US EditionCarol Ann Dougherty: Rapist and killer identified in 1962 Bucks County cold case
The 63-year cold case was solved using eyewitness accounts, forensic evidence, and confessions revealing Schrader’s decades-long pattern of sexual abuse against young females.
- On Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025, Bucks County officials announced a 53-page Grand Jury report linked William Schrader to Carol Ann Dougherty's 1962 murder.
- On Oct. 22, 1962, Carol Ann Dougherty was last seen riding her bike to St. Mark's Roman Catholic Church and never returned; her father found her raped and strangled body in the choir loft.
- Forensic testing and new witness interviews revealed a 1993 pubic hair analysis showed "significant similarities" to hair found in Carol Ann's hand, and Robert LeBlanc provided two confessions last year and within the past year.
- Kay Dougherty, Carol Ann's sister and lone surviving immediate family member, said at the Wednesday news conference, `This finding finally brings closure and truth to a wound that never healed.`
- Schorn detailed Schrader's decades-long abuse of stepdaughters, biological children, grandchildren and two cognitively disabled women, and his 1985 Louisiana conviction for killing 12-year-old Catherine Smith; he died in 2002 at age 62.
25 Articles
25 Articles
catholicworldreport.com
Catholic News AgencyKiller, rapist of girl in Catholic church identified more than 60 years later
CNA Staff, Oct 31, 2025 / 15:48 pm Authorities announced this week that the killer of 9-year-old Carol Ann Dougherty, raped and murdered in a Pennsylvania Catholic church 63 years ago, has finally been identified [...]
dead more than 20 years linked to Pennsylvania child’s rape, murder in a church in 1962
Nearly 63 years to the day that Carol Ann Dougherty was raped and murdered inside the Bristol church that was a fixture in her community and her family’s life, Pennsylvania officials publicly identified her killer.
MyCentralOregon.com
9-year-old Carol Ann was killed in a church in 1962. Her murderer has finally been ID’d.
An undated photo of 9-year-old murder victim Carol Ann Dougherty. Bucks County District Attorney’s office (BUCKS COUNTY, Pa.) — A 9-year-old girl’s killer has been identified more than 60 years after she was raped and murdered in a Pennsylvania church, authorities announced. On Oct. 22, 1962, Carol Ann Dougherty was on her way to the library when she was raped and strangled at St. Mark’s Roman Catholic Church in Bristol, the Bucks County Distric…
1962 Bristol church murder of Carol Ann Dougherty finally solved. DA reveals killer
The murder of Carol Ann Dougherty in a Bristol Borough church, a case that vexed investigators for 63 years and “haunted a community for decades” is finally solved, the Bucks County District Attorney said Wednesday. At an afternoon news conference in Doylestown, DA Jennifer Schorn released a grand jury report alleging William Schrader raped and strangled Carol in the choir loft at St. Mark Roman Catholic Church on Oct. 22, 1962. She was 9 years …
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