There are at least three sets of indexes that I have seen. There is the obituary index. Unfortunately this does not index the death notices. The New York Times has obituaries only for public figures. There are only a couple of volumes of this. Then there is the set of book indexes to articles. This is a more complete index but still isn't an everyname index. It is more attuned to articles about this and that than about everyday people. It would probably cover the murder article. It probably would not list everyone in the article. All of the above indexes go back to the 1850's which is when the newspaper started. (maybe 1855--I can't remember) In addition, I have seen (for a few years only) two volume with tiny print everyname indexes which definitely include the death notices. I don't know if these cover every year. Those are the ones I was wondering about. June