Molly Macauley was 59 years old when she was stabbed to death on Friday, July 8, 2016, in the 600 block of West University Parkway in Baltimore's Roland Park neighborhood. She was walking her two dogs, about a block from her home, when she was attacked. The Baltimore Police Department investigated, and the Baltimore Sun's homicide database lists her death as a homicide caused by stabbing.
Macauley was an economist, and a well known one.
She was vice president for research and a senior fellow at Resources for the Future, a Washington think tank focused on the economics of natural resources, where she had worked since 1983. She earned a doctorate in economics at Johns Hopkins University and was a visiting professor there for many years. Women in Aerospace called her "one of the few economists specializing in satellites and the space program generally," and noted that she had testified before Congress many times. Her obituary described her as the "beloved wife of the late William Jeffrey Sheppard."
According to WBAL-TV, she had just come home from watching her beloved Orioles and set out on the walk she took almost every night. Police were called around 11 p.m., and a resident found her with a stab wound. She was taken to a hospital, where she died. WBAL reported that "the killer seems to have appeared out of nowhere and stabbed her several times," that police found no weapon, and that it did not appear to be a robbery. She was found "still holding on to the dogs."
A neighbor, Hal Ley Hayek, said in a video posted by The Baltimore Sun that she "just had a new rescue dog, that's who she was walking," and added, "I'm so glad that someone heard her so she didn't die alone." Her friend and co-worker of 25 years, Karen Palmer, told WBAL more than a year later: "You know she knew her neighborhood. She was a careful person. She was a street-savvy person, so how did this happen?" The lead detective, Sean Dallessandro, said: "We're always looking for that witness, somebody to call, somebody to give us that one tip. This one's rather puzzling." Friends later planted cherry trees in her memory, and Resources for the Future asked that donations in her honor go to BARCS and the Maryland SPCA.
Roland Park is one of Baltimore's oldest planned neighborhoods, a leafy area of large homes in North Baltimore not far from the Johns Hopkins Homewood campus. University Parkway is a relatively quiet, tree-lined road there, and the attack shocked residents who walked the same streets every evening.
After the unrest of 2015, Baltimore recorded more than 300 homicides a year for eight straight years, and the share of killings that ended in an arrest fell sharply.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Molly Macauley could be found in news archives or public records. Fox45 reported in July 2017 that a $10,000 reward had been offered in the case. More than ten years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was on or near West University Parkway late on the night of July 8, 2016, or who heard someone talk about the attack afterward, may know something that matters. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a vehicle seen nearby or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can call Baltimore Police homicide detectives at 410-396-2100, or leave an anonymous tip with Metro Crime Stoppers of Maryland at 1-866-7LOCKUP (1-866-756-2587).
