Case solved – 63 years later
A 63-year-old cold case was solved by a Bucks County grand jury this week identifying a dead man as the rapist and killer of nine-year-old Carol Ann Dougherty inside Bristol’s St. Mark’s Church on October 22, 1962. It was a shocking and heartbreaking story that also created controversy in the small, tight-knit borough. It was a gruesome story that seemed never to go away.
Bucks District Attorney Jennifer Schorn made the announcement Wednesday, surrounded by state and local police, county detectives, and the victim’s sister, who was two-years-old at the time of the murder. She thanked everyone involved, including The Bucks County Courier Times and current reporter, JD Mullane, for bringing the cold case to light a couple of years ago, which may have inspired the grand jury investigation.
But the cold case came to life in 1977, again with The Courier Times.
Following the DA’s announcement this week, I contacted a friend, colleague, and former crime reporter at The Courier Times, now a published author of — what else? — crime stories. Kathryn Canavan answered the phone in her Delaware home, surprised at the good news of the grand jury.
Kathy investigated and had written about the unsolved murder in a “cold case” series that ran in the Courier Times in 1977. She often expressed feelings that many news reporters experience when covering horrific crimes and possibly more so when a child is the victim — sadness and a desire to solve the crime.
“Yes, I wrote a series of stories about Carol Ann’s unsolved case in 1977,” she said. “And now, years later, I can see the image of Mr. Dougherty finding his nine-year-old daughter’s bruised and lifeless body; the image never goes away, even if you just reported on it. It stays in the back of your mind, especially when you have children of your own. Can you imagine finding your child gagged with a sock and belt marks cutting into her neck?
“I’m elated Jennifer Schorn and the cold case detectives solved this mystery for the Doughertys and all the police and neighbors who puzzled over it and carried it in the back of their minds for six decades,” she continued.
“It won’t make up for the time they lost with Carol Ann, but at least the case doesn’t end with a question mark any longer. Carol Ann would be 73 this year.”
A short headline on one of Canavan’s stories was painful to read: “‘My daughter is dead,’ the father cried.” And Canavan’s well researched story began this way in the 1977 series:
“Carol Ann Dougherty’s little playmates noticed her new English bike standing outside St. Mark’s Church in Bristol Borough on the afternoon of October 22, 1962. While they were waiting on the pavement for Carol Ann to come out, a desperate man was watching their every move from a choir loft window a few feet above their heads.
“The man squinting through the slightly opened window raped the little Dougherty girl and strangled her with a slim jim belt.”
The killer, William Schrader, was a monster with a long and sordid criminal past that included assault and sexual abuse of young girls, including family members who came forward as adults and testified before the grand jury. His record spans Pennsylvania and parts of the South. During the initial hours and days after the crime in the church, Schrader narrowly escaped suspicion, clues were missed — and soon afterward he fled the area. He died in 2002, at the age of 62.
The grand jury found Schrader admitted killing the child to his stepson in Louisiana, saying he did it to keep her from talking, DA Schorn said. The confession by Schrader to his stepson years later met the credibility test because the relative could not have had previous knowledge of some of the details of the case, Schorn added. Forensic evidence from the initial investigation was also vital, including hair samples that included Schrader’s, which was the only match from 141 samples.
Other evidence revealed Lucky Strike cigarettes found at the crime scene matched the brand Schrader was known to smoke, and another witness report described a man who had a scar similar to Schrader’s and who was seen lurking around the church. Notably, it was the multiple suspects who came up at the initial investigation that allowed Schrader to remain under the radar for years.
In The Courier Times’s cold case series in 1977, Canavan, who has a new true crime book on the way, dug deep into the notes, evidence, and personal recollections of the police and townspeople who were questioned, who had seen something, and one or two who had not come forward in 1962.
Like most of us who have covered murders and trials, these stories linger, cold or not. In her research, years later, Canavan learned that a local priest was a person of interest along with others at that time and, in the case of the priest, a divide among the investigators was known. But in her story she reported there was no physical evidence to implicate the priest and he and the others were cleared. Schrader was not in the mix; he was gone.
Nevertheless, the controversy over the priest was reignited in the cold case series in 1977. Canavan said that, during her interviews in Bristol, she learned from one of the investigators about the local priest as a then-person of interest and the priest reportedly was involved in a relationship with a woman and had been shopping for a gift for the alleged “girlfriend” at the time of the crime. He admitted to lying about his location that day and was cleared. Canavan’s detailed reporting created renewed controversy and resulted in a rare Courier Times editorial apology that stated the story had crossed the “bounds of good taste.” Case closed.
Finally, the tragic and true story has come to light. The truth was discovered thanks to forensics, eyewitness accounts, determined police, the targeted diligence of the Bucks County district attorney, the good citizens on the grand jury, and journalists who also seek truth and those who never let go of a ‘cold case.’”
Pat Wandling hosts Speak Your Piece weekdays at noon on WBCB 1490.
