By Patrick Anderson
More than 33 years after Eleanor Wadsworth was murdered inside Pike's Funeral Home on Middle Street, police believe they have arrested her killers.
Fifty-two-year-old Norman Pike, grandson of the funeral house's former owner, was arrested on Monday in San Francisco, where police say he has been living under an alias since fleeing Gloucester days after the 1976 murder, authorities said yesterday.
Meanwhile, Gloucester police yesterday arrested 54-year-old Kevin Ireland of 9 Oak St. in connection with Wadsworth's killing, which was believed to have been committed during a robbery of the funeral home that netted $1,500 the morning of Dec. 2, 1976.
Both men are charged with murder. Investigators said yesterday that there was also a third suspect in the case, but that person is now dead.
The arrests cap a year-long investigation started by Gloucester police Chief Michael Lane of a cold case that had stymied detectives for a generation.
After becoming chief last May, Lane turned the case over to Detective Steve Mizzoni, who, along with state Trooper Joshua Ulrich, resumed interviewing residents and witnesses whose names were in the old investigation reports.
Lane said yesterday he was inspired to re-open the case after leafing though old files and realizing that many of the names involved were still in the neighborhood.
"Some people had this on their conscience for many years," Lane said. "When approached again, I guess they had a change of heart."
The murder occurred on a Thursday morning, when three men entered the funeral home after the owner and another employee had left for a funeral. The three men, seen only at a distance by witnesses, made their way to a third-floor office where $1,500 had been left in a safe.
Known as "Elee," Wadsworth, 65, was the secretary at the funeral home and at times lived at the Middle Street house.
Most theories of the crime suggested she either walked in on the three men during the break-in or was forced to open the safe, according to police reports at the time.
Wadsworth was found by Harold Pike, the funeral home's owner, lying on the floor beaten and shot several times in the head.
The fact that the killers had known where the safe was and that there was cash in it while nothing else in the building was disturbed led police to suspect that the killers included someone who knew the business. Despite that, there were never any arrests in the case or chief suspects announced.
Dennis Daulton, the employee who had been working with Harold Pike at the funeral home the day of the murder, yesterday welcomed news of the arrests.
"This is a tremendous relief for me," Daulton said when reached by phone yesterday. "I wish Harold Pike had lived to see this. It has been a horrific thing for many years, and to have it solved is incredible for the community."
A year ago, Daulton, who had passed a lie detector test during the initial 1976 investigation, published a story in an embalming trade magazine detailing the crime under the title, "Who Killed Elee?"
"She was an extremely kind person," said Daulton, who in his account of the crime describes the anguish of workers at the funeral home who embalmed Wadsworth after the murder.
Authorities yesterday did not say who they believe was the shooter in the murder, and did not identify the deceased suspect.
According to a release from the Essex County District Attorney's office, Norman Pike was living in California under the alias Dan Franklin when investigators obtained a warrant for his arrest.
Pike, who is being held without bail, is fighting extradition to Massachusetts.
Ireland was taken into custody yesterday afternoon at the Gloucester Police Station after being interviewed and is being held there pending his arraignment Monday morning in Gloucester District Court.
Police were called last night to keep people away from the funeral home's property.
Patrick Anderson can be reached at 978-283-7000, x3455, or at panderson@gloucestertimes.com.
