On Christmas Eve 2001, in the quiet suburb of Pleasant Grove, Texas, Kevin Butler was getting ready to meet a friend for dinner. But he never arrived.

When his friend went to his home to check on him, he walked into a nightmare—Kevin had been bound, beaten, stabbed, and brutally murdered.

When police arrived, it was immediately clear that a violent struggle had taken place.

Feathers were scattered across the floor. Droplets of blood marked areas they shouldn’t have. And in the kitchen lay Larry Bird, Kevin’s beloved white-crested cockatoo, dead on the tile with one leg severed.

What had happened to Kevin…and to his fiercely loyal pet? This is the story of how a slain cockatoo became an unexpected witness—and ultimately helped solve his owner’s murder.