-case investigation. The narrative emphasizes both the limits of what the evidence established and the persistence of the family’s unanswered questions. Toby’s suspicion of a cover-up was never confirmed, while the investigators’ failure to find evidence of one did not solve the murder. Hedda’s creation of The Last Chance carries that unresolved history forward, turning a private loss into an effort to help others.