Suffolk investigators make arrest in 2003 killing of 88-year-old Edna T. Schubert, of Bay Shore, DA's office says
Suffolk authorities have made an arrest in the 2003 beating death of an 88-year-old Bay Shore woman whose killing shocked neighbors and initially left investigators with no suspects, the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office said.
Edna T. Schubert was a retired widow who lived alone in a one-story house on Frederick Avenue, where she was an active member of a neighborhood watch group, Newsday reported at the time. Schubert's "severely beaten" body was found in her bedroom by neighbors who noticed her front door was open while checking on her well-being, police and neighbors said in the days following her Dec. 12, 2003, killing.
A break in the case came last year, when a retired detective who had an active interest in the case brought information to Suffolk homicide investigators, who identified a suspect living in another state through a reexamination of forensic evidence from the crime scene, a law enforcement source told Newsday.
Raul Ayala is charged in the killing, a source told Newsday. He was arrested in Georgia, where he lives, and is scheduled to be arraigned on a murder charge before acting Supreme Court Justice Richard Horowitz at 2 p.m., sources said.
WHAT NEWSDAY FOUND
- Authorities have made an arrest in the 2003 beating death of an 88-year-old Bay Shore woman whose killing shocked neighbors and initially left investigators with no suspects, the Suffolk district attorney said.
- Edna T. Schubert was a retired widow who lived alone in a one-story house on Frederick Avenue, where she was an active member of a neighborhood watch group, Newsday reported at the time.
- Police have not yet named the person charged in the killing, but the Suffolk district attorney's office, which formally launched a new Cold Case Unit last year, has announced a news conference following the defendant's 2 p.m. arraignment in Riverhead Friday.
The Suffolk County District Attorney's Office, which formally launched a new Cold Case Unit last year, has announced a news conference following the defendant's 2 p.m. arraignment in Riverhead Friday.
Suffolk District Attorney Ray Tierney declined to comment until after the indictment is unsealed Friday. The advisory from his office noted "forensic technology and determined detective work" led to the arrest.
Schubert, a widow to her husband, Charles, for several years at the time of her death, was referred to by neighbors as the "grandma of Frederick Avenue" and a fixture in the close-knit neighborhood, Newsday reported in the Dec. 14, 2003, issue. Born in July 1915, she had lived in the one-story green house since at least 1958, her voter registration records showed at the time.
A retired supervisor at the Department of Motor Vehicles office in Bay Shore, Schubert was also a member of the Islip Town Republican Club, according to her Newsday obituary.
Neighbors at the time said she was known to feed stray cats in her yard, where she also tended to flowers and fruit trees. Having no children of her own, she handed out candies to neighborhood kids who rode their bikes in her driveway, Newsday reported.
Despite having osteoporosis and being hard of hearing, neighbors said Schubert maintained an active lifestyle, walking around her neighborhood and driving herself to McDonald's for her favorite meal of a cheeseburger and fries.
Her body was discovered by a neighbor who had brought her dinner the prior evening, Newsday reported at the time.
Police said the day after her body was found that Schubert was so badly beaten it wasn't initially clear if a weapon was used. There were no suspects in the case, police said.
The home on Frederick Ave. in North Bay Shore where Edna Schubert was found dead Dec, 13, 2003. Credit: Howard Schnapp
Mary Reid, 87, another neighbor on Frederick Avenue, said she felt mixed emotions learning about the arrest in the case. She was pleased that someone would be brought to justice, she said, and also troubled by how long it took to catch the alleged killer.
Reid estimated she's one of only a handful of people on the block who still remembers Schubert, whose home was razed after her death and replaced by two larger homes on the property. She recognized that she's roughly the same age now that Schubert was then.
"This is a quiet neighborhood, and that's what bothered me," Reid said, saying she was frightened over the killing. "It's still a quiet neighborhood, though the people that were here when she was here have died and moved on."
A cold case task force consisting of Suffolk police and prosecutors working with state and federal law enforcement is reviewing more than 300 violent cold cases dating back to 1965, Tierney has said.
This is the first cold case arrest made since the unit was formalized last April and the first decades-old murder charges in Suffolk County since Rex A. Heuermann, of Massapequa Park, was accused in the Gilgo Beach serial killings case in July 2023.
Grant Parpan covers Suffolk County courts and federal courts for Newsday. A Long Island native, he joined Newsday in 2022.
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