Murder in a small town

Imagine a murder in a small town the size of Elk Run Heights. Elk Run Heights has a population of a little over 1,000. Granite, Oklahoma, had only 900 at the time when Esther Steele was murdered.

Author Leonard Sanders' Esther (364.1523 STE) is about that small town and about Mrs. Steele, a widowed, retired school teacher. Even though Esther was 73 years old, she still had a very active life. She was known to travel across the state to different events, and was very involved in church. As anyone from a small town would know, news travels fast when something out of the ordinary happens. When Esther was found stabbed to death, and possibly raped, it didn't take long for her house to fill up with visitors - even before the police showed up. With so many relatives, friends, and neighbors going through the house, any chance for gathering evidence was lost. The only thing that forensics could find were a few strands of red fiber caught in the dead woman's fingernails and some semen.

In a town like Granite, everyone knows everyone. Who would do such a crime? In fact, Esther's murder was the first ever recorded in the town. There were some suspects. Was it the neighbor, with a criminal record, who lived in the house behind hers? Was it the one (or both) of the guys who were drunk and got into an accident with their truck? No one saw anyone come or go from Esther's house that night, although one neighbor did see a suspicious truck with two people in it drive around the area on the night of the murder.

With very little concrete evidence, the sheriff did make some arrests. Leonard Sander's information about the trial was very thorough, even though the prosecuting attorney's evidence was not.

c Waterloo Public Library 2008