It's been quite some time since I posted anything to this thread. I've been spending most of my free time researching Alice Parsons, including her family and her husband's family. I've also communicated with two of Alice's nieces and one of her nephews. My research is about 90% complete at this point.
I now believe without any doubt that Anna Kuprianova, Alice's Russian housekeeper, and Alice's husband, William H. Parsons, Jr., conspired to kill and dispose of Alice. I still don't know for sure if it was done strictly for love (William and Anna later married) or money (Alice had just received money from her uncle's estate just two weeks before her disappearance) - most likely a combination of the two motives.
William Parsons came from an extremely wealthy and influential family. His father owned W.H Parsons & Co., a paper manufacturing company. His uncle, Herbert, was a close friend and confidant of Theodore Roosevelt. The family socialized with the Vanderbilts, Rockefellers, and other "movers and shakers" of the day.
Alice McDonell Parsons spent most of her childhood and early adulthood living with her wealthy maternal uncle, Timothy Shaler Williams. That uncle also paid for her brothers, Howard and Frank, to attend and graduate from Cornell University. She traveled to Europe and the Bahamas prior to her marriage.
By all accounts Alice and William, who married in 1926 when Alice was 25 years old, had a good marriage. They had no children, and enjoyed living on their estate (Long Meadows) in Long Island as opposed to life in New York. When Anna came to live with them in 1931, she brought along her young son Roy. Apparently they all lived as one big, happy family. Anna and her son changed their last names to "Parsons" when Anna became a naturalized citizen in 1936. She claimed this was at Alice's request, but I have my doubts about this. I believe that by this time, the plan to do away with Alice had already been formulated.
Also in 1936, Alice spent several days in California attending her brother Howard's wedding. Her husband and the housekeeper remained behind in New York, and some family members believe this may have been when the final plans for getting rid of Alice were hatched.
Alice could have been killed the day they claimed she disappeared, or even a day or two earlier. Only William and Anna claim Alice was alive and well that morning. William claims Alice drove him to the train station so that he could travel to NYC for a meeting arranged by, who else, Anna the housekeeper. Anna claims Alice returned from the station, worked in the yard a while, then changed clothes and accompanied a "mystery couple" in their car to look at some real estate in which she owned a partial interest.
The fact that a very thorough search was conducted of the surrounding area, without any trace of Alice being found, leads me to believe Alice was killed and disposed of prior to her alleged "disappearance". I believe Alice may have been killed in the basement of Long Meadows. It was the normal practice for the trash collectors to go down into the basement to collect the refuse, but on the day of Alice's disappearance, the trash was placed out in front of the house, and they were told they would not be allowed into the basement.
I also believe choloroform was involved in subduing Alice. William purchased some chloroform a day or two before Alice "disappeared", and the bottle disappeared shortly after the police arrived at the estate.
One area of research still incomplete is tracking down what happened to Anna Kuprianova after William Parsons died in 1969 in California. Also, I do not know what became of her son, Roy Cooper Parsons. He was in the Navy in 1944, and I have no inkling of where he went from there.
I am hopeful my book on this case will be ready for publication soon, and as I learn more info, I'll post it here.