BEDFORD – The Lawrence County Museum of History will host a Sarah Schafer Memory Walk at 7 p.m. on Saturday, July 13, 2024, beginning at the museum.
Sarah Schafer, 23, a first-year Latin teacher at Bedford High School, was murdered on January 21, 1904, in an alley off Lincoln Avenue.
Miss Schafer had eaten supper at Mrs. Martha Johnson’s boarding house at 1411 L Street around 6:30 p.m.
She was scheduled to meet a class of students and offer a Latin lesson, but she did not reach her destination.
Miss Schafer started to her room at a boarding house on West 13th Street about three blocks away. On her way to her room, she passed an alley at 14th and L streets. Police say that is where she was grabbed by her assailant and dragged nearly 50 feet to a buggy shed about two blocks from the courthouse square.
Police said her hairpins were found at the mouth of the alley.
Miss Schafter’s body was found the following morning in the shed by a cab driver.
She had been assaulted, robbed, and her body mutilated. Police said her body was unrecognizable, and the appearance of the shed indicated Miss Schafer struggled with her assailant.
Detectives working on the mystery say a tall man in a long overcoat was seen lurking in the vicinity the night of the crime.
The city was shocked by the murder. Judge James Wilson, who knew the school teacher, offered a $500 reward for the arrest of the murderer. The Bedford City Council added another $500, making the reward $1,000.
Coroner Richard Plummer ruled that Miss Shafter suffered three skull fractures. According to his report, two weapons were used, including a piece of firebrick that cut the eye and some blunt instrument that produced the skull fractures.
The Pinkerton Detective Agency was called to investigate.
The murder remains unsolved after 120 years. Local author Lori Roberts will share some of the information she found in researching her book, “Sing a Song of Murder,” a fictional account of the events of January 1904.
The walk will include stops at the site of the mortuary where Schafer’s body was embalmed and Death Alley, where her body was found.
Participants will return to the museum where light refreshments will be served in the meeting room and a program about Schafer, her life, and death in Bedford, will follow the walk.
Tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for seniors and students and will be available the night of the walk.
Come for a night of history and learn about some of the suspects who were thought to be involved in the murder. You might even learn – “Who did it.”
