Tag: Mystery

• December 11, 2022Murder, True Crime, Unexplained

  The Murder of Doris McDonough

  In this episode, I dive into a tragic cold case from right here in Evansville, Indiana: the October 3, 1968 murder of Doris McDonough. Doris was a 36-year-old mother of two who was brutally beaten to death in her own kitchen in the middle of the day. Decades later, her killer has never been named, and the case remains completely unsolved.
  
  The day started like any normal Thursday for the McDonough family. After their car broke down during an early morning paper route, William took their two young sons out on their bikes while Doris stayed behind at their home on Southeast Riverside Drive. Everything seemed fine when the boys left for school, but by early afternoon, Doris stopped answering the phone. Concerned, William asked a neighbor to go knock on the door. Moments later, the neighbor discovered Doris deceased on the kitchen floor. She had suffered severe trauma from a heavy blunt object. Strange details surrounding the scene raised immediate questions: there were no signs of forced entry, nothing of value was taken, and two towels were neatly folded around her head. The only thing missing from the house was a claw hammer.
  
  In the episode, I take a close look at the timeline William provided to local reporters just days after the crime, which leaves a lot of open questions. He claimed he stopped back home around 9:00 AM to drop off a son's clarinet, staying just long enough to chat about making a birthday cake, take out the trash, and agree to leave the back door unlocked for the morning light. However, running a sun path analysis for that exact date and address shows the sun wouldn't have even been shining through that door at 9:00 AM. Other stops on his morning schedule also seem remarkably rushed, including a client meeting at a coffee shop that lasted a total of five minutes.
  
  William eventually took a polygraph test that came back inconclusive. When asked about his wife’s death a year later, he simply remarked, "the less said about it, the better." He eventually remarried, relocated to South Carolina, and lived to be 86. His 2019 obituary detailed his career as a college professor and highlighted his 45-year second marriage, but omitted any mention of Doris or her untimely death.
  
  Doris McDonough deserves to be remembered, and her story shouldn't be swept under the rug.