It’s a story Erie News Now has covered for decades. Now, a new book tells the heartbreaking story of the shocking murder of 5-year-old Lila Ebright, who was killed by the teenage boy who lived across the street from her family.
More than three decades after Lila’s murder, her aunt is keeping the young girl’s memory alive through a newly released book that reflects on her life, the family’s loss, and the unanswered questions that remain.
Cathy Lingenfelter has written The Girl Across the Street, a deeply personal account inspired by the April 12, 1992 disappearance and murder of her niece.
“She was just somebody special,” Lingenfelter said. “She wasn’t just a docket number in the court system.”
Lingenfelter said writing the book was both an emotional and healing experience.
“When I talk about her, I always cry,” she said. “This is also my way of keeping her memory alive.”
Lila’s murder shocked the Erie community. Investigators determined that 17-year-old Scott Shroat, a trusted neighbor who lived across the street from the Ebright family, stabbed, and strangled the little girl. Her body was later found stuffed inside a banana box and discarded in a nearby dumpster.
Shroat is serving a life sentence for the murder. After changes to juvenile lifer sentencing laws, he was resentenced in 2022, the courts upholding the life behind bars sentence. Despite multiple court proceedings over the years, Lingenfelter says she has never received the answer she has sought since 1992.
“I wanted to know why — why he did what he did,” she said. “To this day, to this hour, he has never said why.”
At Lila’s gravesite, colorful pinwheels and the silhouette of a young girl serve as reminders of the childhood she never had. If she were alive today, Lila would be 40 years old.
“She could have had a family of her own,” Lingenfelter said. “I often wonder what her career in life would be.”
Lingenfelter hopes The Girl Across the Street ensures that people remember Lila for who she was—not simply for the crime that ended her life.
She says writing the book has helped ease some of the burden she has carried for decades.
“It did take away some of the grief for me,” Lingenfelter said. “But it will never take it all away.”
The Girl Across the Street was released in July 2026. The book can be purchased in paperback or hard cover through Barnes & Noble’s website or on Amazon.