It has been surmised that Atkins based her fictional story of Jeff Hart on the true story of Steven Stayner, the California teen who was kidnapped in 1972. This heartwrenching story prompted NBC to air a miniseries about the boy, entitled "I Know My First Name is Steven," which aired on May 22 and 23, 1989, and lengthy stories about Steven have appeared in numerous magazines and newspapers over the years.

Time magazine of August 9, 1999 briefly recounts the story in relation to what happened to Steven's brother Cary. Cary was sentenced to life later that year for the brutal killing of a naturalist in Yosemite National Park and has been accused of killing three other women as well. The story of Cary Stayner helps explain the extent of the trauma Brian in Atkins's novel suffers, and has been recounted in a book by Dennis McDougal entitled The Yosemite...