A woman is murdered \u0026 found in the Brandywine River Susan M. Ledyard, a 50-year-old White female from Wilmington, Delaware, was found dead on the morning of July 23, 2019, in the Brandywine River near Northeast Boulevard in Wilmington. She was a high school English/language arts teacher at Academy Park High School in Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania, and was remembered by family, friends, and students as a warm, lively educator whose death first appeared to those close to her like it might have been a tragic accident.
That changed as investigators and forensic officials examined the circumstances more closely.
Police said Susan's body was recovered from the river at about 7:39 a.m. She had visible injuries, and a post-mortem examination determined that she died from blunt force trauma and drowning. Her death was ruled a homicide. At the time she was found, she was described as 5 feet 4 inches tall, about 130 pounds, with shoulder-length brown hair, and wearing a purple tank top.
The hours before Susan was found remain the heart of the mystery. Investigators later built a partial timeline from surveillance video, cell phone records, and Fitbit data. Susan had been active on her phone through the night, texting and calling friends until about 2:45 a.m. Around 3:02 a.m., her black 2016 Honda Civic was captured leaving her driveway. About two minutes later, the car was parked on Walkers Mill Road near the Rising Sun Lane Bridge over the Brandywine River, roughly three miles upstream from where her body was later recovered.
Detectives have said they believe the car was driven directly from Susan's home to the location where it was found, based on the short amount of time that passed. But they have also said they do not believe she entered the river where the vehicle was parked, given the timeline and the course of the water. Her Fitbit showed that she was alive until approximately 7:00 a.m., leaving an unexplained window between about 3:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. Investigators have not publicly determined why she left her home that morning or where she was during those missing hours.
Susan's vehicle was found unoccupied later that same morning, at about 8:54 a.m., near the Rising Sun Lane Bridge area. The location of the car, the place where her body surfaced, and the evidence that she remained alive for several hours after the car left her driveway created a troubling picture for detectives: Susan had somehow vanished after leaving home, remained alive for hours, and then ended up assaulted and dead in the Brandywine River.
Her family publicly pushed for answers after her death was classified as a homicide. Her sister, Meg Morrissey-Heinicke, said the family believed someone was responsible, and relatives continued to appeal for anyone with information to come forward. The Morrissey family, including Susan's parents and siblings, has continued supporting the investigation. A $50,000 reward has been offered for information leading to an arrest.
No one has been arrested or charged in Susan Ledyard's homicide, and Delaware State Police have continued to describe the case as open and active. Authorities have not publicly named a suspect in her killing. Detectives have asked for information about Susan's activities in the hours before her death, especially anything that could explain why she left her residence and what happened to her between 3:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m.
A later development drew public attention to Susan's former husband, Benjamin Ledyard, but authorities have not publicly connected him to Susan's murder. In January 2023, he was arrested in a separate domestic violence case involving his then-current wife. Reports said he faced charges including assault, terroristic threatening, and menacing, with allegations that he attacked his wife and, in another incident, bit off the tip of her finger. Delaware State Police stated that the case involving his later wife was separate from the investigation into Susan's death and had no bearing on the homicide investigation at that time. He was later sentenced to prison in connection with that domestic violence case, but not for Susan's killing.
Susan's case remains unsolved. The official picture that has emerged is of a teacher who left home in the dark early morning hours for reasons still unknown, whose car appeared near the Brandywine within minutes, and whose body was found hours later downstream with injuries that showed she had been violently attacked. Despite years of investigation, public appeals, outside assistance, and a reward, the person or people responsible for her death have not been publicly identified.
