The Real Twin Peaks, The Murder of Hazel Drew | USA
It was around 8 o'clock on the sweltering evening of July 7th, 1908, when William and Elizabeth Hoffay were making their way up Taborton Road in their horse-drawn carriage. The heavily wooded mountain road was quiet, deserted even, which made what they saw next all the more strange. There, near Teal's Pond, was a fancy carriage with two men inside. The men were acting oddly, one of them appeared to be searching the bushes near the water's edge. When the driver spotted the Hoffay's approaching, he quickly turned the carriage around and headed back down the mountain.
The couple thought it peculiar but continued on their way. They had no idea that somewhere in those dark woods, a young woman lay dying. By the time they told their story to police a week later, it would be too late.
Four days after that strange encounter, two boys on a camping trip made a grim discovery. Floating face-down in Teal's Pond was the body of 20-year-old Hazel Drew.
The investigation that followed would captivate the nation and reveal a web of secrets, lies and political corruption in upstate New York. More than a century later, the murder of Hazel Drew would inspire one of television's most iconic series. But unlike the fictional story of Twin Peaks, this mystery would take 113 years to solve.
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Troy, New York, in 1908 was a city of contradictions. Located at the eastern terminus of the Erie Canal, it was a booming industrial center with a population of 75,000. The wealthy lived in grand mansions along tree-lined streets, while factory workers toiled in the textile mills and iron foundries that made Troy prosperous.
But behind the shimmer of prosperity lurked something darker. Troy was notorious for political corruption, with the Republican Party machine controlling nearly every aspect of city life. Police were more enforcers than investigators. Justice could be bought and sold. And for working-class women trying to make their way in the world, the rules were different than for men.
Hazel Irene Drew knew this world well. Born on June 3rd, 1888, in the rural hamlet of Poestenkill, she was one of seven children in a family that struggled to make ends meet. Her father, John Drew, was a farmhand who moved the family often in search of work.
From an early age, Hazel understood that her beauty and intelligence were her tickets out of poverty. She was described by those who knew her as strikingly pretty, with blonde hair, blue eyes, and a petite figure. More than that, she was smart, ambitious, and determined to escape the fate of most working-class women in rural New York.
At fourteen, Hazel left school to work as a domestic servant. Over the next six years, she worked for some of Troy's most prominent families. She was no ordinary housemaid. Hazel could read and write well, carried herself with poise, and had aspirations beyond scrubbing floors and minding children.
By 1908, Hazel had secured a position as a nanny and domestic servant for Professor Edward Cary of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and his wife. She lived in their comfortable home on Pawling Avenue in Troy, dined with the family, and was well-regarded by her employers. To all outward appearances, Hazel Drew was a respectable young woman leading a quiet, modest life.
But Hazel Drew had secrets.
In the spring of 1908, Hazel spent several months recovering from an undisclosed illness at her uncle William Taylor's farm in Sand Lake, not far from Teal's Pond. Some whispered she had been pregnant. Others suggested it was a nervous breakdown. The truth, like so much about Hazel's life, remained hidden.
After returning to the Cary household in late spring, Hazel seemed restless. She took weekend trips to New York City, Boston, and Providence. She received mysterious letters that would arrive and send her mood soaring or plummeting. She spoke of plans to travel, though she never said where or with whom.
Then, on the morning of July 6th, 1908, Hazel Drew abruptly quit her job. Mrs. Cary was surprised. Hazel had given no notice and offered no explanation beyond saying she needed to leave. She collected her wages of four dollars and fifty cents, arranged to have her trunk shipped to her parents' home in South Troy, but took a small suitcase with her.
That same day, a witness saw Hazel at Troy's Union Station. She appeared to be waiting for someone. She boarded a train to Albany, then returned to Troy a few hours later. Her suitcase was checked at the station and would remain there, unclaimed.
The next evening, July 7th, Hazel celebrated Independence Day with her aunt, Minnie Taylor, at Rensselaer Park. Afterward, they took a trolley to Schenectady to visit relatives, then returned to Troy. Hazel spent the afternoon at a friend's house in Watervliet, though accounts differ on whether she spent the night there or elsewhere.
What is certain is that by evening on July 7th, Hazel had made her way to the remote Taborton Mountain area near Sand Lake. It was scorching hot that day, with temperatures reaching well into the nineties. Yet Hazel was dressed as if for a special occasion: Victorian boots, white gloves, a black merry-weather hat, and a triple-layered black skirt. She wore a new white shirtwaist she had hastily commissioned just days before.
At 7:30 that evening, farmer Henry Rollman and his wife were driving their carriage down Taborton Road when they passed a pretty young woman picking wild raspberries along the roadside. Mrs. Rollman remarked to her husband that such a pretty girl shouldn't be alone on that lonely road at that hour. Her husband agreed but said the girl looked like she was enjoying herself.
Ten minutes later, two men saw the same woman further up the mountain. Frank Smith, a seventeen-year-old farmhand who was known to have feelings for Hazel, was walking along the road when charcoal peddler Rudolph Gundrum came by in his wagon. Frank asked for a ride, and as they continued up the mountain, they passed Hazel walking in the opposite direction. Frank, who knew Hazel from the area, waved to her. She raised her gloved hand in greeting. Frank recalled telling Rudolph:
"That's old man Drew's oldest daughter."
It was the last confirmed sighting of Hazel Drew alive.
Approximately thirty minutes later, William and Elizabeth Hoffay encountered the mysterious carriage near Teal's Pond with two men acting strangely. One was beating around in the bushes as if searching for something. The driver quickly turned the carriage around when he saw the Hoffays approaching.
The Hoffays also reported seeing a third person standing on the shore of the pond, though they couldn't identify who it was in the growing darkness.
What happened in those woods that night would remain a mystery for over a century.
Four days later, on the morning of July 11th, farmer Gilbert Miller noticed what he thought was an old meal sack floating in Teal's Pond. He didn't investigate further. Later that day, two boys from Averill Park, Edward Bruber and George White, were on a camping and fishing trip when they spotted the object in the water. They rowed out to investigate.
It wasn't a sack. It was a body.
The boys raced to alert farmer Miller, who immediately drove to Averill Park to notify Coroner M.H. Strope. Within hours, Rensselaer County District Attorney Jarvis P. O'Brien launched a full investigation.
The body was that of a young woman, floating face-down in the shallow pond. Her features were bloated and distorted after four days in the water, making visual identification nearly impossible. But her clothing was distinctive: the black skirt, the white shirtwaist, the Victorian boots. Twenty feet from the water's edge, investigators found a black hat and a pair of white gloves laid neatly on the bank.
The autopsy revealed the cause of death: repeated blunt force trauma to the back of the skull. Her skull had been crushed. She had not drowned; there was no water in her lungs. She was dead before she entered the pond. The coroner also noted that a corset string was wrapped tightly around her throat, though whether this contributed to her death was unclear.
On July 13th, Hazel's father, John Drew, was brought in to identify the body. He confirmed what investigators already suspected. The young woman in Teal's Pond was his daughter, Hazel Irene Drew.
The news exploded across the front pages of newspapers from New York to San Francisco, and even as far as Germany. Here was a mystery that had everything: a beautiful young victim, a brutal murder, and secrets waiting to be uncovered. The press descended on Troy and Sand Lake like locusts.
District Attorney O'Brien assembled a team to investigate, led by Detective William Powers and Detective Duncan Kaye. Both men were described in the newspapers as loyal soldiers in Troy's Republican Party machine.
As investigators began piecing together Hazel's final days, a troubling picture emerged. The seemingly innocent domestic servant had been leading a far more complicated life than anyone had imagined…
When investigators searched Hazel's belongings at her parents' home, they found a trunk filled with letters and postcards from various men. The correspondence was intimate, passionate, sometimes desperate. Men declared their love for her, their obsession with her. Some were signed only with initials. Others were more explicit.
Then a reporter from the New York World found something even more revealing: a hatbox filled with receipts and bills showing that Hazel had purchased "French female pills" — medications advertised to regulate menstrual cycles but commonly used to induce miscarriages.
The discovery scandalized the community. Hazel Drew, the respectable domestic servant, had apparently been involved with multiple men. She may have been pregnant. She had secrets that someone might have wanted to keep hidden.
The suspects began to pile up, each more intriguing than the last.
Frank Smith, the seventeen-year-old farmhand who had waved to Hazel on Taborton Road, was among the first to be questioned. Frank was known in the community as "simple-minded" or "dimwitted," and he made no secret of his infatuation with Hazel. Under intense interrogation by District Attorney O'Brien, Frank's story became increasingly confused and contradictory. Frank had an alibi, however. Multiple witnesses placed him in Averill Park around the time Hazel would have been killed. He was cleared.
Next came William Taylor, Hazel's uncle, who owned a farm less than a mile from Teal's Pond. Taylor's behavior aroused suspicion. He was present when Hazel's body was pulled from the water, yet he seemed oddly detached, almost indifferent to his niece's fate. Known in the community as melancholy and suicidal, Taylor had the means and opportunity. But there was no physical evidence linking him to the crime, and he too was cleared.
Investigators learned that Hazel had been visiting someone at a camp near Teal's Pond. Rumors swirled about wild parties, orgies, and women being held against their will at a resort owned by Albany millionaire Henry Kramroth. Witnesses claimed they heard screams coming from the establishment around the time of Hazel's death. But Kramroth was wealthy and connected. The investigation into him went nowhere.
There was a dentist who had proposed to Hazel, a train conductor she may have been secretly meeting, a professor she may have known too well. Each lead seemed promising, but each ultimately led to a dead-end.
Meanwhile, Hazel's aunt Minnie Taylor, who was known to be Hazel's closest confidante, remained strangely quiet. She clearly knew more about her niece's activities than she was willing to share, but she refused to cooperate fully with investigators.
At the time of Hazel Drew’s murder, Troy was controlled by a powerful and entrenched Republican political machine. Local government, law enforcement, and the press were all deeply intertwined with party loyalty. Political bosses and ward leaders held immense influence, doling out jobs and favors through patronage networks in exchange for votes and silence. Investigations could be steered, records suppressed, and undesirable scandals quietly buried. In this system, appearance and loyalty were everything. If Hazel had been involved with — or possessed knowledge about — a powerful figure’s private indiscretions, her silence might have been seen as too risky to leave to chance. In a political culture that valued secrecy and self-preservation over justice, protecting the machine came before protecting the innocent.
Then there was the testimony of the Hoffays, William and Elizabeth, who had seen the mysterious carriage near Teal's Pond on the night of the murder. Police took their statement but didn't investigate for a full week. When they finally followed up, they learned something extraordinary.
The driver of that carriage was Fred W. Schatzle, an embalmer who worked for the local undertaker. He was also a Republican Party politician. Schatzle had telephoned the livery stable on July 6th requesting a horse and carriage for a friend.
That friend was William Cushing, the Republican committeeman for the Eleventh Ward and another party insider. Both men admitted to police that they were in the Sand Lake area on the night of Hazel's murder. Both men admitted they knew Hazel Drew.
The Hoffays told detectives they could identify the men they saw that night. But they were never shown photographs of Schatzle or Cushing. They were never asked to make an identification. Despite the fact that both men had admitted being at the scene of the murder, despite the fact that both knew the victim, neither man was seriously investigated.
Only one newspaper reported on this lead: The Daily Press, Troy's only Democratic newspaper. In a city controlled by Republicans, the story went nowhere.
After less than a month of investigation, District Attorney O'Brien declared he knew who killed Hazel Drew. But he never made an arrest. On July 30th, 1908, the case was effectively closed.
The official verdict? The coroner suggested it might have been an accident. Perhaps, the theory went, Hazel had been struck by an automobile on the road between Troy and Averill Park. The driver, not wanting to face consequences, drove her body up the lonely mountain road and dumped it in the pond.
It was a theory that satisfied no one, least of all those who had examined Hazel's injuries. Repeated blows to the back of the head were not consistent with an automobile accident. The corset string around her throat suggested something more sinister. And why would her hat and gloves be neatly placed on the shore?
By early August, the newspapers had moved on. Hazel Drew became just another unsolved murder, forgotten by all but those who knew her.
Her family buried her in Brookside Cemetery in Barberville, not far from Teal's Pond. A tall obelisk marks her grave. For decades, locals would tell ghost stories about a beautiful young woman who haunted the woods around the pond, searching for her killer.
Among those who heard these stories was a young boy named Mark Frost. In the 1950s and 60s, Frost spent his summers with his grandmother, Betty Calhoun, whose home was near Sand Lake. Betty would regale her grandsons with local tales, including one about a murdered girl whose ghost haunted the woods. Frost later wrote:
"The inspiration sprang from a nightmarish little bedtime story my grandmother planted in my ear as a young boy."
She told him the ghost was searching for the man who killed her. The story terrified young Mark and stayed with him into adulthood.
Years later, when Frost teamed up with director David Lynch to create a new television series, that old ghost story became the foundation for one of TV's most iconic shows. Twin Peaks premiered in April 1990, opening with the discovery of homecoming queen Laura Palmer's body, wrapped in plastic on the shore of a lake in the Pacific Northwest.
Like Hazel Drew, Laura Palmer appeared to be an innocent young woman. Like Hazel, she was hiding secrets. Like Hazel, her death exposed the dark underbelly of a seemingly idyllic community. And like Hazel's murder, Laura Palmer's case involved powerful men with much to lose.
Twin Peaks became a cultural phenomenon, inspiring countless imitators and cementing itself as one of the most influential series in television history. But few viewers knew that the show's central mystery was inspired by a real unsolved murder.
For decades, the Hazel Drew case remained cold. The official investigation files were destroyed in a fire. All the witnesses, suspects, and investigators were long dead. It seemed the truth would remain buried forever.
But in 2013, something changed. At a Twin Peaks retrospective at the University of Southern California, Mark Frost publicly acknowledged for the first time that his inspiration for the show came from an unsolved murder in upstate New York. He initially misremembered the victim's name as "Hazel Grey," but the details were enough for researchers to identify the case.
Two writers and Twin Peaks fans, David Bushman and Mark Givens, became obsessed with the mystery. They spent five years conducting intensive research, combing through old newspaper archives, census records, and whatever documentation still existed.
What they uncovered was a portrait of a young woman trapped between two worlds. Hazel Drew had worked in the homes of Troy's most powerful men during a time of rampant corruption and scandal. She had access to secrets that could ruin reputations and destroy careers. She had aspirations beyond her station. And she may have gotten too close to the wrong people.
Bushman and Givens paid particular attention to the Hoffays' testimony about the mysterious carriage near Teal's Pond. They traced the timeline of events on July 7th and the early morning hours of July 8th. They examined why certain suspects were vigorously investigated while others, despite damning evidence, were quickly cleared.
The pattern that emerged was disturbing. Every suspect who was seriously investigated was poor, powerless, or both. Frank Smith, the "dimwitted" farmhand. William Taylor, the melancholy farmer. But the two men who admitted being at the scene, who knew the victim, who were identified by witnesses as acting suspiciously? They were both Republicans with political connections. They were protected.
After five years of research, Bushman and Givens reached their conclusion. In their book, "Murder at Teal's Pond: Hazel Drew and the Mystery That Inspired Twin Peaks," published in 2021, they wrote:
"After five years of intensive research and deliberation, we have concluded that Hazel Drew was murdered by William Cushing and Fred Schatzle, and protected from justice by William Powers and possibly his fellow detective Duncan Kaye."
Their theory is that Hazel had become romantically involved with, or perhaps had information about, one of the powerful Republican men she worked for. Perhaps former treasurer Thomas W. Hislop, who had stepped down after a scandal. Perhaps coal magnate John H. Tupper. Perhaps someone else entirely. When Hazel became a liability, Cushing and Schatzle were tasked with silencing her.
On the night of July 7th, the authors theorize, Cushing and Schatzle met Hazel near Teal's Pond under some pretext. Perhaps they promised her money to leave town. Perhaps they offered to help her with her "situation." Instead, they killed her, struck her repeatedly on the back of the head, and left her body in the shallow pond. When the Hoffays unexpectedly appeared, the killers panicked and fled.
The following week, when the Hoffays came forward with their story, Detective Powers and his colleagues in the district attorney's office had a choice to make. They could follow the evidence wherever it led, even if it led to prominent members of their own party. Or they could protect the machine.
They chose to protect the machine.
The Hoffays were never shown photographs. Cushing and Schatzle were never seriously investigated. The case was quickly closed with an absurd theory about an automobile accident that satisfied no one but allowed everyone to move on. Bushman and Givens wrote:
"All had ties to the Republican Party, and it seems easier to accept that O'Brien and certain of his detectives would have been motivated to cover up the activity of Cushing and Schatzle if they had been acting for someone with influence in Troy, especially someone in the party."
It's a conclusion that can never be proven beyond a doubt. Cushing, Schatzle, Powers, Kaye, O'Brien, and everyone else involved are long dead. There will be no trial, no confession, no justice in any legal sense.
But after 113 years, the authors believe they have finally solved the murder that inspired Twin Peaks.
Hazel Drew was not just a ghost story to frighten children. She was a real person. A young woman with dreams and ambitions who lived in a world that offered her limited choices. A woman who tried to navigate the treacherous waters of class and gender in Progressive Era America. A woman who got too close to powerful men and paid the ultimate price.
Today, Teal's Pond still sits quietly in the woods of Sand Lake. The mills that once powered Troy's economy are long gone. The Republican machine that once controlled the city has faded into history. But Hazel Drew's grave remains, her towering obelisk standing as a monument to a life cut short and a mystery that took more than a century to solve.
In solving the case that inspired Twin Peaks, Bushman and Givens hope that Hazel's spirit can finally rest in peace. No longer just a cautionary tale or a ghost story, but a real woman whose truth has finally been told.
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