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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