A decades-old murder mystery surrounding the founder of the Marshall Foundation may never be completely solved, a UA science journal editor said Friday.

Jim Turner, an associate editor of technical journal articles for the chemistry department, lectured about the "Tucson Murder Mystery," and posed the question about whether Marshall Foundation founder Louise Foucar Marshall, who was also the first female professor at the University of Arizona, murdered her husband, Tom Marshall, in 1931.

Louise Foucar Marshall was charged with assault with intent to murder for shooting her husband five times on April 27, 1931, right after midnight, Turner said.

After a controversial trial that included accusations of a possible affair between Tom Marshall and their housekeeper, a question of Louise Foucar Marshall's mental health, her poisoning and a debate over whether Marshall was actually killed by the bullet, she was found not guilty.

"Personally, I don't know whether she did it," Turner said. "From the evidence, he probably had an affair, but I am not sure about the defense claim that she was poisoned or that she was mentally unstable. Both sides make a good case," he said.

At the age of 30, Tom Marshall met Louise Foucar, then 36, when he took plane geometry and Foucar was his professor. Tom worked for her managing rental properties in 1903, and the two got married in 1904.

Louise Foucar Marshall was also the head of the ancient and modern languages department from 1901 to 1902.