Gallery of key figures A timeline of the Proviano case, in pdf format Questions or comments about the serial? E-mail reporter Steve Levin at slevin@post-gazette.com.

On Dec. 28, 1997, the body of 29-year-old medical student Anthony Proviano was found in eastern Ohio, several days after he failed to arrive at his family's annual Christmas celebration in Baldwin Borough.

Anthony's death initially was ruled a suicide, and his parents and Belmont County, Ohio, investigators struggled for nearly a decade to discover what really happened.

In 12 consecutive installments, Post-Gazette reporter Steve Levin unravels the intricacies of a case that is every parent's nightmare and every investigator's struggle.

Levin, who has covered the story since Christmas Day 1997, utilized scores of interviews plus court testimony, police records, correspondence and his own reporting to develop a modern-day whodunit.

Check back as the story unfolds each day.

Chapter One: A son fails to arrive home

Chapter Two: A stroke of luck, finding the car

Chapter Three: The body is found, the questions begin

Chapter Four: At home, taking stock, preparing to grieve

Chapter Five: The leads pour in

Chapter Six: The autopsy

Chapter Seven: Dashed Dreams, Buoyed Hopes

Chapter Eight: A handwritten letter surfaces

Chapter Nine: The hairs don't match -- and a new cause of death

Chapter Ten: A retired detective offers to help

Chapter Eleven: A trial date is set -- and new discoveries

Chapter Twelve: A Life Interrupted: A guilty verdict

The Epilogue

About the author

Staff writer Steve Levin, 52, has been a reporter and editor at the Post-Gazette since 1997, after working for Newsweek and People magazines, and newspapers in North Carolina and Texas. He is a 1976 graduate of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Levin is a native of Chapel Hill, N.C., and the author of three nonfiction books.