Ocey Snead - Investigation and Trial

Investigation and Trial

Virginia Wardlaw's answers to the doctor were suspicious and the police were called to investigate.

The cause of death was identified as drowning, with starvation as a contributing cause. Suspicion for the death quickly focused on her family, particularly her mother and two aunts. The investigator who originally arrived at the home noted that it was cold and appeared unoccupied, and that the victim had been dead for at least 24 hours, prompting investigators to consider the death suspicious, specifically wondering about the delay in finding Ocey deceased.

The evidence against the women consisted of several life insurance policies that had been taken out on the young woman, suicide notes found in the possession of Ocey's mother that were written in the same hand and similar style as the note alleged to have been Ocey's suicide note, and the family's treatment of Ocey prior to her death. All three were arrested and charged with murder.

Fletcher Wardlaw Snead, Ocey's husband, was located under an assumed name cooking in a lumber camp in Canada and questioned. No incriminating evidence was found against him and he was never charged in connection with his wife's murder.

Virginia Wardlaw died of self-induced starvation on August 12, 1910 while waiting for the trial to begin.

Caroline Wardlaw Martin, Ocey's mother, was considered the most unbalanced of the three sisters and to have been the instigator of her daughter's murder. Caroline pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter as part of a plea bargain. She was sentenced to seven years in prison and sent to the New Jersey State Prison in Trenton, New Jersey. She was declared mentally unstable on May 18, 1912 and was then transferred to the New Jersey State Hospital for the Insane where she died on June 21, 1913. Years later, evidence emerged that suggested she poisoned her husband to collect on a $10,000 life insurance policy.

Mary Wardlaw Snead was cleared of all charges on a technicality; since her younger sister had pleaded guilty to manslaughter, she could not be charged as an accessory. She moved to her son's ranch in Colorado and was never heard from again.