Crime & Safety

Aliza Sherman, Beachwood Nurse, Killed in Stabbing

Aliza Sherman, 53, worked at Cleveland Clinic and graduated from The Hebrew Academy

Aliza Sherman should have been sitting down to Seder with family and friends Monday night.

Instead, her body lies in the Cuyahoga County Coroner's Office while her loved ones mourn her violent death. 

The Beachwood nurse died in a stabbing Sunday night near Erieview 55 at E. 12th Street and Lakeside Avenue, where her divorce attorney's office is located.

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Beachwood Woman Slain in Stabbing

In her 9-1-1 call, which she made at 5:25 p.m., she tells a dispatcher that she was attacked and asks for help. The call lasts for less than 40 seconds, and then the line disconnects.

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At 5:26 p.m., a man called 9-1-1 and told a dispatcher that he found Sherman "covered in blood."

"Hurry, this is bad," the man said. "There's a lady who was just attacked and there's blood everywhere."

The man stayed at the scene and on the phone with the dispatcher until help arrived about six minutes later.

"She is getting worse by the second here," he said at one point during the call.

Listen to the 9-1-1 call

Police are still investigating the incident but are treating it as a homicide. 

Sherman, a 1977 graduate of  had four kids, according to her Facebook page, and was going through divorce proceedings in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, according to court records.

She worked as an invitro nurse at the Cleveland Clinic's Beachwood Family Health & Surgery Center. "She has touched many lives and will always be remembered for her warmth and kindness," the Clinic wrote in a statement Monday.

Rabbi Simcha Dessler, the educational director of the Hebrew Academy of Cleveland, called Sherman's death a particularly difficult tragedy:

"At a time when Jews across the globe gather with their loved ones to celebrate the Exodus, the inspirational journey from exile to redemption, this is a particularly difficult tragedy for her family, for our community and for the Jewish people."

The Cleveland Jewish News interviewed Sherman's former neighbor in Beachwood, Gilda Katz, who pointed out that the woman always knew everyone's favorite candy.

“She was the most caring and giving person anyone could ever meet. All of my children thought of her as a second mother," said Katz to the Cleveland Jewish News.

More from The Cleveland Jewish News

The Cleveland Division of Police is asking that anyone with information about this incident to contact the Homicide Unit at 216-623-5464. Anonymous information can be given to Crime Stoppers by calling 216-252-7463 or text messaging TIP657 plus your message to Crimes (274637).

Watch Beachwood Patch for updates on this story.


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