Spa City police take a fresh look at a cold case
Killer never found in 38-year-old Spa City murder
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Spa City police, aided by modern technology such as DNA testing, are taking a fresh look at a gruesome unsolved murder that shocked the area 38 years ago this week.
Sheila Shepherd’s nude, lifeless body, with hands and feet tied to bedposts, was found in her secondfloor apartment at 125 Church St. two days after she was killed, at about 2 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 23, 1980.
The cause of death was asphyxiation, from choking on a blouse shoved in her mouth. A four-inch steak knife protruded from her abdomen, but it’s believed the stabbing occurred after death because she didn’t bleed from the wound.
Shepherd, 22, was estranged from her husband, who was living in Long Island and had a solid alibi. They had a 3-year-old daughter, living with his parents.
Shepherd was enrolled in a secretarial course, hoping to make enough money to get her child back. When she didn’t show up for two days, school officials contacted her family.
“My husband went up the fire escape and found her,” said Shepherd’s aunt, Terrie Boisseau, of Saratoga Springs. “Her bed was right under the window where the fire escape was, so he had to crawl over her to get in the room. My sister, Marsha, (Shepherd’s mother) was on her way up the stairs. My husband wouldn’t let her in. It was horrible. He’s never been the same since.”
“It’s a real mystery what happened to her,” she said.
Shepherd’s case is one of only two unsolved Saratoga Springs murders. The other was Tammy McCormick, in 1986.
“There’s no one who was living in Saratoga in 1980 who doesn’t remember this,” said Investigator Chris Callahan, who is working the case with Investigator
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Matthew Wilson. “It affected everyone. Everyone had theories on it. There was a lot of fear in the area at the time. We know of one woman who left the area because she wasn’t sleeping and was fearful all the time.”
Even more chilling, the unsolved case means the murderer might still be living locally.
Police, at the time, interviewed nearly 100 people and chased down countless leads, but the trail led nowhere.
“Back then we didn’t have DNA testing, so
what they collected wasn’t for DNA purposes,” Wilson said. “They weren’t thinking in terms of DNA. You were mostly relying on fingerprints and interviews. We have to go look at the evidence we have and see if we can get anything out of it from the technology we have today.”
Earlier this year, Callahan had just returned home from a lengthy overseas deployment with the Army Reserve. With no pressing cases on the front burner, he was asked to revisit Shepherd’s murder.
“It took weeks to go through all the case reports and interviews that were done at the time by investigators working in 1980,” he said.
He talked at length with lead Investigator Tom Mitchell Sr., now retired, whose son, Tom Mitchell Jr., is currently a city police lieutenant.
“What intrigues me about the case is that this type of thing doesn’t happen in Saratoga Springs,” Callahan said. “It’s apparent that she was stabbed after death, which is another facet of the case that throws you. It doesn’t make any sense.”
Boisseau said Shepherd’s home life wasn’t easy as a young teen. Shepherd went to live with Boisseau, in Colorado, during her freshman year in high school.
At 17, she got married and went to Germany with her husband, who was in the service. While overseas the couple had a daughter, now 41 and living in North Carolina.
“She never had a chance to know her mother,” Wilson said.
A need for family closure, and bringing Shepherd’s murderer to justice, are what drive police to solve the frustrating case.
Shepherd’s mother, Marsha Van Ness, passed away in 2011.
“She would want this,” Boisseau said. “There was always a feeling that somebody had to know something. It was a small town. Even though it’s grown, it’s still a small town.”
Police are hopeful that anyone with even the slightest bit of information might come forward and share what they know. Ultimately, this is what it might take to crack the case, rather than modern technology.
“Thirty-eight years can change a person,” Lt. Robert Jillson said. “People are in a different spot in their lives now. Maybe there’s something they can tell us they weren’t willing to share previously.”
Shepherd was last seen at a local Grand Union store on a Saturday afternoon, the day before her death. “After that, it’s kind of a mixed bag depending on who you ask. Was she here? Was she there?” Wilson said. “She knew a lot of people. A lot of people in town knew her.”
Boisseau said she believes Shepherd spent Saturday night downtown and was walking home when she stopped at The Hub, a popular former Church Street bar.
“She talked to the bartender and was watching Saturday Night Live,” Boisseau said.
After that, no one knows what happened.
Was Shepherd followed home?
Was someone waiting for her?
An FBI psychological profile compiled a year after the murder concluded that Shepherd’s assailant is someone she knew, who lived in the city.
“I don’t have a person that I would bet with any certainty who did it,” Callahan said. “For anybody who remembers that weekend, or remembers her, whether they think it’s crazy or not we’re more than willing to listen. It could be something like that that takes us on the right path. Somebody got away with murder.”