Family: Beloved Academy Park teacher now a homicide case
Family, friends distribute 1,000 fliers, beg public for any info on suspicious death
Friends and family members of Susan Ledyard gathered Saturday to distribute 1,000 fliers asking for the public’s assistance in what family members are saying is the murder of the beloved Academy Park High School English teacher.
The Wilmington, Delaware, resident’s car was placed at the Rising Sun bridge about a mile away from her home around 3 a.m. July 23 and her body was found approximately 3 miles away in the area of the Northeast Boulevard bridge around 7:39 a.m., according to family members.
“It was shocking and confusing but, at the time, we believed accidental,” Meg Morrissey Heinicke, Ledyard’s sister, said Saturday.
For months, the sister said, the family began the process of grieving.
“We scattered her ashes near Stone Harbor (New Jersey) and tried to figure out how this could have happened, still believing it to be a tragic accident,” Heinicke said.
However, she said Saturday that in the past few weeks, the family has begun to believe Ledyard met a different fate.
Without giving specifics, Heinicke said, “The Delaware state police detectives believed something different and slowly the story changed. I’m here to share what we’ve learned in the past two weeks that Susan’s death is being investigated as a homicide.”
Delaware State Police, however, say they continue to await the results of forensics testing on Ledyard’s body.
They released the following statement:
“Our homicide detectives have been involved with the investigation since the onset and it is being investigated as if it could potentially be a homicide, however, we are awaiting the final report from the Division of Forensic Science as to the official cause and manner of death. An official classification will be made once that report is received.”
Heinicke shared how difficult
“We scattered her ashes near Stone Harbor (New Jersey) and tried to figure out how this could have happened, still believing it to be a tragic accident.” - Meg Morrissey Heinicke, Ledyard’s sister
that has been for the family.
“Hearing those words was like learning about her death all over again,” Heinicke said. “Knowing that she died at the hands of someone – someone that she may have known and trusted. It’s devastating.”
In addition, she said, “(N) ow we are faced with the questions: Who did this to her? And why? It has turned from a quest for answers to a quest for answers and justice.”
So, Heinicke turned to the public for help.
“If you know or think you might know something that
might help with the investigation please contact the Delaware state police,” she pleaded. “This person cannot get away with this. Susan’s life meant something and she deserves better.”
On Saturday, family and friends distributed 1,000 fliers with a picture of the smiling brunette and the question, “What Happened to Susan?” in hopes that someone may recall something during those hours in the early morning of July 23.
“Someone out there is responsible for her death,” Heinicke said. “Someone is waking up every day and going to sleep every night knowing that they have taken her life and shattered her family and we have to wake up every day and go to bed every night missing her, haunted by what might have happened in her final hours. Susan was deeply loved and she loved her family, her friends and her students.
“Help us solve the mystery of her death by raising awareness,” Heinicke said. “Someone or some people out there know something and we need them to talk.”
Ledyard was a beloved English teacher at Academy Park High School in Sharon Hill.
Police believe Ledyard left her Wilmington home for some reason about 3 a.m. on July 23. Her car was recovered on Walkers Mill Road near the Rising Sun Lane Bridge. It’s about a mile from her home. Her body was recovered from the Brandywine River about three miles from where the car was found.
Police said cell phone records indicating Ledyard was texting friends until about 2:45 a.m. It was not unusual for Ledyard to keep such late hours, police stressed, adding that nothing seemed unusual about any of the text messages.