Audrey Evers Pugh:1956,Cincinnati, Ohio

    

   Audrey Evers was born on May 24th 1921 in Cincinnati, Ohio to Adelaide and Hilary Evers. She had a brother named William. 

   Audrey Evers married William Pugh in December of 1951 when she was 30 and he was 29. He owned a successful printing business that had been in his family for generations. The couple took a honeymoon trip to the West Indies. 

   The couple lived at 2752 Hill and Hollow Lane in Cincinnati. Audrey Pugh was described as quiet and very spiritual. She was a devout Catholic and was a parishioner at St. Mary’s. 

 

   Easter Sunday 1956 was on April first, also known as April Fool’s Day. It almost seems like a bad omen or a sign. I don’t necessarily believe in that. But, a fiction writer could have a field day with that detail. 

   On Wednesday morning of April 11th, 1956, Audrey Evers Pugh was at home alone. William was at work.

   

   That morning the gas meter reader, Robert Lyons, was moving through the neighborhood. Today most gas and electric meters are located on the side of the house. In the Pugh neighborhood, the gas meters were located inside the basements. So, the homeowner would have to let the gas meter reader into the basement door. 

   Robert Lyons had worked for the Cincinnati waterworks for years at that point. 

   What happened next is murky. 

   That morning Audrey Pugh was stabbed to death in the foyer of her home. It seemed to some that she answered the door at some point early that morning. She was still in her nightgown with a robe over the top.  

  The person at the door began stabbing and slashing Audrey with a knife. She had defensive wounds on her right and left hands and arms. She seems to have tried to turn and run. The killer then began stabbing her in the back. Why would someone want to kill Audrey? 

  Another scenario is that she opened the basement door for the meter reader. He tried to assault her. She fought him off. And then tried to run out the front door. He stabbed her in the back to prevent her from running out the door. That scenario seems more likely given the details that were gathered in the investigation.

  The knife used was described as 3 ½ inches long and about a half inch wide. It’s been described as a paring knife but it seems to me that it could also be a folding pocket knife. Almost every blue collar workingman carried a pocket knife in those days. 

   The knife used in the murder was not from the Pugh home. None of their knives were missing.

   

  Robert Lyons was the usual meter reader in the neighborhood. Another neighbor also reported seeing him in her own backyard. He was a gas meter reader after all. He wasn’t on the basement door side of the house. She didn’t think he had any business whatsoever in the location that she saw him. It bothered her. What was he doing there?

   Robert V. Lyons was interviewed by the police. He denied the murder at first but eventually signed a 28 page confession. 

Robert Lyons, smoking a cigarette during his mugshot photos. 

  His clothes, long underwear and a blue shirt were found to have traces of blood. They had been laundered and the blood type could not be determined.

   His trousers also had blood stains including a large spot on the cuff. (It’s described as a clot.) That was tested and found to be type A.  Audrey Pugh had type A blood. 

  He was seen by a housekeeper from a nearby home in the neighborhood wearing a sweater with a jacket over it. Later she saw him wearing the sweater on top of his jacket. It seemed very odd.  It stuck out to her.  Later, when she learned of the murder; she went to the police. Could he have put his red sweater on over his jacket to cover the blood stains? Who wears a jacket under a sweater? 

  Lyons was tried for the murder. However, He was not convicted. He had a criminal defense attorney who managed to discredit witnesses and sow seeds of doubt among the jury. 

  Lots of people have type A blood argued Lyons’ attorney. The trousers had not remained in the lab. That is, the pants were sent to the lab and examined initially. The police collected them but later returned them to the lab to test the blood type of the stain at the cuff. Chain of custody is important. Lyons’ defense lawyer was able to argue that the blood could have come from a police officer with a nosebleed for instance. 

  Lyons said his confession was coerced. He recanted. 

  The housekeeper who saw him change his clothing around was an African American and a woman. The jury was easily swayed due to racism and sexism. 

  The FBI had produced a report that stated that Lyons’ meter reader log book had entries that were erased and altered for the morning of the murder. These changes made it look like Lyons had not been at the Pugh home at the time of the murder. Even that did not sway the jury toward a guilty verdict. Lyons walked.

  In 1977, Robert Vernon Lyons was living in an apartment in Cincinnati. He had been walking around town with a paper bag. He stopped into his local drug store. He went there several times a day, staff said. I imagine that they had a lunch counter and served inexpensive meals. He told the staff there that the paper bag contained 7,000 dollars. He did not say where the cash had come from. Staff there told him not to tell people things like that. They told him to go straight home and put that bag away somewhere safe. 

  Lyons did go home. He didn’t make it into his apartment door though. He was found by a neighbor lying in the hallway bleeding from the head. The bag of money was still there. His wallet and a coin purse were also there. He had more than 9,000 in cash on him when he had a massive heart attack and died on his doorstep. He hit his head as he fell. 

  I wasn’t able to find an explanation of why he had so much cash with him. Perhaps he had withdrawn his life savings?  Sometimes older people begin to distrust banks. (See the Marjorie Taylor Jackson case from 1977 in Indianapolis.)

   William W. Pugh eventually remarried. He and his wife Elizabeth had three children. William lived a long life and passed away in 2016. 

   Audrey Evers Pugh’s murder is technically unsolved.  If you have more information please submit a tip using this link: https://www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/Files/Law-Enforcement/Investigator/Cold-Case/Homicides/Pugh

    Rest in peace, Audrey