The Murder of Elizabeth Sterling Seeley (Connecticut)

Every now and then I uncover a case buried deep in the archives with circumstances that prove truth is stranger than fiction. This story is one of them.

When a prominent Bridgeport, Connecticut woman failed to show up for lunch with a friend, it led to a devastating discovery in her overflowing home that had become a sort of treasure trove of local history. The investigation stalled until months later when some of the woman’s treasures started showing up around town. 

With a suspect identified, the case was nearly closed until the accused killer quite literally slipped through investigators’ hands in one of the most bizarre escapes I’ve ever encountered.

The Discovery

Elizabeth Sterling Seeley did not miss appointments. At 77-years old, her days followed familiar rhythms – she was routine, punctual, orderly. She kept her commitments. So when September 5, 1974, came and went without word from her, the absence registered immediately with her friend Marjorie Morris.

According to reporting by Richard P. Ondek for the Connecticut Post, Elizabeth was expected to have lunch with Marjorie that day. Elizabeth didn’t drive, which meant Marjorie always picked her up when they had plans, so on that afternoon, Marjorie pulled up outside one of Elizabeth’s properties in Greenfield Hills in Fairfield, Connecticut, right on schedule. When Elizabeth didn’t appear, Marjorie checked the house and realized her friend wasn’t home. There was no sign of her at all.

Puzzled but not yet alarmed, Marjorie drove to Elizabeth’s other property at 63 Brooklawn Avenue in Bridgeport, which was just four blocks from her own home. When she arrived, she noticed the porch light was on. It was a small detail, easy to rationalize. Rather than go inside, Marjorie assumed Elizabeth had simply forgotten their lunch plans, so she left.

By the following day, the small details had begun to accumulate into something harder to dismiss. Marjorie once again passed Elizabeth’s Brooklawn Avenue home on Friday. This time, the porch light was off, and a bag of mail had piled up outside the house, untouched. The sight unsettled her.

Concerned, Marjorie contacted two men who knew Elizabeth well: her chauffeur and home caretaker, Arthur Simmons, and a friend, Edward Kearney. She asked them to check on her.

Arthur arrived at the house with Edward around 3:35 p.m. Arthur had a key, so he let Edward inside. The interior of the home was crowded with possessions, as it often was. Elizabeth lived among her things, layers of a long life pressing in on narrow hallways and staircases. It was familiar, if overwhelming, but nothing about it explained her absence.

Edward climbed the staircase toward the third floor, where Elizabeth’s bedroom was located. That’s when he found his friend. Elizabeth lay motionless in her bed. She was bound to the bedposts, her body partially covered by a blanket.

Edward fled back down the stairs and told Arthur what he had seen. His words were brief and urgent: “Something awful has happened to Miss Seeley.” The pair asked Marjorie to immediately call local police and an ambulance.

Soon, Elizabeth’s stately home was flooded with detectives and first responders. Outside, neighbors gathered to see what the fuss was all about and the scene drew so much unusual attention that even the mayor arrived. What had begun as a missed lunch appointment ended with the discovery of Elizabeth’s death, unnoticed for at least a day.

Early Investigation

When investigators began examining the scene inside Elizabeth’s Brooklawn Avenue home, the immediate facts were stark. Elizabeth’s hands and feet were tied to the posts of her bed with silk stockings.

At first glance, there appeared to be little visible trauma. Aside from a scratch on her neck, no obvious marks were apparent on her body at the scene. That initial impression changed during the autopsy though. The medical examiner documented bruising on Elizabeth’s right cheek, left elbow, and the left side of her chest, along with scratches on her nose, neck, and above one ear. Frank W. Decerbo reports for the Connecticut Post that the examination also revealed evidence consistent with sexual assault occurring shortly before her death.

Despite these findings, the autopsy report was cautious in its conclusions. The medical examiner wrote that there was “no apparent cause of death.” At the same time, the report raised the possibility that Elizabeth died as a result of suffocation. The examiner theorized that her killer may have held a hand, a piece of cloth, or a pillow over her mouth, noting “the possibility of homicide by suffocation, possibly associated with criminal assault.”

Additional details supported that theory. Elizabeth had bruises on her lips suggesting that an object had been pressed against her mouth with significant force. Investigators also noted dried blood inside her mouth.  A pillow recovered from the scene, however, showed no traces of blood.

The medical examiner estimated that Elizabeth had been dead for approximately eighteen hours before her body was discovered.

Investigators found no signs of forced entry into the home yet determining how someone might have entered or exited was complicated by the state of the house itself. Elizabeth was known to keep nearly everything, and her belongings were piled high around doors and windows, obscuring potential points of access.

The interior of the house presented significant challenges. Floors had become storage for decades’ worth of magazines, newspapers, clothing, antiques, and assorted artifacts. In some areas, piles rose as high as five feet. Detectives and crime scene technicians waded through narrow paths of accumulated possessions just to reach the staircase, which was also covered with Elizabeth’s collections.

The condition of the home also made it difficult to establish a motive. Burglary was considered a possibility, but with so many items densely packed and largely undocumented, investigators struggled to determine whether anything of value had been taken.

However, some reports (including a piece by Robert L. Sawyer for the Connecticut Post) noted that Elizabeth was known to wear a money belt beneath her clothing, carrying cash on her person. That belt was found empty.

Among the items recovered during the investigation was a man’s waist-length winter jacket. It was a brown synthetic garment with a zipper front and an alpaca-type lining. Subsequent testing revealed two stains that proved to be seminal fluid, but no blood on the jacket.

Immediately, investigators worked to establish Elizabeth’s final known movements. The last person confirmed to have seen her alive was Alaine Griswold, who picked Elizabeth up at the Brooklawn Avenue house on Wednesday, September 4, and drove her to a meeting. Afterward, Alaine drove Elizabeth home, dropping her off around 9:30 p.m. that night. Elizabeth missed that lunch date with Marjorie on the 5th, and her body was found on the 6th.

According to Alaine, Elizabeth was in a good mood at the meeting on the night of the 4th. She described her as friendly, engaged, and showing no signs of distress. She did mention, however, that Elizabeth had been battling a virus for several weeks and was still experiencing lingering symptoms.

The picture that emerged was deeply unsettling: an elderly woman restrained in her own bed, signs of assault, no clear cause of death, and a crime scene buried beneath a lifetime of possessions. As word of the crime spread, authorities placed a guard outside Elizabeth’s home around the clock to deter looters and preserve what remained of the scene. The answers investigators needed might be somewhere inside that house, but finding them would prove far from simple. 

The contents of the house itself, Elizabeth’s collection, told a story. The stacks of papers, objects, and artifacts were not random, nor were they new. They reflected a lifetime spent collecting and preserving pieces of the past, work that sat at the very center of Elizabeth’s life.

Elizabeth’s story continues on Dark Downeast. Press play to hear the full episode wherever you get your podcasts.