They were teenagers, I believe. (I believe McDuff was pretty young at the time, too -- but I can't say exactly what age). IIRC, the attack was by McDuff and a companion on the two males and a female. I can't say "why" they were murdered -- it seems to me to have been a random attack "just for meanness", so to speak, but the female was also sexually assaulted, if that's what you're getting at. As far as I remember, the males were not.
There are a fair number of female true-crime authors. I don't think it is accurate to characterize all true-crime authors as males who feel "relaxed" about their subject matter because they feel immune to violence themselves. Perhaps some of them are that way.
