UGA prof pens book about domestic violence, sister's murder
By Kimberly E. Mock
kim.mock@onlineathens.com

Photo caption: Molly Hurley Moran, an associate professor at the University of Georgia, speaks to her class in Milledge Hall about editing a piece of writing. Allen Sullivan/Staff   

In life, Susan Hurley Harrison was known as a loving mother and sister, a business owner and a member of the Baltimore area's wealthy elite.    
   In death, however, Harrison is remembered as the victim of one of Baltimore's most riveting crime stories, a warped tale of a wealthy marriage tainted by allegations of domestic violence, substance abuse and eventually, murder.
   Which is not why Harrison's younger sister, Athens resident Molly Moran, wanted to pen ''Finding Susan,'' a memoir of Harrison's life, two-year disappearance and murder.
   Instead, Moran, an associate professor of writing with the University of Georgia's Division of Academic Enhancement, said she wanted to bring meaning to her sister's life - and bring about her own personal healing by expressing her grief.
   ''We had experienced this overwhelming loss, and I was just - I guess as a writer, I thought 'how can I describe this?' And as I began writing (about Susan's death), it emerged as a story,'' Moran said.
   Susan Harrison's life - and death - indeed seems the stuff of fiction.
   A bright, attractive woman, Susan left a 20-year marriage in the late 1980s to marry Jim J. Harrison Jr., an acquaintance of her first husband who worked as an executive with the McCormick & Co. spice corporation.
   Though part of Baltimore's wealthy elite, the Harrisons led a torrid married life, complete with allegations of domestic violence, emotional problems and alcoholism.
   In August of 1994, Susan disappeared after a visit with Jim Harrison, who she had separated from in late 1993.
   Hikers found her skeleton in a Frederick County, Maryland forest the day after Thanksgiving, 1996.
   Authorities ruled her death a homicide, due to a severe blow to the head.
   In the nearly eight years since her body was discovered, no one has been charged with her murder.
   Moran said she was ''filled with rage'' over her sister's murder and channeled her anger and grief into her writing.
   After her sister's remains were found, Moran used writing as a form of self therapy - and a way to discover who her beloved older sister truly was.
   ''I was in this cottage she was renting in Ruxton, and that was probably the moment that I realized how bad it was,'' Moran said. ''She never really kept a diary, but she had all these notes. ... All of that evidence I gathered, and that's how I put it all together (in the book).''
   Moran said it's likely no one ever will be held accountable for Susan's death. The state medical examiner in Maryland noted Susan Harrison likely died from a severe blow to the head, but with the murder being nearly 10 years old, there is little hope concrete evidence or a confession will surface.
   Moran said Baltimore authorities consider the murder a cold case.
   Moran said she hopes her book will bring light to her sister's life and the plight of domestic abuse victims.
   Her experience in writing ''Finding Susan'' also has carried over into the classroom, where Moran said she now encourages students to use writing as a means of therapy and communication.
   Overall, Moran said she hopes ''Finding Susan'' will make the story of Susan Harrison's 52 years of life notable for more than simply the sensation of her death.
   ''I want to somehow make her life matter,'' Moran said of what she hopes the book will accomplish. ''And I want to be very honest about what her life was about.''

Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Monday, September 29, 2003. Reprinted with permission.