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Marilyn Sheppard: Only 31, Pregnant and Murdered Marilyn Reese Sheppard was murdered in her bed during the early morning hours of Sunday, July 4,1954 at 28924 W. Lake Road in Bay Village, Ohio. Mrs. Sheppard was 31 years old at the time and four months pregnant. She was the wife of Dr. Samuel Holmes Sheppard, D.O., 30, and the mother of Sam Reese Sheppard, 7 years of age.
The time of death was 3 a.m. to 4 a.m. according to the coroner. Mrs. Sheppard was beaten to death with a weapon. In total, thirty-five wounds were found on her body. Fifteen wounds were in the head area, that is, on the bridge of the nose or above. These included four evenly spaced "crescentic" gashes on her forehead, two serrated gashes in the side of the head, one deep gash in the back of the head, and a broken nose. The wounds to the head did not break through the dura.
There were no exterior wounds on the lower face. However, two teeth were broken off at the gumline and were found under her body. There was a slight scraping inside her mouth, but there were no exterior wounds to her mouth. The remaining nineteen wounds were mostly on her hands, which had severe damage. One finger was nearly ripped off, and one nail was nearly ripped off; there were bruises on the knuckles of her ring finger.
When discovered, Mrs. Sheppard's body was lying on a single bed on the second floor of her home. Her head was two-thirds of the way down the bed, and her legs below the knees dangled over the end. She had been wearing pajamas; the bottoms were completely removed from her lower body, exposing her genitals, and were fully pulled off one leg and partially pulled off the other leg; the tops were pushed above her breasts. The mattress on which she lay was soaked with blood. The walls of the room, the door to the room, the closet door, surfaces throughout the room (except the ceiling) were covered with blood spatter.
Mrs. Sheppard's body was removed to the Coroner's office in the morning. The forensic pathologist washed off her wounds before photographing them and without examining them for fragments of material that might provide information about the weapon utilized.
