Editor’s note: This story contains graphic details.
It was 1:30 a.m. on Sunday, March 9, 1941, when 24-year-old Leila Welsh arrived at the door of the Brookside bungalow she shared with her mother and older brother. She and boyfriend Richard Funk — who had walked her home — kissed goodnight.
Before lying down, Leila Welsh opened her bedroom’s east-facing window, which faced the backyard. Little did she know, but the yard’s shadows hid a man. Judging by the pile of cigarette butts he left on the ground, he’d been waiting for her for quite some time…