[1][4] According to Chicago publication, Skyline, "After graduating from Rosary College, Kolarik discovered her interest in crime when she covered the police and political beats for City News Bureau.
In 1984, while working as an assignment editor at WLS-TV, Kolarik won an Emmy Award for Best Spot News Coverage for the fatal shooting of Judge Henry Gentile.
[6] She was also nominated for an Emmy Award for her coverage of serial killer Larry Eyler[7] and for the five-part series, Playground Safety she produced with TV anchor Linda Yu.
[12][13] It took Kolarik four years to complete the book which involved more than 200 interviews—with police officers, journalists, the families of victims, past sex partners of Larry Eyler, and even Sarah Dobrovolskis, the wife of Eyler's lover, John, who died of AIDS in January 1990 — as well as researching police records and archival material and visiting the crime scenes.
[15] According to the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, "Despite all of the prosecutorial and police talent working full-time on these tortures and heinous murders, she was the first to spot a link between the Indiana and Illinois killings and to alert the Lake County sheriff to the multi-state pattern of the crimes.
[20] In 1994, Kolarik published I Am Cain about the 1990 murders of Winnetka, Illinois residents Nancy and Richard Langert, committed by a local teen.
Prisoners of Fear is as chilling as today's tragic headlines about women who love the wrong men...searing...gripping...spellbinding...Read and beware.
[3] For one of the cases she worked on, which involved six children killed in a car crash, the trial tapes were shown on the "Today" show, as well as on local TV.
[citation needed] While visiting China, Kolarik met a university student studying Chinese Literature, Yanfei Hu.