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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