Grand jury identifies killer in 1962 Bristol church murder cold case

Greater than 60 years after a nine-year-old lady was raped and murdered in a church in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, investigators say they lastly know who did it.

Bucks County District Legal professional Jennifer Schorn introduced {that a} grand jury investigation recognized William Schrader as the person who murdered Carol Ann Dougherty on October 22, 1962, at St. Mark’s Church in Bristol.

The 53-page grand jury report concluded that Schrader alone was accountable for the homicide, citing eyewitness testimony, forensic proof and a newly verified confession from one in every of Schrader’s kinfolk.

“For greater than sixty years, this tragic case has haunted the neighborhood and has precipitated unimaginable ache to Carol Ann’s household,” Schorn mentioned in an announcement. “Regardless of the passage of time, the case has by no means been forgotten and was frequently investigated by regulation enforcement.”

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Preventing again tears, Kay Talanca addressed reporters at a prosecutor’s press convention on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025, after authorities revealed the identification of her sister’s killer. (Michele C. Haddon/Bucks County Courier Instances/USA Right this moment Community by way of Imagn Photos)

Throughout a press convention on the Bucks County Justice Heart on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025, Dougherty’s sister, Kay Dougherty Talanca, broke down in tears and shared what the findings meant to her household.

“Our household lived with out solutions and the uncertainty surrounding Carol’s demise turned a part of who we had been,” Talanca mentioned. according to 6ABC News.

“After so many many years of ignorance, this discovering lastly brings closure and reality to a wound that has by no means healed.”

Kay Talanca wipes away tears as she speaks to reporters at a prosecutor’s press convention the place her sister’s killer was revealed on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. (Michele C. Haddon/Bucks County Courier Instances/USA Right this moment Community by way of Imagn Photos)

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In keeping with the grand jury’s findings, Dougherty was final seen using her bicycle to the Bristol Borough Free Library after stopping for sweet and soda. When she didn’t return house, her father found her physique in St. Mark’s Roman Catholic Church. Investigators decided she had been raped and strangled with a ligature.

Schrader, an area manufacturing unit employee who lived a block and a half from the church, was interviewed by police on the time and offered a hair pattern. He failed a polygraph check and investigators later decided that “he lied about his alibi, with time playing cards displaying he was not at work on the day of the homicide.”

Shortly after he was questioned, “Schrader fled to Florida, the place he lived for a 12 months earlier than bouncing round Texas and Louisiana, ultimately settling in Houma, Louisiana, the place he lived most of his life,” the discharge mentioned.

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A grand jury investigation has recognized William Schrader as the one that raped and murdered 9-year-old Carol Ann Dougherty at St. Mark’s Church in Bristol on October 22, 1962. (Bucks County District Legal professional’s Workplace)

Though Schrader died in 2002, the grand jury’s overview included a 1993 forensic comparability that confirmed “vital similarities” between Schrader’s hair pattern and the hair present in Dougherty’s hand. Of the 141 males examined over the many years, solely Schrader couldn’t be eradicated as a supply. The report additionally notes that Fortunate Strike cigarettes discovered on the scene matched the model Schrader was “identified to smoke.”

A significant growth occurred in November 2024, when Schrader’s stepson, Robert Leblanc, advised Bucks County investigators and Pennsylvania State Police that Schrader twice confessed to killing somewhat lady in a Pennsylvania church.

Leblanc advised investigators that Schrader mentioned he “needed to kill the lady in Bristol to maintain her from speaking.”

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Police and investigators examine Carol Ann Dougherty’s bicycle exterior St. Mark’s Church in Bristol on October 22, 1962. Her homicide remained unsolved for greater than sixty years. (Bucks County District Legal professional’s Workplace)

In keeping with the grand jury report, “Leblanc had no prior data of the particular particulars of the case… This makes his story extremely credible, as the main points he offered might solely have come from a confession by the perpetrator.”

The grand jury additionally reviewed and eradicated different early suspects, together with Frank Zuchero, Wayne Roach and Rev. Joseph Sabadish, ruling that they had been improperly implicated through the early investigation. Zuchero’s “confession” was deemed unreliable, Roach was out of state and his hair pattern didn’t match, and Sabadish’s preliminary lie about his whereabouts was discovered to be unrelated to the crime.

The report describes Schrader’s “sample of violence and sexual assault, significantly towards younger, pre-pubescent and adolescent ladies.” His prison historical past, spanning a number of states, included assaults with lethal weapons and the 1985 conviction in Louisiana for the demise of 12-year-old Catherine Smith, who died after Schrader “deliberately set his home on hearth understanding she and different members of the family had been inside.”

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A grand jury used forensic proof and a household confession to unravel the decades-old homicide of a younger lady in a Pennsylvania church. (Bucks County District Legal professional’s Workplace)

Additional investigation revealed that Schrader had “sexually abused virtually each feminine little one he lived with or had entry to, together with his personal organic daughter and granddaughters,” most between “the ages of six to 13.” He additionally “sexually assaulted two grownup ladies who had cognitive deficits such that they had been incapable of consenting,” the grand jury report mentioned.

Dr. Veronique Valliere, a medical and forensic psychologist who testified earlier than the grand jury, mentioned the perpetrator was a “psychopath who had aberrant sexual arousals for prepubescent victims… extremely impulsive, with little or no self-control, and cozy with the excessive danger related to these crimes.” She added that such offenders “usually need to share or brag due to vanity and grandiosity.”

Pallbearers carry the coffin of Carol Ann Dougherty from St. Mark’s Church in Bristol in October 1962. The neighborhood mourned as police looked for her killer. (Bucks County District Legal professional’s Workplace)

The grand jury discovered that its evaluation “exactly matched the crime and the crime scene, and Schrader’s conduct and his subsequent confessions.”

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Investigators say the work of Bucks County detectives, Pennsylvania State Police and prosecutors has “offered a definitive conclusion in a case that has haunted this neighborhood for many years.”

In an announcement, the Bucks County Prosecutor’s Workplace mentioned it hopes the long-awaited decision “can lastly deliver a way of peace to Carol Ann’s household and everybody affected by this tragic crime.”

“This case has haunted the Bristol Borough neighborhood for years,” mentioned Bristol Borough Police Chief Joe Moors. according to USA Today. “(Investigators’) pursuit of the reality and teamwork lastly produced solutions for Carol’s household and our neighborhood… Their seek for the reality lastly yielded outcomes.”

Stepheny Worth covers crime together with lacking individuals, murders and migrant crime. Ship story tricks to stepheny.worth@fox.com.