Piecing together a timeline of Hazel Drew’s last days reveals what she may have been planning for the future. But it’s the testimony of an 11th hour witness that sheds the most light on who may have killed her.

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Hazel Drew’s letters to friends led investigators and the media to revelations about her romantic life and possible clues to her killer. Several other discoveries amid her recovered personal belongings also began to shed light on what she was planning in the final days of her life.

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In 1908, the idea of law enforcement as an investigatory body hadn’t quite caught on. Police forces were more brute squad than Sherlock Holmes. Corruption among the ranks of law and order was rampant, and criminal confessions were often coerced, leading to the prosecution of innocents. The investigation of Hazel Drew’s murder case was an arduous task for the Rensselaer County district attorney and his skeleton crew of detectives, who lacked technology, experience, and defense against intense pressure from the media to solve the crime.

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The theme song for “The Girl in the Pond” is a modernized rendition of one of the most popular songs of 1908. The original words are a poem by Irish writer Sir Thomas Moore, set to a melody by Irish composer Sir John Andrew Stevenson. This modern version is arranged by Matthew A. Striefert, with vocals by Josephine Diodato.

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As the investigation into Hazel Drew’s murder began in July of 1908, investigators ran into roadblocks in the form of her family members, who either didn’t know, or would not reveal information about her life. And it may have been the key to solving the case.

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The upstate New York city where Hazel Drew was living and working was a booming center of industry at the Eastern Terminus of the Erie Canal in the early 20th century. But it was also a roiling stew of political corruption and resistance to the momentum of social change in the Progressive Era. Life could be very challenging for a young woman trying to make her way in this damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don’t world.

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A peek back into the Times Union newspaper archives reveals a wealth of information about the investigation into Hazel Drew’s murder in the summer of 1908. But no official records remain, and all the players, from investigators to potential suspects, are long dead. Sand Lake Town Historian Bob Moore and retired Rensselaer County resident Mark Marshall spent years researching the case and trying to figure out what happened. But without anything official from law enforcement — something very unlikely at this point — they can do little more than theorize about what happened at Teal’s Pond more than a century ago.  

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Stories about a ghostly young woman appearing in and around Sand Lake, New York, have persisted for generations. Those who tell the stories, whether they’ve seen the specter themselves or heard it secondhand, believe it’s the ghost of Hazel Drew, who was mysteriously murdered and found floating in a pond there in 1908. For some, the ghost stories have inspired a quest to solve her murder. For others, they've spurred creativity: The story of Hazel Drew’s ghost became an inspiration for the hit television series “Twin Peaks.”

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In the summer of 1908, America was transfixed by the murder of a woman found floating in a country pond in upstate New York. Was this young beauty killed by a spurned lover? Was she leading a secret double life outside of her station as a governess to the wealthy residents of Troy, New York? Did she know too many secrets? The murder went unsolved, though, and after about three weeks, the girl in the pond was all but forgotten.  

In this new limited series podcast from the Times Union, we’ll go back in time to an era of wealth and prosperity, rampant political corruption, and secrets and lies in Upstate New York. We’ll unravel the mystery of the life and death of one young woman, and why her story still resonates in pop culture today.

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