Nearly 62 years have passed since the rape and murder of Carol Ann Dougherty in St. Mark Catholic Church in Bristol Borough, a case that remains unsolved to this day.
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The 11-year-old girl’s brutal death continues to haunt the riverfront borough and remains fresh on the minds of many.
In a new attempt to shed light on this cold case, Mike Missanelli, a Philadelphia-area sports radio personality, has launched a podcast titled “The Coldest Murder.”
Co-hosted with filmmaker Vince Mola, the series dives deep into the details of the decades-old mystery that rocked the borough for decades.
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Missanelli, who grew up in Bristol Borough, has a personal connection to the case.
“I lived right around the corner, my uncle was the police chief trying to solve this case,” Missanelli said on Fox 29’s “Good Day Philadelphia.” “I was playing football in the yard with my brother when my mother came running out of the house because he had called my house to say that there was a murder in the neighborhood and to get the kids in the house.”
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The late Vincent Faragalli, Missanelli’s uncle, was the borough’s police chief at the time of Dougherty’s murder and led the initial investigation.
Despite an extensive search, years of work by local, county, and state law enforcement, and numerous suspects, the case never led to an arrest.
The case unfolded on Oct. 22, 1962, when Carol, a fifth-grader at St. Mark Catholic School, disappeared after biking to Bristol to return library books. Her parents, Frank and Dorothy Dougherty, launched a search after she failed to return home by 4:30 p.m.
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Shortly after the search began, her father found her lifeless body on a church landing, according to news accounts from the time.
Evidence obtained by borough and state police included brown pubic hairs found in Carol’s hand. They have been presumed to be from the assailant.
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The Bucks County Courier Times reported years ago that borough police received taunting phone calls after the murder saying more children would die. Cryptic messages about the murder were also left in envelopes at the police station.
The newspaper reported that it received taunting messages and cryptic letters after the publication covered the cold case in 1992.
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In 2012, editors at the paper received odd emails saying that the girl’s killer would be revealed.
In the years since, no such revelation has occurred.
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As Missanelli revisits the old files and talks to those originally involved, “The Coldest Murder” hopes to uncover new leads or insights that might finally bring closure to a case that has long disturbed the community.
The podcast can be found on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Amazon, and other podcasting platforms.
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