title: Who Killed Hazel Drew?: Unraveling Clues to the Tragic Murder of a Pretty Servant Girl
author: Ron Hughes
description: Ron Hughes is a native of Troy, New York and attended the Troy public schools. He received his Bachelor's Degree from SUNY Cortland and his Master's Degree from SUNY New Paltz. He has been a teacher for thirty one years. He lives in the Hudson Valley, is married and has two grown sons.
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  _﻿The dark-haired woman lay on the grass..._
  
  
  
  
  
  in front of the tumbledown outdoor fireplace, her face upturned to the
  darkening sky. What was left of her face, that is. She was no longer
  beautiful. Someone had done an insane, vicious job of destruction on that
  pampered body, destroying it in a frenzy of outrageous hate.
  
  
  
  
  
  The police said the murders were part of a coolly calculated plot to get rid
  of some of the Merritt heirs so the ones who were left would have more of the
  family money. But the murders—those brutal, bloody mutilations—looked as if
  they had been done by a madman with a lust to destroy as well as kill.
  
  
  
  
  
  And while the police worked desperately to make their theory fit the facts,
  the Merritts waited in cold terror ... wondering who would be next.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # ﻿1
  
  
  
  
  
  THE WASPS were quiet, now that darkness had come. Most of the heat of the day
  still lingered, a sultry weight in the air. A field mouse, grown bold by Ellie
  Pruett’s lack of movement, came