The Investigation Into the Blood-Soaked Murder of the Doctor’s Wife

The evidence was stacked against him. Did her husband do it?

Dr. Samuel Sheppard and his wife, Marilyn. Source

WARNING: This article contains photos that some readers may find disturbing.

It was supposed to be a joyous Independence Day celebration for the Sheppard family in 1954, but it turned into a nightmare when Marilyn Reese Sheppard was brutally murdered in her home. Marilyn, who was only four months pregnant with her second child, was brutally beaten to death in her own bed.

Her body was left with over 30 deep gashes on her face and scalp, and her pajamas had been partially removed, leaving her exposed. The sheets were soaked in her blood and the walls were dripping with heavy spatter, a gruesome scene that no one should ever have to witness.

Her husband, Dr. Sam Sheppard, was convicted of the crime, but exonerated after 10 years in prison.

On the 4th of July 1954, 31-year-old Marilyn was found brutally beaten to death in her bedroom in her family’s lakeside home in Bay Village, Ohio. Her husband, 30-year-old Dr. Sam Sheppard, a local neurosurgeon, was asleep on the couch when he heard his wife scream his name. He says he ran upstairs to the bedroom and had to fight off the intruder that had just killed his wife.