This is the true story of thirty-five-year-old Helena Greenwood, a doctor with a Ph.D. in chemical pathology, who had recently moved with her husband from England to California and was embarking on a new, exciting career in biotechnology when she was the victim of sexual assault in her own home. She survived and was scheduled to appear in court as the key witness against her attacker. But after moving to another town to escape her past, one morning she was found brutally murdered in her garden. Everyone believed the killer was her past attacker, but there was not enough evidence to convict him, until ten years later when a local District Attorney working the "cold cases" used Helena's own DNA research to finally bring her killer to justice.

Pointing from the Grave is not only a riveting true-crime story but also a fascinating history of the development of DNA research and its role in forensics, taking the reader on a virtual history of DNA with hard science presented in a very accessible and exciting way. It is also an unforgettable story about an unforgettable woman.