In the shadow of the Thomas B. Shave Jr. Bridge in Nassau County, Florida, a stone’s throw away from the busiest highway in the county, lies Crane Island.
It's formerly known as Craney Island and better known as Miss Sarah Alice’s Island.
It sits in the middle of the Amelia River, a few hundred feet from Amelia Island.
Sarah Alice called the island home until her mysterious disappearance 65 years ago.
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Today, developers are planning to build luxury-housing on the property that remains as mysterious as Sarah Alice - the island’s longest-known inhabitant.
The legend of Sarah Alice has captivated Nassau County for years. Most locals have their own versions.
“People would use her as the boogeyman,” said Albert Richards, Sarah Alice’s great-nephew.
“Miss Alice was ... a nice person, but a lot of people called her a witch.” long-time Fernandina Beach resident Nick Deonas said.
While that might be an exaggeration, all great legends start with the truth, right?
The Crane Island Witch
Sarah Alice lived on Crane Island alone – no gas or electricity. She was rarely photographed. Once or twice a month, she would walk 10 miles through a marsh to go into the town of Fernandina Beach (Centre Street).
The other popular story: Don’t venture onto her property without her permission.
Ask her relatives.
“Me and my brother Frank was out there in the river one day in an outboard motor. We had to fuel it up so we pulled in there. I am standing on the bank while Frank puts gas in the tank. All of a
sudden, bullets started flying, bark started flying and I started flying. I got off that land. We fueled up the boat in the river,” Richards said.
Despite tough family love and locals calling her a “witch,” Richards says his aunt was a sweet lady.
That makes her disappearance from Crane Island even more of a mystery.
“There was all kinds of stories that went around, you know?” Richards said.
What happened to the Alice
An ordinary missing person case yields more clues than the mysterious disappearance of Sarah Alice almost 65 years ago.
Some people think she died when her house caught fire. Others believe someone else may have been responsible for her demise. One person thinks she just up and left.
According to a May 2017 Fernandina Beach News-Leader article:
“On the evening of Nov. 7, 1952, as [former] Nassau County Sheriff H.J. Youngblood was crossing Kingsley Creek on a temporary ferry set up after the road bridge was damaged, he noticed a glowing reflection in the sky above Crane Island. Upon investigation the next day, Youngblood and other visitors found that the large, two-story home of Sarah Alice Broadbent had burned to the ground.”
There were no eyewitnesses, no fingerprints and no physical evidence that could tie a person to the crime, but it is unclear how much the case was investigated by authorities at the time. The Nassau County Sheriff’s Office says they couldn’t find any records from the fire or disappearance.
“Miss Alice’s sister, Esther Broadbent Silva, told authorities at the time that she believed her sister died in the fire, but her remains were never located. “(Esther Broadbent Silva) hasn’t approached officers officially about the matter and seems intent on leaving it as it stands,” according to the News-Leader.
A big mystery then and a big mystery now.
“I think she was murdered,” Deonas said. “I don’t think she was buried [on the island].”
“The people came by boat obviously,” local historian Sam Boyd said. “They would have taken her on the boat and dumped her.”
“Who would benefit from Sarah Alice dying in a fire? There were rumors that she had money or that she had gold coins. Somebody that believed that rumor might have gone to confront her to take her money, Fernandina Beach News-Leader Editor Peg Davis said. “She could have accidentally set the house on fire, but if she did, where is her body?”
“Bodies don’t burn,” said Kristie Calhoun, a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and certified fire investigator. “They are not very combustible. It takes so much heat.”
She says the most common-sense answer is a body would exist because even after the worst house fire, remnants remain due to the fire not getting hot enough. Still, Sarah Alice’s great-nephew has a different theory.
“She had no gas or electricity. I think she had a candle that fell over,” Richards said, speculating the house burned to the ground and took Sarah Alice’s body with it.
His theory contradicts another popular theory on the island. A theory that he brought up with First Coast News without being asked and one he says isn’t true.
“We used to have a pretty rough name around here and they tried saying some of us boys went out there and knocked her in the head and took her money,” Richards said. “She ain’t got no money. The only thing she had was a remittance from England. That’s they only thing she had.”
Richards, now in his 80's, doesn’t believe they will ever find her body or learn what happened to her. He says even if they did and if someone was responsible for her disappearance, the possible suspect is likely long gone.
Richards does believe long-lost bodies (potentially distant relatives or maybe island intruders) will eventually be found somewhere on the island.
Now, as the mystery remains unsolved, the Nassau County Sheriff’s Office recently reviewed the case, but didn’t officially reopen it. Crime scene techs and a detective searched the island but didn’t find any evidence.
Understanding what happened to Sarah Alice may never be known, but some clues may lie in the past.
The History
One-hundred and thirty-one years ago, Crane Island wasn’t anything special.
The island’s 185 acres were home to scenic views, sand gnats and the Broadbents.
Not much is known about the island’s history while the Broadbents lived there (originally known as Craney Island). Even less is known about the time before John W. Broadbent and his daughters, Sarah Alice and Esther Ann Silva, called Crane Island home. Broadbent bought the island for $1,000, according to a local historian, after arriving from England.
“Obviously, [Broadbent] wanted to be away from everything. Fernandina was by mid-eighteen hundred standards, a busy a little town,” Boyd said.
Broadbent built a house on the island and worked as a blacksmith, according to Boyd. “We know he lived there with Sarah Alice. His wife must have died young because his wife isn’t listed on a 1900 census. The sister Esther Ann had already gotten married and moved to the [Fernandina Beach].”
The 1900 census says Sarah Alice was 16 years old and Silva was married by 1900, according to the Fernandina Beach News-Leader, but the census in those days was not always accurate. According to Fernandina death and burial records from 1896-1916, on March 29th, 1898, a five-day-old boy died on Crane Island. The records list the baby as “Silva, Infant.”
“There is a graveyard over there and that is where they will find the bodies. There are no markings that I know of,” Richards said.
Before making a will, Broadbent died on January 28th, 1924. After his death, Sarah Alice and her sister, Silva, became heirs to the island-property.
“The west side of the island is on the Amelia River and now the Intercostal. The east side of the island is separated from an Amelia Island by marsh and it's only a hundred yards or so closer than I probably two hundred feet from the mainland,” Boyd said.
Sarah Alice lived in the house her father built until her disappearance and the house mysteriously burned down in 1952.
The property remained in the family until 1973, when Silva’s son, Joseph, and daughter-in-law sold the island-property for $50,000, according to Richards. The current developers of Crane Island purchased the island in 2014 for about $10 million, according to the developers.
“Everybody says what would Sarah Alice do with the island? I’ll tell you what Sarah Alice would do. She wouldn’t let anyone that island,” Richards said.
History of Crane Island
Reaching Crane Island is not nearly as difficult now as it would have been for Sarah Alice some 65-plus years ago. (Editor's Note: The development team behind Crane Island built a small bridge that allows easy access to and from the island.)
The island, located near the Amelia Island airport, sat dormant for years after Sarah Alice mysteriously disappeared. And then Jack B. Healan Jr. and Saad Wallan got involved.
“The island has no development rights. It went through decades of the litigation process. It took a long while.” Crane Island development Vice President of Sales & Marketing John Hillman said. “It would be a travesty if anyone just came in here and cut down everything.”
Now, the island will be home to 113 luxury homes starting with just under a million-dollar price tag. A far cry from how Sarah Alice ever lived, but the developers say they don’t expect them to forget about the island’s history.
“The Broadbents were the first inhabiters [of this island] other than perhaps Native Americans so their family history we wanted to honor,” Hillman said. “The fact that she lived here for 30 years by herself and would come to town for provisions and then come back out here. This [development] is almost like a modern-day version of that.”
This development, Hillman says, will create luxury housing and keep what makes the island beautiful: the natural environment.
“This is a big part of the experience of living here,” Hillman said,
Here are some details provided by the development team behind Crane Island:
- Purchased property in 2014 for $9.9M for 185 Acres (marsh and upland)
- Crane Island entitled for 169 residences but are only planning to develop 113 Units.
- Crane Island has about 10M+ of active capital to create the first phase of 47 homesites with roads, utilities, etc and the rough grading and early development of the roads and utilities for Phase 2 (66 homesites).
- We are working with the County & City to finalize our plat and annexation into Fernandina Beach City. We are targeting a May Plat so that our builders can start construction on 5 model homes and our first 9 buyers can develop their individual homes.
- We have one mile of roads in today
- Our amenity – The River House has begun construction and will complete towards the end of this year.
Hillman says the developers want the history to be part of the legacy of the island.
“[The nature] is a big part of the experience of living here,” Hillman said.
Soon, new families will move on to Sarah Alice’s paradise island enjoying those scenic views and
sand gnats while her mystery still lingers.
If you have any story tips or want to contact the reporter, you can reach him at mahead@firstcoastnews.com