Girl, 9, raped and murdered inside church – 63 years later her sick attacker is revealed

William Schrader died in 2002 (Image: Bucks County District Attorney's office)

A brutal rapist who killed a nine-year-old girl has been identified more than 60 years after the tragic crime took place. Carol Ann Dougherty was on her way to the library in 1962 when she was raped and strangled at a church in Bristol, Pennsylvania, the authorities have now announced. Speaking at a news conference, Bucks County DA Jennifer Schorn said they believe it to be “the only rape and murder of a little girl in a church in the United States”. 

After a decades-long investigation, a grand jury has now identified the killer of 9-year-old Carol Ann: William Schrader. Schorn described the vile murderer as an “absolute predator” of his time. Although he died in 2002, he has now been “definitively linked” to the murder more than 60 years later. 

Nine-year-old Carol Ann was raped and murdered in 1962 (Image: Bucks County District Attorney's office)

The discovery was made "through the combination of decades-old evidence and recent investigative developments,” the DA's office said in a statement on Wednesday.

“Schrader's life was marked by a pattern of violence and sexual violence, particularly against young, pre-pubescent, and adolescent females,” the DA's office said.

Investigators added that he “sexually abused nearly every female child he lived with or had access to”.

Schrader was initially questioned in 1962 after a witness report saw him outside of the church around the time of the murder. He failed a polygraph test and investigators concluded he lied about his alibi. Shortly after becoming the prime suspect, he left the state and moved to the south. 

Evidence in the form of pubic hair was also found, with a pubic hair collected from Schrader at the start of the investigation showing "significant similarities" to hair found in Carol Ann’s hand.

There were 141 pubic hair samples tested during investigation, and “all other individuals were eliminated,” officials said. 

Last year, investigators made a breakthrough in the case when they interviewed Schrader’s stepson, who said Schrader “confessed to him on two separate occasions that he murdered a little girl in a Pennsylvania church”. 

He allegedly told his stepson that he lured Carol Ann inside the church where he raped her and “had to kill the girl in Bristol to keep her from talking”. 

During a news conference on Wednesday, Kay Dougherty, the victim’s sister, said the murder "changed my family’s life forever”. 

"My parents both passed away without knowing on this earth who murdered their daughter... After so many decades of unknowing, this finding finally brings closure and a truth to a wound that never healed,” she said.