The Man Who Killed a 9-Year-Old at a Church Confessed Decades Later

Serial rapist William Schrader will never face consequences for the vicious 1962 murder of 9-year-old Pennsylvania fifth grader Carol Ann Dougherty because he died in 2002—more than 20 years before authorities could definitively connect him to the heinous crime.

Schrader was only 24 when he killed Carol Ann in 1962 in the choir loft of St. Mark’s Roman Catholic Church in Bristol. That October 22, Carol Ann took her bicycle out and told her parents she would be returning books to the local library. On the way there, the little girl stopped at Tommy’s Café for a soda and candies before deciding to head over to her church to say a prayer.

Schrader reportedly spotted Carol Ann entering the building, and followed her inside.

“Unbeknownst to Carol Ann and unbeknownst to everyone in Bristol Borough, living [nearby] was an absolute predator,” former Bucks County District Attorney Jennifer Schorn said during an October 2025 press conference, announcing the closing of what was one of the oldest cold cases in the country. “A predator whose prey was little girls,” Schorn added. “And that was William Schrader.”

Authorities said Schrader raped Carol Ann before strangling her to death—certain in his mind that if he were to let her live, she would report the sexual assault to police. Later that evening, after she didn’t return home, Carol Ann’s father went searching for her and discovered her battered body.

“I never expected her murder would be solved in my lifetime,” Carol Ann’s sister, Kay Talanca, admits to A&E + Investigation. “For 63 years, I lived with this nightmare, and it’s odd now that we have the long-overdue closure because I just don’t know how to process it. I just wish my parents could have seen this in their lifetimes.”

Bucks County officials identified Schrader as Carol Ann’s murderer after matching his DNA to a strand of pubic hair that had been recovered from one of the little girl’s clenched fists. Over the decades, investigators collected pubic hair samples from at least 175 local men they believed could’ve been involved. Testing was systematically performed on 141 hair samples and ruled out every suspect, except for Schrader.

Detectives initially focused their investigation on three men: handyman Frank Zuchero, local teen Wayne Roach and the St. Mark’s pastor, Rev. Joseph Sabadish. Zuchero confessed to the murder, but was released after it came out that he made the admission under duress after intense questioning by eight police officers. Roach and Sabadish were cleared through verified alibis.

“While Schrader passed away in 2002, his name is now definitively linked to the crime that took Carol Ann’s young life, a conclusion reached through the combination of decades-old evidence and recent investigative developments,” the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office said in an October 2025 release.

The release noted that “Schrader's life was marked by a 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.”

Schrader died at age 64 of a heart attack inside of a Louisiana prison where he’d been serving a 21-year sentence for torching the home he shared with his wife, Audrey. The Halloween 1970 blaze killed one of the couple’s foster children, 12-year-old Catherine Smith.

Schrader fled to Florida for a year after being questioned by police in relation to Carol Ann’s murder because a witness saw him outside of the church around the time of the killing. He then moved to Texas, followed by Louisiana. He wouldn’t be linked to the fatal fire until 1985, when he was formally charged with Catherine’s killing.

According to authorities, Schrader sexually abused nearly every female child he lived with or had access to, including his own biological daughter and granddaughters. The majority of these victims were between the ages of 6 and 13. He is also accused of raping two adult women.

Authorities learned in November 2024 that Schrader twice told his stepson, Robert Leblanc, that he had killed a girl in a Pennsylvania church soon after being dishonorably discharged from the U.S. Army. For reasons unclear, Leblanc, who has since died, waited to bring this crucial information to cold case investigators.

Talanca says she has no actual memories of Carol Ann, just the immediate aftermath of her vicious murder. “I can remember a police officer drove us home from the station,” she says. “I can remember hearing something between a cry and a wailing—just this soul-shattering noise my father made. I remember watching nuns who’d come to check on my mother leaving the house.”

Her sister’s murder and the question of what happened left her family shattered, Talanca says. “I lost my mom when I was 15, and I don’t know how my dad did it after losing his support system,” she explains. “At that time, there was no support for people like my parents. In 1962, if you went the psychiatrist, you had one foot in the Loonie bin. There were no support groups.”

Carol Ann’s murder was also never discussed by her largely Irish family. In fact, Talanca says she had to learn the horrific truth about Carol Ann’s death from an older cousin.

“I do feel that Carol Ann is at peace now, with my parents,” Talanca says, adding she hopes the closure may bring peace to her life. “I believe that her spirit wasn’t at rest for so long, but not anymore. To all those other families waiting for justice, just know you shouldn’t abandon hope. Just keep praying to whatever god you pray to and hold onto that hope because it is possible.”