Eerie Memory

   Reading about the woman found dead  in the woods in Schaghticoke brought back this memory, from around 1957-58  or so.

   The garage building next to our house was vacant then. Customers of Sara's store frequently parked there, alongside the driveway we used then. But a white car was parked there for a while, with no driver anywhere around. Someone must have notified the police the next day when the car was still apparently abandoned there. It was a neighborhood mystery when the authorities showed up to examine the vehicle. So much intrigue that my sister, completely out of character for her, skipped classes at Albany State to wait for news of the mystery car. That evening, when I was working in the store, 2 strange men came  in and bought flashlights and batteries. Besides being strangers, a rarity then, they seemed gruff and serious. They were joining a search party for the missing driver, a woman, the wife of one of those customers. 

   The search party was headed for the woods on Stover Road, with Johnny Daurio joining in the search. It was  late evening that rainy day when they found her, her body dangling from a tree deep in the woods. Johnny said it was a terrible sight; he was there when they found her, and was moved by it. 

  The back story was that they looked in the woods because her husband said she loved the woods and often hiked through them. 

   The rest of the story, pieced together as it was, was that she had driven from another state, maybe Pennsylvania, and had paid a visit to Dr. Sproat's office, no appointment needed back then.  She was concerned about her health, deeply worried that she might have contracted a venereal disease that her husband had brought back from North Africa or someplace. Dr. Sproat confirmed her suspicions and she drove her car down to River Road and walked to her beloved woods and hanged herself. 

    I don't know the circumstances of the death in Schaghticoke, but the car parked alongside the road and the statement of there being no signs of foul play made me think of that other poor soul.