The unsolved Parma school teacher murders

On Thursday, February 17, 1921, three school-aged children uncovered a grisly site. While walking to school in Parma, Ohio, they came across two bundles of clothing near the road. The curious children approached the bundles for a closer look. What they saw probably haunted them forever. They had just stumbled upon two dead bodies.

The children raced towards the school to find help.

Once they got to school, they came across another strange site. All their classmates were standing outside in the cold. It was after 8:30 a.m. so the kids should have already been inside their temporary school buildings.

The children were outside because their Principal, Miss Louise Wolf, and a teacher named Miss Mabel Foote hadn’t showed up to unlock the doors. After the three youngsters told their classmates about finding two dead bodies, they realized the victims were Miss Wolf and Miss Foote.

The students approached a carpenter named Frank Owen, who was working on the new school building. Owen was married to Miss Wolf’s sister Lottie. He went to investigate and immediately recognized his deceased sister-in-law. Owen contacted the police.

Who killed Louise Wolfe and Mabel Foote?

Parma police Chief Frank W. Smith confirmed the deceased as Principal Louise Wolf, 38, and teacher Mabel Foote, 24. Wolfe was lying face down near the main road and beaten to death. Her pocketbook was underneath her and one of her shoes was on and the other was off. Mabel Foote was away from the road near a fence. She was on her back with her arms over her head and clenched fists. Someone had also beaten her to death. Additionally, police found her pocket book near the road.

The women usually stayed at school past 3:30 p.m. to clean the classrooms and grade papers. They would catch the street car at the intersection of Bean and State Roads and then trek two miles to the school. After they left school, they would take the same path and catch the streetcar home.

A witness who lived near the school told police he saw the women leave the school at 5 p.m. No one else saw the women alive again. Police found a large section of a fence post with the women’s hair attached to it. Chief Smith had found the murder weapon. The killer struck the women with enough force to crush their skulls.

Both women also had defense wounds and had fought for their lives. Originally, police thought two attackers might be involved, but they settled on one attacker. Police thought while the attacker was fighting one woman, the other had grabbed sticks and other items and used them against the killer.

Police also believe the women refused to leave each other. Both had valiantly fought against their attacker. Had one of them ran away, it’s possible only one woman would have died. Instead, the two women fought to the death. The time of death was established after Mabel’s watch was found.

It was stopped at 5:15 p.m. which means they were attacked minutes after they were last seen. A handkerchief was smashed into the mud and there was blood on the grass near a wire fence.

Based on evidence, Mabel was laying near the fence as Louise fought for her life. Unfortunately, she was no match for her killer. Police also thought Mabel may have originally survived but died from her wounds. After thinking he had killed both women, the attacker ran away and left footprints in the mud.

What was the motive?

The killer hadn’t sexually assaulted or robbed either woman. So what was the motive?

Police learned that neither woman had any enemies or anything in their backgrounds to indicate why anyone would want to harm them. Although the police had a few suspects, nothing ever panned out. The Parma police brought no one to justice for killing these two women. It’s been nearly 100 years since these two educators were murdered in Parma, Ohio.

The case will never be solved because all parties are likely deceased. By now there are no family members crying out for justice or reaching out to Ohio law enforcement agencies for help. Had this murder happened today, it would most likely have been solved. So who killed the two Ohio educators on a cold February evening in 1921?

It will forever remain a mystery.