Lyda Southard (aka Lyda Anna Mae Trueblood) was Idaho's first female Serial killer. She is one of the most infamous women in Idaho's history. Growing up she was one of the prettiest and most popular girls in school without suggestions that she would become a criminal.
It all began in 1921 when Lyda married Robert C. Dooley and moved into a farm in Twin Falls with Robert's brother Ed, and had a daughter named Lorraine. In 1915, Ed died mysteriously after taking out a life insurance policy which was paid to Robert & Lyda. Within a few more months both Robert and Lorraine (age 2) would also die. Lyda collected the insurance money on all the people in her family.
2 years later, Lyda married William McHaffie and moved to Montana. William died under similar mysterious circumstances. And a year after that, she married Harlan Lewis who died 2 months later collecting insurance money on both men. She, then, returned to Twin Falls.
Upon arriving back in Twin Falls, she got a job at a local cafe known as the City Cafe. and met a man named Ed Meyer. No one suspected anything out of the ordinary and she was a loved member of the community. A few months after her marriage to Ed, he fell ill and never recovered. Due to Ed being strong and healthy, many became suspicious. His body was exhumed to further investigate and led to the discovery of arsenic in his body.
Virgil Ormsby began tracing Lyda's past and exhumed the other 3 husbands' bodies. They all contained traces of arsenic poisoning.He encountered a druggist in Montana that recalled selling Lyda a large amount of flypaper which contains arsenic. Law enforcement began searching for Lyda who had fled the area when suspicions arose. She was eventually caught and arrested in Honolulu, Hawaii where she had married, yet another man. Lyda's trials gained national attention and she began geting called Lady Bluebeard and she was sentenced to 10 years to life in prision where she served at the Idaho State Penitentiary in Boise-which is available to be toured and is a historic building/grounds in its own right.
During her time in prison she met and befriended a fellow prisoner named David Minton. When Minton was released from prison, he helped Lyda escape and the two made their way to Denver, Colorado before splitting up. In Denver, Lyda married Harry Whitlock and continued to live there until she was recaptured by authorities a year later.
Lyda was paroled in 1941 and did get married again (for the 7th time), and he eventually disappeared years later, but that disappearance was never linked to Lyda. Lyda eventually died in 1958 of a heart attack in Salt Lake City. Her body was transported back to Twin Falls and she was buried here, in Sunset Memorial Park under the name Anna E. Shaw. Nearby are the graves of her daughter, McHaffie (2nd husband), Meyer (5th husband), and the man who stopped her, Virgil Ormsby.
When she died, the autopsy revealed she had no hair on her body likely the result of long-term exposure to arsenic.
In order to claim this virtual, find her grave under the name Anna E. Shaw and send me the answers to the following questions:
1. To the right of her grave (if facing it) is the grave of Kenneth Dietz who received a purple heart in what war?
2. To the left of her grave is a couple whose last name is Sweet. What is the wife's first name and what year did she pass away?
Virtual Rewards 3.0 - 2022-2023
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between March 1, 2022 and March 1, 2023. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 3.0 on the Geocaching Blog.