The parents were divorced[3] and in conflict over custody of David; after the two argued on the telephone, on the evening of March 3, 1983, at a motel in Buena Park, Charles gave his son a sleeping pill and after he fell asleep, poured kerosene on the bed and set fire to it.
[10] Charles Rothenberg, who stated that he had originally intended to kill himself as well as his son, was sentenced in July 1983 to 13 years in prison, the maximum permitted at the time for his offenses;[11] guidelines were changed as a result of the case.
[13] In 1996 he was tried for a shooting in Oakland,[14] at which time Dave, then 19, visited him in prison;[4][6][15] he read a statement to him in which he stated that Charles Rothenberg was "not a father but an imposter".
[17] Marie Rothenberg married Richard Hafdahl, a police officer who had supervised the fire investigation, and moved to Orange County, California with David.
[18] Marie Rothenberg and Mel White published an expanded version of the book in 2019 as David's Story: Burned by His Father's Rage, Healed by His Mother's Love.