Sarah Osborne had not attended church meetings for almost three years before she was accused.
Osborne’s absence was notable in the tightly supervised religious culture of Salem Village. The surviving account attributes it to a long illness, sometimes interpreted by historians as depression or another chronic condition. Her withdrawal made her appear socially marginal at a moment when unusual behavior could attract suspicion.
She was also involved in disputes over property from her first husband Robert Prince’s estate. After Prince died in 1674, Osborne remarried Alexander Osborne and sought control of land that Prince’s will had intended for their sons. These inheritance disagreements brought her into conflict with relatives and the Putnam family.
The three-year absence was not proof of witchcraft. It was one detail among several—illness, isolation, remarriage, and legal conflict—that made Osborne vulnerable when accusations began in early 1692. She denied the charges and died in jail on May 29, 1692.