Thursday, September 14, 2023
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The tragedy of Bill and Mary
An Ohio State cold case, revisited
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COURTESY OF MARY AND BILL PODCAST
LEFT: Mary Petry high school graduation photo from Martha Petry. RIGHT: Bill Sproat college photo from Patricia Loeliger.
AMANI BAYO John R. Oller Special Projects Editor bayo.6@osu.edu
— first met through a mutual friend. the stressful reality of student life Their shared love and practice of and relishing in their memories French culture took care of the rest. abroad in France.
French students learn the phrase, “Joie de vivre,” early on, but two Ohio students weren’t truly introduced to the joy of life until they met each other.
Despite the 116 miles between Feb. 27 should have been like any them, their thoughts were always of other night. Except it was anything each other. Those who knew them but. saw the couple as young and in love. That night, someone crept from Because of this connection, it wasn’t the shadows and stole the lives of surprising when Petry grabbed a Sproat and Petry. The person who last-minute ride to Columbus on a bound, bludgeoned and stabbed the cold February Friday night to spend couple has remained unknown ever a quiet weekend with Sproat in his since. South Campus apartment, escaping
William “Bill” Sproat, a graduate student at Ohio State, and Mary Petry, a third-year at the College of Mount St. Joseph in Cincinnati — both introverted, devout Catholics
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That night was 53 years ago. The story of Bill and Mary, now one of Ohio State’s oldest cold cases, has faded in and out of the public eye and swept across the desks of many homicide detectives throughout the decades to no avail.
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