Over sixty years after the harrowing incident, authorities in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, have finally solved the distressing case of a young girl’s murder that occurred within the sacred walls of a church.
Bucks County District Attorney Jennifer Schorn revealed that the long-standing mystery surrounding the murder of 9-year-old Carol Ann Dougherty at St. Mark’s Church in Bristol on October 22, 1962, has been resolved. A grand jury investigation has pointed to William Schrader as the perpetrator of this heinous crime.
The comprehensive 53-page report produced by the grand jury attributes the murder solely to Schrader, backing this conclusion with eyewitness testimonies, solid forensic evidence, and a confession recently corroborated by a member of Schrader’s family.
“This tragic case has cast a shadow over the community for more than six decades, bringing immense grief to Carol Ann’s family,” Schorn expressed in a statement. “The dedication to this case never wavered, with law enforcement continuously revisiting the details over the years.”
At a press conference held at the Bucks County Justice Center on Wednesday, October 29, 2025, Kay Dougherty Talanca, Carol Ann’s sister, spoke emotionally about the family’s journey toward justice. Overcome with emotion, she addressed reporters, reflecting on what the revelation of her sister’s murderer means to her family.
During a news conference at the Bucks County Justice Center, on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025, Dougherty’s sister, Kay Dougherty Talanca, teared up, sharing what the findings meant to her family.
“Our family lived without answers and the uncertainty surrounding Carol’s death became a part of who we were,” Talanca said, according to 6ABC News.
“After so many decades of unknowing, this finding finally brings closure and truth to a wound that never healed.”
Kay Talanca wipes away tears as she speaks to reporters at a DA news conference where her sister’s killer was revealed on Wednesday Oct. 29, 2025. (Michele C. Haddon/Bucks County Courier Times/USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
According to the grand jury’s findings, Dougherty was last seen riding her bicycle to the Bristol Borough Free Library after stopping for candy and a soda. When she failed to return home, her father discovered her body inside St. Mark’s Roman Catholic Church. Investigators determined she had been raped and strangled with a ligature.
At the time, Schrader, a local factory worker who lived a block and a half from the church, was questioned by police and provided a hair sample. He failed a polygraph test and investigators later determined that “he lied about his alibi, with timecards proving he was not at work on the day of the murder.”
Shortly after being questioned, Schrader “fled to Florida, where he lived for a year before bouncing around Texas and Louisiana, eventually settling in Houma, Louisiana, where he lived most of his life,” according to the release.
A grand jury investigation has identified William Schrader as the person who raped and killed 9-year-old Carol Ann Dougherty inside St. Mark’s Church in Bristol on Oct. 22, 1962. (Bucks County District Attorney’s Office)
Although Schrader died in 2002, the grand jury’s review included a 1993 forensic comparison showing “significant similarities” between Schrader’s hair sample and hair found clutched in Dougherty’s hand. Out of 141 men tested over the decades, only Schrader could not be eliminated as the source. The report also notes that Lucky Strike cigarettes found at the scene matched the brand Schrader “was known to smoke.”
A key development came in November 2024, when Schrader’s stepson, Robert Leblanc, told Bucks County investigators and Pennsylvania State Police that Schrader confessed on two occasions to murdering a little girl in a Pennsylvania church.
Leblanc told investigators that Schrader said he “had to kill the girl in Bristol to keep her from talking.”
Police and investigators inspect Carol Ann Dougherty’s bicycle outside St. Mark’s Church in Bristol on Oct. 22, 1962. Her killing remained unsolved for more than six decades. (Bucks County District Attorney’s Office)
According to the grand jury report, “Leblanc had no prior knowledge of the case’s specific details… This makes his account highly credible, as the details he provided could only have come from a confession by the perpetrator.”
The grand jury also reviewed and eliminated other early suspects, including Frank Zuchero, Wayne Roach and Rev. Joseph Sabadish, finding that each was wrongly implicated during the early investigation. Zuchero’s “confession” was deemed unreliable, Roach was out of state and his hair sample did not match, and Sabadish’s initial lie about his whereabouts was determined to be unrelated to the crime.
The report describes Schrader’s “pattern of violence and sexual violence, particularly against young, pre-pubescent and adolescent females.” His criminal history, spanning multiple states, included assaults with deadly weapons and the 1985 conviction in Louisiana for the death of 12-year-old Catherine Smith, who died after Schrader “intentionally set fire to his house, knowing she and other family members were inside.”
A grand jury used forensic evidence and a family confession to solve the decades-old murder of a young girl in a Pennsylvania church. (Bucks County District Attorney’s Office)
Further investigation revealed Schrader had “sexually abused nearly every female child he lived with or had access to, including his own biological daughter and granddaughters,” most between “the ages of six and 13.” He also “sexually abused two adult women who had cognitive delays such that they were lacking the ability to consent,” the grand jury report read.
Dr. Veronique Valliere, a clinical and forensic psychologist who testified before the grand jury, said the perpetrator was a “psychopath who had a deviant sexual arousal for prepubescent victims… incredibly impulsive, with little or no self-control, and comfortable with the high risk associated with these crimes.” She added that such offenders “often want to share or brag due to arrogance and grandiosity.”
Pallbearers carry the casket of Carol Ann Dougherty from St. Mark’s Church in Bristol in October 1962. The community mourned as police searched for her killer. (Bucks County District Attorney’s Office)
The grand jury found her analysis “aligned precisely with the crime and the crime scene, and with Schrader’s behavior and his later confessions.”
Investigators say the work of Bucks County detectives, Pennsylvania State Police and prosecutors has brought “a definitive conclusion to a case that has haunted this community for decades.”
In a statement, the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office said it hopes the long-awaited resolution “can finally bring a sense of peace to Carol Ann’s family and everyone affected by this tragic crime.”
“This case has haunted the Bristol Borough community for years,” Bristol Borough Police Chief Joe Moors said, according to USA Today. “(Investigators’) pursuit of the truth and teamwork finally delivered answers for Carol’s family and our community … Their pursuit of the truth finally delivered.”
Stepheny Price covers crime, including missing persons, homicides and migrant crime. Send story tips to stepheny.price@fox.com.
