Overview
- Bucks County District Attorney Jennifer Schorn announced the finding on Oct. 29, saying Schrader was identified as the person who raped and murdered the 9-year-old inside St. Mark’s Church in Bristol.
- Investigators said a pubic hair clutched in Carol Ann’s hand matched Schrader on comparison testing that excluded all others among 141 samples analyzed from 176 collected over decades.
- Modern DNA work, including evidence sent to Othram in Texas, was attempted but proved inconclusive due to severe degradation of the 1962 materials.
- Witness accounts placed Schrader near the church that day, investigators documented lies about his alibi, and his stepson reported that Schrader twice confessed to killing a girl in a Pennsylvania church.
- Schrader, who died in 2002 after a separate conviction in Louisiana, will not face charges, and officials and family members said the ruling brings long-sought closure to the community.