Credit: Tom Sofield/LevittownNow.com
A Bucks County grand jury has formally identified William Schrader as the man who raped and murdered 9-year-old Carol Ann Dougherty inside St. Mark Catholic Church in Bristol Borough on Oct. 22, 1962, finally closing one of the region’s most enduring and haunting cold cases.
District Attorney Jennifer Schorn and local and state police announced the finding Wednesday at a press conference.
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The lengthy grand jury report concludes Schrader, who died in 2002 at age 62, committed first-degree murder and rape.
The investigation, which spanned more than six decades and involved the Pennsylvania State Police, Bristol Borough police, and the Bucks County Detectives, was built upon forensic evidence, eyewitness accounts and Schrader’s confession to someone he knew.
The announcement offered a delayed answer to the family of Carol Ann, whose life was cut short by a killer with a lifelong history of violence against children.
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“Sixty-three years and one week ago, 9-year-old Carol Ann Dougherty was murdered,” Schorn said. “This case went unsolved for 63 years.”
Investigators looked at Schrader’s extensive and violent criminal past. They painted a picture of a lifelong sexual predator who lived just a block and a half from the church on Lincoln Avenue.
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“Unbeknownst to Carol Ann and unbeknownst to everyone in Bristol Borough, living on Lincoln Avenue was an absolute predator, and a predator whose prey was little girls, and that was William Schrader,” Schorn said.
Schrader’s criminal history dated back to childhood in Luzerne County.
By age 8, his violent assaults on young girls led to placement in a reform school. Later, he was dishonorably discharged from the U.S. Army at age 18 and served time at Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia for attempted murder.
The grand jury heard testimony from Dr. Veronique Valliere, a clinical and forensic psychologist, who described the killer as a psychopath with deviant sexual arousal for young victims.
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“William Schrader’s history of sexually violating little girls, it’s the likes I have never seen as a career child abuse prosecutor,” Schorn said, quoting Valliere’s testimony that the perpetrator’s “need to gratify their desires outweighs everything else. They see the world as a place to exploit.”
The investigation revealed that after fleeing Pennsylvania, Schrader continued his pattern of abuse.
He sexually violated multiple female family members in the south, including his stepdaughters and biological daughter.
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His violent life culminated in a 1970 domestic dispute in Louisiana that led to an intentional house fire and the death of 12-year-old Catherine Smith. Schrader was convicted of manslaughter and arson in Smith’s death.
On Monday afternoon, Oct. 22, 1962, Carol Ann left her Bristol Township home to return mystery books to the Bristol Borough Free Library. She rode her bicycle, stopped at Tommy’s Cafe on Farragut Avenue for a soft drink and candy, and was last seen alive outside St. Mark Catholic Church.
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When she failed to return home for dinner, her parents began searching. Her father discovered her body inside the church, where investigators determined she had been forcibly raped and strangled with a ligature. An eyewitness later told investigators he saw Schrader outside the church around the time of the murder.
When questioned by police in January 1963, Schrader lied about his whereabouts and claimed he was at work when timecards showed he had not worked for three consecutive days. He provided a pubic hair sample to police, failed a polygraph test and subsequently fled to Florida, eventually settling in Louisiana.
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The case’s definitive breakthrough came in November 2024, when investigators interviewed Schrader’s stepson, Robert LeBlanc, in Louisiana.
LeBlanc revealed that Schrader had confessed to him on two separate occasions — first in 1994 and again in 2007, five years after his death — about murdering a little girl in a Catholic church in the town he lived in before fleeing to the south.
Schrader told LeBlanc he “had to kill the girl in Bristol to keep her from talking,” according to the stepson’s statement.
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Schorn said there is credibility of the confession, noting LeBlanc had no prior knowledge of the case’s intimate details.
Forensic evidence from the initial investigation was also vital.
Of 141 pubic hair samples collected from suspects over the decades, all but one individual were eliminated.
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“Out of the 141 pubic hairs analyzed from 141 different sources, only one person could not be eliminated as a contributor,” Schorn said. “And that was William Schrader’s pubic hair sample.”
The sample was found clutched in Carol Ann’s hand.
Lucky Strike cigarettes found at the crime scene matched the brand Schrader was known to smoke, and witnesses described a man who had a scar like Schrader around the church.
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There were three separate individuals with varying degrees of sexual deviance had ties to St. Mark Catholic Church and in the Bristol Borough community around the time of the murder.
The multiple suspects created what Schorn called “the perfect storm” that allowed Schrader to remain under the radar for years.
“There was initially an individual who was of very low IQ, who was known as the town drunk, and who English was not his first language,” Schorn explained. “He ultimately was suspected and gave, after hours of interrogation, a false confession within 24 hours of that false confession.”
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The grand jury, which was approved by Bucks County Court of Common Pleas President Judge Raymond McHugh, detailed the findings across a 53-page report.
The grand jury also cleared all other initial suspects in the case, including Frank Zuchero, Wayne Roach and Rev. Joseph Sabadish, through verified alibis and evidence analysis.
The announcement brought a measure of peace to Carol Ann’s family, who lived with the horrific memory of her death for decades.
Carol Ann’s sister, Kay Talanca, who was not yet 3 at the time, testified before the grand jury about the lasting impact on her family. She described the anguish of searching for her sister and witnessing her father’s discovery of the body, one of her first memories.
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The persistence of law enforcement in the cold case was praised by Pennsylvania State Police Capt. Seth Kelly, who leads Troop M, which covers Bucks County.
“Although today’s announcement will never change what occurred on that horrific day, we want to let her sister, Kay, and other family members know that this investigation has always remained a priority with the Pennsylvania State Police,” Kelly said.
Bristol Borough Chief of Police Joe Moors noted the many years of police work that went into the investigation.
Talanca recognized the many investigators who looked into the case. She also praised reporter JD Mullane, who wrote many stories on the case for the Bucks County Courier Times, and Missanelli, a Bristol Borough native who produced a podcast on the murder.
Talanca said she had “gratitude” for everyone who helped the case and thought of her family.
The grieving sister noted how her sister’s murder altered her life and that of many Bristol Borough residents. She was relieved to find out police had evidence to close the case.
Investigators believe the case represents what may be the only rape and murder of a child in a church, according to Schorn.
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