A Girl's Murder At A Bucks Co. Church Went Unsolved For Years. Now, Police Know Who Killed Her

BUCKS COUNTY, PA — After 63 years, the cold case of a 9-year-old Bucks County girl has been solved.

Authorities revealed that 9-year-old Carol Ann Dougherty was killed in 1962 by a man who was not one of the three initial suspects, but a sexual predator named William Schrader, who lived near the Bristol Borough Wharf.

At a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, Bucks County District Attorney Jennifer Schorn detailed the case and history of Schrader after a grand jury recently investigated the case.

"In his 62 years, Schrader "violated little girls in ways that are unimaginable," Schorn said, detailing a long history of incidents of sexual abuse in several other states.

Dougherty was sexually assaulted and strangled to death in the choir loft at St. Mark Roman Catholic Church on Oct. 22, 1962.

Schorn said the case went before a grand jury last year and ended last week.

"This was the only rape and murder of a little girl in a church in the United States," Schorn said.

The revelation came after he confessed to a friend that he murdered a little girl in a Catholic church in Bristol. The case also involved a review of forensic evidence of Schrader's pubic hair.

Schrader, who died in 2002, was 24 in 1962, and lived on Lincoln Avenue, near the Radcliffe Street church, authorities said.

On the afternoon of Oct. 22, 1962, Dougherty left her home in Bristol Township to return books to the Bristol Free Library. She rode her bicycle to the library, but stopped at St. Mark's Church along the way, as was her habit to say a prayer when passing, according to prior reports.

She was an avid reader and was excited to return the books she had just finished so she could check out the next books in the mystery series that she so loved, Schorn said. She rode her bicycle from her home, stopped to get a Coke and penny candy at Tommy’s on Farragut Avenue, and then was seen traveling down Lincoln Avenue.

Her parents went looking for her when she didn't return home that afternoon, and her father found the girl's body on a landing leading to the choir loft of the church.

Schorn said Schrader was questioned by police at the time, but the focus was then targeted on other leads, and suspects were pursued.

Following the crime, he was questioned by police, provided a pubic hair sample, and failed a polygraph test. He was also found to have lied about his alibi, with timecards proving he was not at work on the day of the murder, authorities said.

He then fled to Florida and then to Louisiana, where authorities said he sexually assaulted other girls, including a stepdaughter.

"This case has haunted the Bristol Borough community for decades," Bristol Police Chief Joe Moors said during the press conference.

Dougherty's sister spoke out at the press conference, holding back tears, stating that "single devastating act changed my family's life forever."

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