The bloody watch in the yard that didn't fit the intruder story

The watch was in the grass of the Sheppard yard, its face crusted with blood.

It belonged to Sam Sheppard, the husband of the woman found bludgeoned upstairs.

Bay Village police found it on July 4, 1954.

They found it after the crime scene had already been walked through by family and neighbors.

Evidence had been moved. Evidence had been contaminated. The record says so plainly.

Police claimed the watch was proof of Sam Sheppard's guilt.

The defense argued it had been planted, or dropped during a struggle with the intruder Sheppard said he fought.

Both claims are interpretations.

Neither is an established fact.

Whether the watch was planted, dropped during a struggle, or placed by the killer — the record does not establish any of it.

That is the pull of the object.

One small thing, found in the wrong place, that seems to tell a story.

The story it tells depends on who is holding it.

To police, it was a confession in metal and blood.

To the defense, it was a mistake, a piece of staging that did not fit.

To the record, it is a question that was never answered.

Sheppard had told police he was asleep on a downstairs couch.

He said his wife's cries woke him.

He said he fought a "bushy-haired" intruder who knocked him unconscious.

The watch lay in the yard.

It did not fit the intruder story, or it did, depending on who was asking.

The crime scene was not secured.

The bedroom had been walked through. The evidence had been touched.

And the watch sat in the grass, waiting for someone to decide what it meant.

No one ever did.

THE INTRUDER STORY

He told police he had been asleep on a downstairs couch.

He said his wife's cries woke him.

He said he fought with a "bushy-haired" intruder who knocked him unconscious.

That was the account Sam Sheppard gave on July 4, 1954.

Upstairs, his pregnant wife, Marilyn, was found bludgeoned to death in the bedroom of the couple's lakeside home.

The couple's 7-year-old son was home at the time.

The "bushy-haired man" was never verified.

Police did not pursue leads about a possible prowler.

The description was never investigated seriously, according to the investigation record.

Bay Village police, led by Chief Robert Schottke, treated Sam Sheppard as the primary suspect almost immediately.

Almost immediately, despite the intruder claim.

The claim was a story. The suspicion was a fact.

Whether an intruder actually entered the home is not established.

The "bushy-haired man" description was never verified.

So the weight sat on one man's word against the police's direction.

And the gaps in the intruder lead were left open.

No one chased the man in the yard.

No one chased the man in the story.

The bedroom had been walked through.