Frances Schreuder: Who was she? how did she die
According to the Investigation Discovery documentary “A Crime to Remember: Mother’s Little Helper,” a manipulative daughter persuaded her son to kill her father in July 1978. Eventually, due to her excessive spending and need for money, Frances Schreuder used her son Marc to have her father, Franklin Bradshaw, murdered. It took authorities a while, but eventually they were able to prosecute Frances. So, here’s what we know if you’re curious about what happened to her after the trial.
Frances Schreuder: Who was she?
Franklin and Berenice Bradshaw’s fourth child, Frances Schreuder, was born in 1938. She attended Bryn Mawr in Pennsylvania after graduating high school, but she soon became a source of controversy for stealing from classmates and forging checks. After her deportation, Frances moved to New York City, where she eventually fell in love with pearl dealer Vittorio Gentile. After their divorce, their two sons, Lorenzo and Marco, whom they married in 1959, were given the names Larry and Marc.
Lavinia was the daughter of Frances from a previous union with Frederik Schreuder. She was divorced and unemployed at the time of the incident. According to the research, Franklin sent Frances $3,000 every month while she was living in New York City. It was time they fought over money and the level of support dropped. Before Franklin’s death, he had urged Frances to consider employment, even threatening to strike her out of the will if she didn’t.
The money problem seems to be what eventually broke Frances. She sent Larry and Marc to work with Franklin in the summer of 1977 and instructed them to add amphetamines to their grandfather’s food. In addition, there were intentions to have him killed by burning his workplace or hiding a toaster in his bathroom. However, none of these strategies were successful. Frances has so asked that the boys steal their grandfather. Franklin stopped sending Frances money after finding out.
Once Frances even hired a hitman to kill her father, but despite being paid by her, he never carried out it. Frances later used the money she received from her mother to pay for Marc’s travels in the days leading up to the murder. When Marc told Frances the night before the murder that he didn’t want to kill his grandfather, she was in despair. If you don’t, don’t come back home, Marc warned her.
In the past, Frances had persuaded Marc to go ahead with the plan by telling him, “Look Marc, it’s not really deadly. It’s the right move for us. He ended up killing Franklin and Frances got her share of the estate. The socialite lived her dream life for a few more years until she was arrested by the police in March 1982. According to the drama, Frances was arrested while preparing to jump from her window into a river.
Frances Schreuder’s cause of death
Marc’s testimony during Frances’ trial was crucial in her being found guilty. In 1983, Frances was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of first-degree murder. Before she was paroled in 1996, she had served 13 years in prison. Frances lost her mother, Berenice, that same year. However, her will stipulated that Frances would receive a lifetime income from the other half of the inheritance. In the end, she died on March 30, 2004 in a hospice in San Diego, California. She died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Frances was 65 years old at the time.