1977 - Elwood, Illinois.

In September 1977, 84-year-old Alice Sturm was murdered in her bed inside her home in Elwood, Illinois. Suspicion quickly fell on Alice’s live-in granddaughter, Sheila, and her friend, Ernest Stanberry. But almost as quickly as the charges were filed, they were dropped — and Alice’s case quietly faded into obscurity for decades.

What investigators didn’t know at the time was that Ernest Stanberry was also a suspect in another murder: the 1975 killing of Judy Lord in Concord, New Hampshire, a case that remained unsolved until 2025.

It wasn’t until 2026 that our research uncovered the connection between these two cases—linking a decades-old Illinois murder to a cold case hundreds of miles away.

For nearly fifty years, Alice Sturm’s murder sat collecting dust… Until now.

This is the story of the murder of Alice Sturm.

• If you have any information on the murder of Alice Sturm, please reach out to Sgt. Mike Earnest at the Will County Sheriff’s Office at (815) 727-8575 ext. 4943.

Episode sources and photos: https://www.murdershetold.com/episodes/alice-sturm

Revisit The Murder of Judy Lord, published on 2/25/26: ⁠https://www.murdershetold.com/episodes/judy-lord⁠

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