If you haven’t heard of Hazel Drew, you’ve probably heard of the television series inspired by her murder, Twin Peaks. While the murder on Twin Peaks was eventually solved, Hazel Drew’s murder remains unsolved 113 years after the fact. It’s not necessarily a surprise, given where investigative science was in 1908 and the fact that the usual 2,000 person population of Rensselaer County, NY was increased for holidaymakers and the resorts of Sand Lake were full. With so many more people in the area, it wouldn’t be hard at the time for someone to come into town, commit a horrific crime, and disappear without a trace (Truecrimeedition.Com, 2021).
Hazel, 20, was last seen by Frank Smith, a teenage boy who worked nearby at a farm, and Rudolph Gundrum, a 30-something charcoal peddler. Smith, who apparently held an unrequited love for Hazel, reportedly got a ride from Rudolph around 7:30 PM that night, and that was the last time that Hazel was seen alive (Truecrimeedition.Com, 2021). Four days later on July 11, 1908, her remains would be recovered from Teal’s Pond (Cantoral). The popular young woman was floating facedown when she was found, bloated and with her skull crushed by something unidentified. While her condition made her difficult to identify, gold fillings in her teeth and her clothing proved useful in her identification (Truecrimeedition.Com, 2021). Hazel’s official cause of death was determined to be blunt force trauma to her head, but there were other factors. Unusually, when her body was recovered she had a corset string wrapped around her throat. Just before her death, she was seen picking raspberries on the side of a local road, and four days later, she was found with blunt force trauma to the back of her skull and this string wrapped around her neck (“The Murder Of Hazel Drew – Passion Blog”).
Hazel had recently told relatives she had plans to travel, though where to was unknown, and quit her job working at the mayor’s house (Truecrimeedition.Com, 2021). Other reports state that she had been working as a governess for Edward Cary, who was a professor of engineering as Rensselaer Polytechnic. She cared for his children while living at his home along with his wife, apparently belobed by the family and local community (Cantoral). She was living beyond what she earned – $3 a week would not have bought the luxury hotels she stayed in, the first-class trips into New York City and Rhode Island, her clothing, or dinning at high-end restaurants as she did. Despite this, those who knew her were not aware of any men in her life, claiming she would have said something to them. While her aunt notably would not work with investigators, her friend, Carrie Weaver, informed them that Hazel had found some way to make her money work for her and likely saved her earnings as well (Truecrimeedition.Com, 2021). Some believe there was a wealthy benefactor behind the scenes funding the lavish lifestyle Hazel had begun living before her murder, but no one has ever been identified (Cantoral). The previous May, Weaver had gone on a trip to New York with Hazel, where they ate at luxury restaurants, stayed at a boarding house, and went to theatre events. Not once during the trop did they meet any men, but Weaver knew Hazel had been to the city on her own earlier that month. On their way home, Hazel told her that she planned to spend 4th of July at Lake George, possibly with an unknown man. When the weekend came, Hazel instead stayed home and spent the holiday with her aunt (Truecrimeedition.Com, 2021).
While searching through Hazel’s belongings, letters from a man known as C.E.S. were found, all six written in a manner described as loving. He wrote of her smile and eyes torturing him, her face haunting him. In one letter, he asked her not to forget that she promised to write as well as stated he would meet her “at the tavern” when he arrived in Albany. When Hazel was spotted on July 6th waiting for a tall young man at the train station, a witness claimed he appeared to be controlling over Hazel. This man was never identified (Truecrimeedition.Com, 2021). Could this strange young man have been C.E.S.? Could he have been the wealthy benefactor some believe was behind her lifestyle? Besides the letters from C.E.S., other letters from other men were also found, showing investigators that Hazel had a life no one else knew about (“The Murder Of Hazel Drew – Passion Blog”).
Willie, Hazel’s brother, also spoke with investigators. He believed that Hazel was going to the farm he worked at to say goodbye to him before she left, as she would never have left without seeing him. According to him, there was no other reason she would be traveling down that road (Truecrimeedition.Com, 2021).
Frank Smith, described by some as “dimwitted,” was the first suspect in the case due to his infatuation with the late Hazel Drew. He was quickly ruled out thanks to his alibi as well as multiple witnesses who saw him the night of the murder. Hazel’s uncle William Taylor, who owned a nearby farm, was also a suspect due to his odd behavior (Truecrimeedition.Com, 2021). Taylor was there, helping, when her remains were recovered from Teal’s Pond. He was known to be “melancholy” and suicidal, which turned some suspicion on him (“The Murder Of Hazel Drew – Passion Blog”). There was no evidence for this suspicion, however, and he too was cleared of suspicion. Investigators were also made aware of a dentist that Hazel was apparently involved with, enough so that her fiend Mina Jones reported that the unknown dentist had even asked for her to marry him. Despite investigations into 30-40 dentists throughout Troy, NY, the dentist was never identified. Another unidentified man had reportedly attacked Hazel twice long before according to Jones, and Hazel had managed to escape. An Albany millionaire, the real-life counterpart to the Twin Peaks character played by Richard Meymer, was also considered at one point. Like Meymer’s character, this millionaire was known to hold orgies at his nearby mansion, likely part of why he became a suspect. Witnesses heard screams coming from his home the night that Hazel died, leading to the belief that he was at his Albany home at the time of the murder (Truecrimeedition.Com, 2021). The millionaire, named by some as Henry Kramroth, was rumored to have been dating Hazel, along with a train conductor who was also investigated (“The Murder Of Hazel Drew – Passion Blog”). While the case was brought to a grand jury, it was determined that there was no evidence tying any of the suspect to the murder, and the case went cold (Truecrimeedition.Com, 2021).
In the end, Hazel Drew’s death remains a mystery. Her cause of death and the string around her neck are consistent with murder, but a different theory became the official explanation. Investigators claimed they found no motives for murder and ruled her death an accident, which would explain why her murderer was never found (“The Murder Of Hazel Drew – Passion Blog”). Questions remain, however. Why was there a corset string tightly wrapped around her neck? Who was the dentist that proposed to her? Did she really have this double life? 113 years later, we are unlikely to get answers.
Truecrimeedition.Com, 2021, https://www.truecrimeedition.com/post/hazel-drew.
Cantoral, Leza. “The Strange Case Of Hazel Drew”. Litreactor, 2020, https://litreactor.com/columns/the-strange-case-of-hazel-drew.
“The Murder Of Hazel Drew – Passion Blog”. Sites.Psu.Edu, 2020, https://sites.psu.edu/gfergusonpassionblog/2020/04/09/the-murder-of-hazel-drew/.
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