Georgia Man Nabbed for 2003 Murder of North Bay Shore Woman
By Hank Russell
After more than 20 years, officers have finally caught a suspect they believe was responsible for the murder of an elderly Bay Shore woman.
At a press conference held in Riverhead, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney announced that Raul Ayala, a former Long Islander who since relocated to Georgia, has been indicted for first-degree murder, and other related charges, for the brutal 2003 murder of 88-year-old Edna “Timmie” Schubert in her North Bay Shore home.
Tierney said the Suffolk County Police Department’s Homicide Section, Identification Section, the Suffolk County Crime Lab and his office put in a lot of hard work to catch Ayala. “This indictment demonstrates that justice has no expiration date,” he said. “Through the relentless dedication of our retired and active law enforcement officers, coupled with advances in forensic technology, we were able to charge this defendant for the brutal murder of Edna Schubert which has haunted Suffolk County for over two decades.”
Tierney described Schubert as “a beloved friend to many” and lamented the fact that her life was “tragically cut short in an act of senseless violence.”
On December 12, 2003, neighbors discovered Schubert’s body in her bedroom after noticing that one of her windows was shattered and that her front door was open. Schubert, a widow, had been viciously beaten to death.
During the initial investigation, detectives extensively documented the scene and preserved fingerprint and blood evidence throughout the home. Despite extensive investigative efforts by the Suffolk County Police Department, the case went cold.
The breakthrough came in 2023 when retired Suffolk County Police Department Detective Pasquale Albergo, who never stopped thinking about the case, contacted the Suffolk County Homicide Section with the hopes that advances in technology could help solve Shubert’s murder, which Albergo never forgot. Homicide Detective Brendan O’Hara took up the cold case investigation and collaborated with retired fingerprint expert Detective Timothy Kelly, who compared fingerprints from the crime scene to Ayala’s fingerprints and determined that they were a match. At the time of Shubert’s murder, Ayala allegedly lived less than 200 yards away from Schubert’s home.
Further investigation focused on previously untested blood evidence found at the crime scene. DNA analysis of stains on Shubert’s pantyhose and a white long-sleeved shirt revealed a mixture of Schubert’s DNA and that of an unknown individual.
An investigation into Ayala began and law enforcement learned that Ayala was still alive and living in Talmo, a small city located in northeast Georgia’s Jackson County. In August 2024, members of the Suffolk County Police Department traveled to Georgia to conduct surveillance on Ayala to collect discarded items from him for laboratory analysis to compare to DNA recovered on Shubert’s clothing. Law enforcement secured multiple items that Ayala was allegedly observed discarding, including multiple lottery scratch-off cards and plastic bottles.
Those items were brought back to New York and submitted to the Suffolk County Crime Laboratory for analysis. DNA from one of the bottles that Ayala allegedly discarded matched the unknown DNA found mixed with Shubert’s DNA from her clothing at the scene.
On January 16, 2025, Ayala, 51, was arrested in Talmo, Georgia, by members of the Suffolk County Police Department with assistance from local law enforcement in Georgia.
On February 7, 2025, Ayala was arraigned on the indictment before Acting Supreme Court Justice Richard I. Horowitz, for one count of first-degree murder, a Class A felony, and two counts of second-degree murder, both Class A felonies. Horowitz ordered Ayala held without bailduring the pendency of the case.
“Decades after Edna Shubert was senselessly murdered during a brutal attack in her own home, her perpetrator was finally identified and arrested, due to the unrelenting efforts of Homicide Squad detectives,” said Police Commissioner Kevin Catalina. “Let this case serve as evidence that no matter how much time passes, we will never stop working for victims. I want to thank the Homicide Squad, Identification Section, the Suffolk County Crime Lab and the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office for this collaborative effort.”
Ayala is due back in court on March 5, 2025, and faces up to life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted of the top count.