On the evening of May 26, 1951, 24-year-old white female Shirley Mae Coolen was last seen leaving her shift at the Bowdoin Hotel restaurant in Brunswick, Maine. She had arranged to meet her ex-husband, Guy Coolen, near the Pastime Theater on Park Row, hoping for a reconciliation. When she failed to return home, her family was not immediately alarmed, as Shirley, a single mother of a five-year-old daughter, often kept her own schedule.
Three days later, on May 29, a housekeeper discovered Shirley's body in a tulip bed on Park Row. She had been strangled with a red scarf tied tightly around her neck, and her purse was found beneath her body. The autopsy revealed evidence of sexual assault and superficial bruises on her face and eyelids. Notably, some blood on her clothing did not match her own. The crime scene had been compromised by recent rain, which washed away potential forensic evidence.
Investigators initially focused on Shirley's ex-husband, Guy Coolen. He admitted to receiving a letter from Shirley requesting the meeting but claimed he did not see her that night. Guy provided an alibi, passed a lie detector test, and submitted his clothing for forensic analysis, which further cleared him as a suspect. However, during the investigation, Guy was arrested on an unrelated charge of raping a 14-year-old girl in Massachusetts. Despite this, there was no evidence linking him to Shirley's murder.
Another suspect was 21-year-old Charles E. Terry, a white male and former U.S. Marine from Winslow, Maine. At the time of Shirley's murder, Terry was under investigation for assaulting two women in Augusta and Chelsea. He was interrogated for over three hours and provided a detailed alibi, claiming he attended a movie and went bowling on the night of May 26, his birthday. His alibi was corroborated, and he was eliminated as a suspect in Shirley's case. Terry was later convicted of rape in 1951 and served time in Maine State Prison.
In 1963, Charles Terry was arrested in New York City for the brutal murder of 62-year-old Zenovia Clegg. During his confession, Terry alluded to other murders, including one in Brunswick, Maine. This led investigators to revisit Shirley Coolen's case, considering the similarities in modus operandi. However, no new evidence emerged to conclusively link Terry to Shirley's murder. Terry died in Attica Correctional Facility in 1981.
To this day, the murder of 24-year-old white female Shirley Mae Coolen remains unsolved. Despite initial suspects and later confessions, no one has been charged in connection with her death. The case continues to be a haunting mystery in Maine's criminal history.
