A Little Less Mess: The Murder of Ellen Sherman [Connecticut]

Cara (0:20)

Hey everyone, welcome to Bless This Mess and the True Crime Podcast. I'm Cara, Just Cara. Welcome to A Little Less Mess. These are our Monday mini-sodes. Well, Tuesday to day, sorry guys, I'm late. Where I come to you solo and tell you a story outside the South. And today we're heading to Niantic, Connecticut. I think I said that right. A small community along the shoreline. In August 1985, a friend went to check on Ellen Sherman after her husband said he couldn't reach her. What began as a visit to make sure she was okay became the start of a murder investigation that would take years to resolve. But before we get into it, let's go over our weekly schedule. So on Mondays, we step outside the South for our Little Less Mess mini-sodes. And Thursdays are for our full length episodes right here on the main feed. Now, if you want to get those Thursday episodes early and ad free, plus our Friday bonus show Sit and Sippin and Bullshitin, come join our Patreon family. You can also help keep the porch light on by visiting our Buy Me a Coffee page to treat us to a sweet tea. And while you're at it, make sure you're following us on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube at Bless This Mess Podcast to catch my True Crime and Dinner Time series and our weekly True Crime documentary recommendations. And as always, the absolute best free way to support the show is to take a second to rate, review, and subscribe wherever you're listening right now. Alright, y'all, let's go ahead and get into today's episode. On Sunday, August 4th, 1985, Edward Sherman was away on a sailing trip with friends when he contacted Barbara Lavallee, a friend of his wife, Ellen. He said he hadn't been able to reach Ellen and asked Barbara to have someone check on her. Barbara sent a friend named Lynn to the Sherman home in Niantic. The house was locked when Lynn arrived. Unable to get inside through a door, he pried open a window and climbed in. When he reached the master bedroom, he found Ellen dead. She was unclothed and underwear was wrapped around her neck. The bedroom door had been closed and the air conditioner was running, leaving the room unusually cold. Ellen was five and a half months pregnant. An examination determined that she had been strangled both manually and with the ligature. There was no question that investigators were dealing with the homicide. What they did not yet know was when the killing had happened, and that would become one of the biggest obstacles in the case. Her husband had left for his sailing trip on Friday evening. If Ellen had died after he left, investigators would have to account for the people who could place him on the boat. If she had died before the trip, the entire picture would change. Before we follow that investigation though, let's talk about Ellen and the life she had built.

Ellen Vicki Goldstein was born in Brooklyn in 1946 She graduated from Hofstra University and worked as a teacher on Long Island. People who knew her remembered a friendly, outgoing woman. She married Edward Sherman in 1969, and they had a daughter named Jessica. By 1985, Ellen had established a business called Ad Graphics, which published a real estate magazine called Display of Homes. Both Ellen and Ed worked in the business, and Ed also taught marketing part-time at a community college.

Ellen enjoyed mysteries and had ambitions of publishing a mystery novel herself. She was raising her daughter, managing her work, and preparing for another baby, a child she had wanted for years. But their marriage was troubled. Ed had been involved in a long-running relationship with a woman named Nancy Prescott, and he had fathered a child with her.

Accounts of the marriage also described an arrangement that had allowed relationships outside it.

That history can make the situation sound complicated, but the important point is what Ellen wanted by the summer of 1985 According to her friends, she wanted Ed to commit to their marriage, and she was considering divorce if he would not.

Ellen's friends also described frustration over the business and how much of the work she was carrying. The prospect of a divorce could affect not just the marriage, but the company and the couple's financial arrangements.

Those accounts would eventually help prosecutors explain a possible motive. At the beginning, however, investigators still had to determine whether Ed could have been responsible at all.

On Friday, August 2nd, Ellen and Ed had returned home from work at about 4 in the afternoon. Later that evening, Ed left for a week-long sailing trip with four friends. Jessica was away at camp, and Ellen remained at home.