SMEAR
No sperms identified.
RECTAL SMEAR:
No sperms identified.
That pretty much cinched it as a circumstantial case. If the killer had raped her with his penis, it was sheathed. Regardless, there was a complete lack of semen with which to type her assailant. It was possible she had been penetrated by an object other than a penis, but there was nothing inside her vagina, her mouth, or her anus to indicate forced penetration by any sort of object.
In his concluding “Diagnosis,” the last one Margaret Ann Pahl would ever get from a doctor, Dr. Fazekas wrote, “Multiple stab wounds (31) to left side of the face, neck and chest, strangulation.
“Opinion: This 71-year-old white female, Sister Margaret Ann Pahl, died of multiple stab wounds to the left side of the face, neck and the chest. There also was evidence of strangulation.”
Fazekas was not saying she had died from strangulation. Clearly, she was alive when she was stabbed repeatedly. If she wasn’t alive, she wouldn’t have bled. The stab wounds provided the immediate cause of death. It was the pattern of those stab wounds, not yet detected, that created the most mystery. While it was possible that the cross-shaped pattern of the chest wounds was a chance rather than deliberate occurrence, if you added the altar cloth into the equation, things certainly did get interesting.
Would the killer place the altar cloth over Margaret Ann’s chest by chance , and then stab her by chance in the shape of a cross? Oh, and the killer stabbed her in the sacristy by chance on the only day of the year the consecrated Host , the body and the blood of Jesus, is there watching the murder from nearby? The mere fact the killer clearly took his time, did his business in a very secluded place, and slipped away without being caught showed that he knew what he was doing and where he was doing it. He could not have escaped without detection had he not known the ins and outs of the hospital and specifically the chapel and its adjacent areas. He was so confident, he left the lights on behind him; he wanted Margaret Ann discovered the way he had left her.
Margaret Ann had either been the victim of some sort of bizarre ritual killing, or the killer was trying to make it seem that way to divert attention from him. If the conclusion was the latter, then this was a very clever killer indeed, someone not only capable of eluding detection, but using the public’s popular fascination with ritual killing to get away with murder.
With the autopsy completed, the TPD released the body for burial. It was transported to a funeral parlor in Fremont, Ohio, where Margaret Ann was prepared for her final rest. The undertaker drained her body of blood and filled her veins with embalming fluid. Her body was then cleaned up and placed in a habit that her order provided. Finally, the undertaker placed Margaret Ann in a nice wooden coffin.
April 9, 1980
The last time Fremont, Ohio, had been in the news was in 1893, when former president Rutherford B. Hayes died at his Fremont home, Spiegel Grove. Hayes’s estate, which included his tomb, was just blocks from St. Bernardine Chapel.
The first time they buried Margaret Ann Pahl, it was as if God was angry. Ominous black clouds appeared overhead. Everyone who was there would remember later that the winds blew hard, pounding at the doors of the chapel. Inside, it was time to say good-bye. During a Catholic funeral, the Church “commends the dead to God’s merciful love and pleads for the forgiveness of their sins.” Through the funeral rites, Christians “offer worship, praise, and thanksgiving to God for the gift of a life which has now been returned to God, the author of life and the hope of the just.”
In the Church’s book of ritual The Order of Christian Funerals, the first of the three principal components to a Catholic funeral is the vigil for the deceased, sometimes referred to as the “wake.” It is held at the funeral home or the church.
No sperms identified.
RECTAL SMEAR:
No sperms identified.
That pretty much cinched it as a circumstantial case. If the killer had raped her with his penis, it was sheathed. Regardless, there was a complete lack of semen with which to type her assailant. It was possible she had been penetrated by an object other than a penis, but there was nothing inside her vagina, her mouth, or her anus to indicate forced penetration by any sort of object.
In his concluding “Diagnosis,” the last one Margaret Ann Pahl would ever get from a doctor, Dr. Fazekas wrote, “Multiple stab wounds (31) to left side of the face, neck and chest, strangulation.
“Opinion: This 71-year-old white female, Sister Margaret Ann Pahl, died of multiple stab wounds to the left side of the face, neck and the chest. There also was evidence of strangulation.”
Fazekas was not saying she had died from strangulation. Clearly, she was alive when she was stabbed repeatedly. If she wasn’t alive, she wouldn’t have bled. The stab wounds provided the immediate cause of death. It was the pattern of those stab wounds, not yet detected, that created the most mystery. While it was possible that the cross-shaped pattern of the chest wounds was a chance rather than deliberate occurrence, if you added the altar cloth into the equation, things certainly did get interesting.
Would the killer place the altar cloth over Margaret Ann’s chest by chance , and then stab her by chance in the shape of a cross? Oh, and the killer stabbed her in the sacristy by chance on the only day of the year the consecrated Host , the body and the blood of Jesus, is there watching the murder from nearby? The mere fact the killer clearly took his time, did his business in a very secluded place, and slipped away without being caught showed that he knew what he was doing and where he was doing it. He could not have escaped without detection had he not known the ins and outs of the hospital and specifically the chapel and its adjacent areas. He was so confident, he left the lights on behind him; he wanted Margaret Ann discovered the way he had left her.
Margaret Ann had either been the victim of some sort of bizarre ritual killing, or the killer was trying to make it seem that way to divert attention from him. If the conclusion was the latter, then this was a very clever killer indeed, someone not only capable of eluding detection, but using the public’s popular fascination with ritual killing to get away with murder.
With the autopsy completed, the TPD released the body for burial. It was transported to a funeral parlor in Fremont, Ohio, where Margaret Ann was prepared for her final rest. The undertaker drained her body of blood and filled her veins with embalming fluid. Her body was then cleaned up and placed in a habit that her order provided. Finally, the undertaker placed Margaret Ann in a nice wooden coffin.
April 9, 1980
The last time Fremont, Ohio, had been in the news was in 1893, when former president Rutherford B. Hayes died at his Fremont home, Spiegel Grove. Hayes’s estate, which included his tomb, was just blocks from St. Bernardine Chapel.
The first time they buried Margaret Ann Pahl, it was as if God was angry. Ominous black clouds appeared overhead. Everyone who was there would remember later that the winds blew hard, pounding at the doors of the chapel. Inside, it was time to say good-bye. During a Catholic funeral, the Church “commends the dead to God’s merciful love and pleads for the forgiveness of their sins.” Through the funeral rites, Christians “offer worship, praise, and thanksgiving to God for the gift of a life which has now been returned to God, the author of life and the hope of the just.”
In the Church’s book of ritual The Order of Christian Funerals, the first of the three principal components to a Catholic funeral is the vigil for the deceased, sometimes referred to as the “wake.” It is held at the funeral home or the church.
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