<P> On December 6 , 1973 , 14 - year - old Susie Salmon takes her usual shortcut home from her school through a cornfield in Norristown , Pennsylvania . George Harvey , her 36 - year - old neighbor who lives alone and builds doll houses for a living , persuades her to have a look at an underground den he has recently dug in the field . Once she enters , he rapes and murders her , then dismembers her body , putting her remains in a safe that he dumps in a sinkhole . Susie 's spirit flees toward her personal heaven , and in doing so , rushes past one of her classmates , social outcast Ruth Connors . </P>
<P> On December 6 , 1973 , 14 - year - old Susie Salmon takes her usual shortcut home from her school through a cornfield in Norristown , Pennsylvania . George Harvey , her 36 - year - old neighbor who lives alone and builds doll houses for a living , persuades her to have a look at an underground den he has recently dug in the field . Once she enters , he rapes and murders her , then dismembers her body , putting her remains in a safe that he dumps in a sinkhole . Susie 's spirit flees toward her personal heaven , and in doing so , rushes past one of her classmates , social outcast Ruth Connors . </P>
what did the killer do to susie in the lovely bones
what did the killer do to susie in the lovely bones
rapes murders dismembers her body
rapes murders dismembers her body