Silenced
This story is a true whodunnit, laden with possible suspects: war-time spies, a disgruntled tenant, a rich banker, and a long-suffering wife. Surprisingly, this case has more detailed information than many contemporary investigations, even though it is over 100 years old! Could DNA from the old evidence solve this case today?
The Dean Homestead
Dr. William Kendrick Dean and his wife Mary lived in the town of Jaffrey, in southwest New Hampshire. Trained as a medical doctor, William Dean never practiced as Mary did not want him to have the busy life of a doctor. Instead, they settled onto what is today known as Dean Farm Road, a winding dirt lane leading to a large house, smaller cottage, and a barn. Because of financial issues at the time, the Dean’s lived in the cottage and rented out the house. Their tenant in 1918 was a man named Lawrence Colfelt, thought by some to be of German descent, which was looked upon by some in the community with cautious curiosity and others with downright suspicion, as the world was then at war with Germany.
Wartime
Nearby Mount Monadnock is located only a few miles from Jaffrey, and on a clear day has views to Boston Harbor. At a time when the President of the United States had warned the nation to be on alert to anything suspicious, many residents in and around Jaffrey frequently reported seeing strange lights emanating from Mount Monadnock. Could those lights be signals from spies sent to waiting naval craft off Boston’s shores? According to Ken Sheldon, author of Deep Water, a meticulous exploration of the history and events surrounding the murder of Dr. Dean, “people were on a heightened sensitivity to anything they perceived to be espionage…” Especially, said Sheldon, in a small town like Jaffrey where, at the time, “everybody knows everybody else’s business.” The flashing lights were not just one incidental sighting, they seemed to happen with frequency. “It was credible enough that people believed what they saw,” said Bruce Hill, archivist at the Jaffrey Historical Society. Hill said there were so many reports, that any suggestions of an innocent explanation were dismissed. “There was just too many coincidences, too many details that proved worthy of further consideration,” added Hill.
Important Information for the Government
On Monday, August 12, 1918, Dr. Dean had a conversation with Arria Morison, a summer resident of Jaffrey who was collecting items for a rummage sale to benefit a hospital. As the Dean’s prepared a donation for Morison, the conversation led to her upcoming trip to Boston. Knowing that the Bureau of Investigation had a field office there (the precursor of what is known today as the Federal Bureau of Investigation), Dean asked Morison to relay a message for him – that he had sensitive information to share. He would not elaborate on the details, and would not consider telephoning the authorities either over fears of being overheard.
Dr. Dean Missing
The next day, August 13, Dr. Dean went to the barn to milk the cow, part of his twice daily routine. It was around midnight when he left the cottage. Minutes passed, then hours, and Mary Dean became concerned. But she was very fearful of the dark, and when morning came, she went to look for her husband. Unable to find him, Mary Dean summoned a neighbor who came to help her look for Dr. Dean. Knowing that Mrs. Dean had problems with her memory and was sometimes confused, he also checked inside their cottage. But still, no sign of Dr. Dean. More neighbors and local officials joined in the search, focusing around the barn. One of those searchers noticed some blood on the porch steps and the door to the barn.[1]
Dr. Dean Found
The men searched a nearby cistern, an underground structure used to contain rainwater for future use. As the cistern was probed with a long pole, they made a gruesome discovery. They recovered Dr. Dean’s body with a large pair of ice tongs and summoned the undertaker. They likely knew that something mischievous was afoot – something the medical examiner, Dr. Dinsmore, would soon report.
The findings of the examination by Dinsmore indicated that Dr. Dean’s body was covered with a burlap sack; inside the sack was a 27 ½ pound stone resembling a foundation stone; there was a light horse blanket wrapped around his head; beneath that, a rope was found wrapped tightly around his neck, creasing the skin deeply on one side; his hands were tied behind his back, his legs were tied above the knees, and also tied at the ankles. Dinsmore noted that Dean sustained a broken neck, a head injury, g with a cut and other wounds along the left temple.
If the Town of Jaffrey wasn’t already on edge over the mysterious flashing lights on Mount Monadnock, the murder of a citizen as prominent and well-liked as Dr. Dean escalated their fears.
Investigations; Autopsies; Mood of the Town
There was actually more than one investigation into the death of Dr. Dean, said Ken Sheldon. First was the local investigation conducted by county solicitor Roy Pickard, known for his tough-on-crime stance. Pickard enlisted the assistance of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, reputed for its investigative acumen, to aid in the probe. But simultaneously, Dean’s brother, Frederick Dean launched his own investigation, recruiting William derKerlor from New York City. derKerlor was well known as a psychic detective whose brash mannerisms tended to infuriate people. Said Sheldon, “this is New Hampshire, filled with reticent country people not used to having their doors banged on at midnight with someone asking a bunch of questions about a murder that they were already hesitant to talk about.”
Frederick Dean also demanded a second autopsy, this time by an experienced Boston pathologist, Dr. George Magrath. It was about 2 weeks following his death when Dr. Dean’s body was exhumed from a Jaffrey cemetery (photographs are available of the exhumation – see show notes at apbcoldcase.com). Magrath noted blood staining or hemorrhage on the subcutaneous tissues of the large neck muscle that begins at the bottom of the neck and ends at the base of the skull. He also noted a fracture of the hyoid bone, a bone in the neck often found fractured in cases of strangulation; also noted were fractures of the spine and skull, with a particular note about a freely moving section of skull about 3 centimeters square. Magrath’s conclusion was that Dr. Dean died from asphyxiation. Magrath was quoted as saying, “the murder was not committed in a hurry to get the body out of the way, but to make absolutely certain it was dead”.
Grand Jury Investigates
The investigations into Dean’s death continued. But with no resolution after several months, a grand jury was empaneled to hear the facts. As with any grand jury, the proceedings were transcribed, and the stenographer’s notebooks were carefully secured – out of sight, and out of mind… until the 1980’s when the Keene County courthouse was being moved from one location to another.
But the original stenographer’s notebooks were not the only discovery in the recesses of the old courthouse. They also found some of the original evidence in the case – an exciting revelation. Ken Sheldon described the items saying, “The things that were used in the murder of William Dean were all things that came from the farm. The rope had been something that was hanging around where he was; there was a burlap sack put over everything; underneath that there was a horse blanket that had been wrapped around his head, I think to contain the blood from the bruises that he had been given. His hands and feet were tied with cords…” Sheldon noted that all of these items came from the barn, something that was suggestive as to the intent of the killer. In addition to the restraints and items used on Dr. Dean, there were other articles found at the courthouse. “…there was also a box, and in that box, were the clothes that Dean was wearing the night he was murdered, the rope that was tied around his neck, a bloody doorknob to the barn uh where he was murdered; the ropes, chains, I think, and some pieces of wood with blood spatters on them.” But for all of the evidence that was in the file, there was something glaringly absent – the cigarette case.
The Cigarette Cases
Cigarette cases were commonly carried during the time whether a person bought cigarettes or rolled their own. When the water was drained from the cistern and Dr. Deans body removed, a cigarette case was also recovered. Sheldon said that the case was then dried on the grass and secured. But Dr. Dean’s own cigarette case was in his pocket, and there was even a third cigarette case in this story, one that was found inside the Dean residence. Who did the cigarette case found in the cistern belong to? Could it have fallen from the killer’s pocket?
The missing cigarette case may have been one of the most significant clues of the investigation, and its disappearance does not reflect well on the investigation. Ken Sheldon believes that this may have not been a mishandling of evidence as much as it was purposely lost to protect someone’s identity. By the time the grand jury investigation was underway, there were two cigarette cases brought in as exhibits. But, says Sheldon, neither was the one from the bottom of the cistern. “Nobody knows what happened to that cigarette case – it still hasn’t turned up to this day,” said Sheldon. “In my mind the only reason for it to go away was because it implicated somebody.”
Motive to Kill?
Who had a motive to kill Dr. Dean? Who were the suspects of that era? Sheldon said the suspects can generally be distilled to three: Mary Dean, the doctor’s wife; Lawrence Colfelt, the tenant and who was thought by some to be a German spy; or Charles Rich, a well-known banker, judge and supposed close friend of Dr. Dean.
Mary Dean
Mary was 67 years old when her husband was killed. Because she was the last person to see her husband alive, said Ken Sheldon, she became a suspect. But she was forgetful, and some thought her to be insane, which may have motivated her to kill her husband. But others deduced that she did not have the wherewithal to commit the acts of killing her husband and disposing of his body into the cistern.
Lawrence Colfelt
Again, Colfelt was a renter of the Dean’s house, a means for them to supplement their income. Ken Sheldon described Colfelt as a trust-fund baby; his grandfather was a millionaire. For the wary residents of Jaffrey, some suspected that he was of German descent. About a month before Dr. Dean was murdered Colfelt moved away because of a “falling out” with Dr. Dean, said Sheldon.
Charles Rich
Rich was one of the most prominent people in Jaffrey. He was a local judge, grand master of the Masonic Lodge, a banker, and connected with other major business people in the community. Rich was also one of Dr. Dean’s closest friends, said Ken Sheldon. What caused some people to begin looking at Rich with suspicion is because he had an obvious black eye on the day after Dr. Dean was killed. Rich explained the injury saying that he was kicked by his horse in the barn. But Sheldon said that Mr. Rich’s story seemed to change as he continued to tell it to others; and there were witnesses who said that Rich’s horse was not even in the barn at the time he said it kicked him.
Grand Jury
With the investigation going nowhere, a grand jury was impaneled to review the facts about 8 months after Dr. Dean’s death. As revealed in the grand jury transcripts, County Solicitor Roy Pickard leaned toward the theory that Mrs. Dean was the killer. Ken Sheldon said that the mood in Jaffrey at the time was one of division -those who bought into the theory that it was Mrs. Dean who murdered her husband, and others who leaned toward Mr. Charles Rich, not that the townspeople would openly talk about it, fearful for their jobs and even their lives. “When I was younger person in high school and college, people would not talk about it because they were afraid. At the time they were afraid that whatever happened to Mr. Dean would happen to them if they talked…”, said Ken Sheldon.
Which Theory?
Bruce Hill is an Archivist at the Jaffrey Historical Society which holds several documents, transcripts and artifacts from the Dean murder. Hill rules out the possibility that Mary Dean was the killer, noting her mental capacity and physical limitations. Hill does consider that Colfelt deserves some scrutiny, but said that while Colfelt was suspected of being German, he was actually Irish. It was his odd lifestyle that drew attention and consternation of some of the locals that likely made him a focal point at the time. Then, says Hill, is Charles Rich. “His black eye is a condition that can’t be ignored.”
Could the motive have been someone who wanted to silence Dr. Dean from speaking with federal authorities? He had just sent word with Arria Morison that he wanted to speak with them about important information – whatever it was. Did that information coincide with one of the mentioned suspects? – or someone else altogether?
Can Modern Science Bring Answers?
We discussed the several items of evidence that were found in the Keene County Courthouse, some still bearing blood stains from 1918. But Ken Sheldon said those exhibits have been handled by hundreds – taken on school tours and viewed at the historical society. And even if DNA technology was able to isolate genetic profiles, since there will never be a prosecution in the case, we cannot expect any exhumations for DNA exemplars. Today’s science provides for a work-around, however. Genetic genealogy uses the DNA profile of descendants to draw connections with profiles from evidence. But in this instance, said Ken Sheldon, there are no descendants. Sheldon said that Mr. and Mrs. Dean were actually cousins, and they decided not to have children; Charles Rich and his wife Lana also did not have their own children; and Lawrence Colfelt had a stepdaughter, but no children of his own lineage. And so, the mystery will continue.
The Puzzle
The investigation into the murder of Dr. William Dean has transcended from a criminal investigation to folklore over the course of 100 years. It is something that will likely continue to challenge the minds of residents and visits to the quaint town of Jaffrey for centuries to come. Archivist Bruce Hill sees the significance of the murder and how it has shaped Jaffrey over the years. “It’s gone from dividing the community to being a historical curiosity,”, he said.
For Ken Sheldon, truly an expert on the facts and circumstances surrounding the Dean case, he said that the Dean riddle has become its’ allure. He said this is a case about a man who still deserves justice. “Imagine you’ve been given 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle, but you haven’t been given the box with the picture on top. So, you don’t really know what the picture is that you’re putting together.” Sheldon added, “You’re not sure you got all the pieces, and maybe some of the pieces you have, don’t go to this puzzle. That’s what it is like trying to figure out the Dean murder.”
LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE
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Thanks to David Fletcher, a resident of Dean Farm Road in Jaffrey who recommended this case for an APB Cold Case episode;
Sources and citations: Interviews with Kenneth M. Sheldon and Bruce Hill; listen to their interviews in the APB Cold Case podcast: Silenced.
More information: Deep Water: Murder, Scandal, and Intrigue in a New England Town; by Kenneth M. Sheldon. Down East Books; Also on Amazon.
[1] Sheldon, Kenneth M.; Deep Water: Murder, Scandal, and Intrigue in a New England Town; Down East Books; 2022; p. 10
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