Mission Trails Regional Park Foundation will host a true crime discussion and book signing in February with author Richard Carrico.

The event will take place Thursday, Feb. 8, 6:30 p.m., Mission Trails Regional Park Visitor Center. The Center is located at 1 Father Junipero Serra Trail.

Tickets are $10 and registration is available by visiting: mtrp.org/programs.

Monsters on the Loose—a true crime novel by award-winning author and historian Carrico—is set in San Diego in 1931.

With forensic evidence at the time not quite what it is today, many murders went unsolved. In this novel, Carrico details the unsolved murders of three young women including one crime that took place in today’s Mission Trails Regional Park (MTRP). In Monsters on the Loose, the author walks readers through the victims’ last days, the search for their killers, and the criminal trial of one suspect.

Carrico grew up in San Diego County and has been a lecturer in the Department of American Indian Studies at San Diego State University for more than 20 years. He earned an M. A. from the University of San Diego with an emphasis on local Indian history and a B.A. degree from San Diego State University in history and anthropology.

Carrico’s primary research interests include the native tribes of San Diego County, the Spanish contact period, and the history of winemaking in California. He is a frequent contributor to local newspapers and is a freelance writer for a variety of publications. In addition to more than 30 publications in professional journals, Carrico is the author of several novels.

Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the event and there will be a book signing following the lecture.

This event has been organized by Mission Trails Regional Park Foundation, the nonprofit that supports the park.

For more information about the event, contact Kindra Hixon, stewardship manager at the MTRP Foundation via email at: [email protected].