DIR Return Create A Forum - Home
---------------------------------------------------------
The Lost and the Found
HTML https://theunidentified.createaforum.com
---------------------------------------------------------
*****************************************************
DIR Return to: Washington
*****************************************************
#Post#: 3286--------------------------------------------------
Re: ''MARY ANDERSON'' WF, 30-50, suicide at Hotel Vintage Park i
n Seattle, WA - 9 Oct 1996 *GRAPHIC*
By: Akoya Date: March 7, 2020, 1:44 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
HTML https://i.imgur.com/bVFKgAL.jpg
#Post#: 3287--------------------------------------------------
Re: ''MARY ANDERSON'' WF, 30-50, suicide at Hotel Vintage Park i
n Seattle, WA - 9 Oct 1996 *GRAPHIC*
By: Akoya Date: March 7, 2020, 1:49 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
HTML https://i.imgur.com/VwPRH8S.jpg
The Seattle Vintage Park Hotel
#Post#: 3288--------------------------------------------------
Re: ''MARY ANDERSON'' WF, 30-50, suicide at Hotel Vintage Park i
n Seattle, WA - 9 Oct 1996 *GRAPHIC*
By: Akoya Date: March 7, 2020, 1:53 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
HTML http://unidentified.wikia.com/wiki/Mary_Anderson
Unidentified Wiki
Mary Anderson
Mary Anderson was the alias used by an unidentified woman who
committed suicide in Seattle, Washington.
On October 9th, 1996, the unidentified woman checked into the
Hotel Vintage Park in Seattle, Washington. She used the alias,
"Mary Anderson." She also gave a non-existent New York City
phone number and address. The woman paid in cash.
She took cyanide mixed with Metamucil. As she died, she lay on
the bed with a large, black Bible, reading the 23rd Psalm. This
psalm is commonly associated with dying and funerals. ("The Lord
is my shepherd...")
Two days later, when she failed to check out, the hotel staff
entered the room. They found the deceased dressed in all black,
with full make-up (including pink lipstick). She had left a
suicide note on hotel stationary:
HTML https://i.imgur.com/k7fuZ8D.jpg
"To Whom It May Concern.
I have decided to end my life and no one is responsible for my
death.
Mary Anderson.
P. S. I have no relatives. You can use my body as you choose."
Mary Anderson had short, reddish-brown hair and brown eyes. She
had neatly-plucked eyebrows and manicured nails painted a cream
color. Her breasts had surgical scars, most likely from a breast
reduction. She also had a copper IUD and a dental plate. The
desk clerk recalled that she had no distinct accent.
Her belongings included two luggage bags, six stretch velour
outfits, an olive green purse made of woven leather, a cobalt
blue jacket, black leather gloves, shoes, slippers, pantyhose,
Estée Lauder cosmetics, perfume, an iron, a kitchen bowl,
toothpaste, Crystal Light, and the Metamucil she had mixed with
the cyanide.
Mary Anderson
[​IMG]
Additional sketch by Wesley Neville
Sex Female
Race White
Location Seattle, Washington
Found October 11, 1996
Unidentified for 19 years
Postmortem interval Days
Body condition Recognizable face
Age approximation 30-50
Height approximation 5'8
Weight approximation 240 pounds
Cause of death Poisoning (suicide)
#Post#: 3289--------------------------------------------------
Re: ''MARY ANDERSON'' WF, 30-50, suicide at Hotel Vintage Park i
n Seattle, WA - 9 Oct 1996 *GRAPHIC*
By: Akoya Date: March 7, 2020, 1:57 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
According to the CDC, from 1996-2000 there were almost 60,000
women in the United States who were diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. I
think these women may have contracted HIV from a number of ways
- sex, drug needles, blood transfusions, etc. Many times, it
took years for the symptoms of HIV to develop, so many people
had no idea they were infected. Some women contracted HIV passed
from husbands or partners who had been sexually active with
other HIV positive partners. During this era, it was horrible
for people diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. They were scorned by society
and they faced certain death from a disease that just ravaged
their bodies. Even funeral homes were rejecting individuals who
had died from AIDS because undertakers didn't want to work with
the body fluids. People afflicted with AIDS looked like walking
death as their bodies wasted away. Some employers no longer
allowed people with AIDS to continue working, so many lost
health insurance. Large cities opened shelters where AIDS
victims could eat and sleep. Former executives and very
successful people were living on the streets because they no
longer had jobs or money. I know there were HIV/AIDS support
groups and I have no doubt that suicide would have been a topic
of discussion. I have no doubt that many men and women diagnosed
with HIV/AIDS chose the suicide option because the alternatives
were so horrible.
#Post#: 3290--------------------------------------------------
Re: ''MARY ANDERSON'' WF, 30-50, suicide at Hotel Vintage Park i
n Seattle, WA - 9 Oct 1996 *GRAPHIC*
By: Akoya Date: March 7, 2020, 1:59 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
HTML http://www.healthline.com/health/hiv-aids/symptoms-women
Skin rashes and skin sores
An estimated 90 percent of HIV-positive people develop skin
problems. Rash is the most common symptom of HIV. In a person
with HIV, the skin can become extremely sensitive to irritants
and sunlight. A rash may appear as a flat red patch with small
bumps, and skin may become flaky.
#Post#: 3291--------------------------------------------------
Re: ''MARY ANDERSON'' WF, 30-50, suicide at Hotel Vintage Park i
n Seattle, WA - 9 Oct 1996 *GRAPHIC*
By: Akoya Date: March 7, 2020, 2:00 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
SOMETHING ABOUT MARY
By Todd Matthews
Copyright ©️ 1997 – PRESENT By Todd Matthews
All Rights Reserved
THE GUEST IN Room 214 was in trouble.
It wasn't that she was unruly. In fact, after checking into her
room at Seattle's Hotel Vintage
Park, she seemed quieter than catpaws on carpet. She never
summoned room service. She
made no phone calls. She placed a DO NOT DISTURB sign outside
the door, secured the
deadbolt, and bunkered herself away in the $175-a-night
"Superior Guestroom." While other
hotel guests passed in and out of their rooms -- en route to
business meetings, shopping in
the city, or drinks at Tulio's restaurant downstairs -- the
guest remained in her room.
When the guest failed to check out of her room on Friday
morning, the clerks at the Vintage
Park's front desk grew suspicious. Using their passkey, hotel
staff entered the room. The
woman's miscellaneous belongings -- velour outfits, shoes,
slippers, black leather gloves,
leather purse, Estee Lauder cosmetics, toothpaste, perfume,
Metamucil, Crystal Light, panty
hose, a kitchen bowl, and an iron -- were packed in several
luggage bags. The room was
tidy. The woman lay atop the bed. The bed sheets were stripped
and her head propped
against a small stack of dark-print pillows. She wore black
leggings and a black top. Her hair
was neatly combed. Her nails were painted cream white. She wore
make-up. A large black
Bible lay open across the woman's chest.
Why hadn't the woman left her room for two days? And why hadn't
she checked out of her
room when she was supposed to? Furthermore, why didn't she stir
when hotel staff entered
the room?
Simple. The woman was dead.
A glass tumbler with cyanide residue glistened on the
nightstand.
The Seattle police were called.
The King County Medical Examiner's Office was notified.
Investigators found a note scribbled upon hotel stationery: To
Whom It May Concern. I
have decided to end my life and no one is responsible for my
death. Mary Anderson. P. S. I
have no relatives. You can use my body as you choose.
JERRY WEBSTER, CHIEF Investigator at the King County Medical
Examiner's Office
(KCMEO), knows Mary Anderson well.
He has the scars to prove it.
"This thing's got endless value," he says, half in jest and half
in frustration. I meet him one
Wednesday afternoon in early April. Webster is an affable man.
He is thin and lanky, with
short gray hair and a salt-and-pepper mustache. He has a bounce
in his step, and his keys
jangle noisily on his hip as he leads me down a narrow hallway
in the basement of
Harborview Medical Center. The office of the King County Medical
Examiner is windowless
and cramped and dark -- just as one would imagine it. There is
an old couch, television set,
row of lockers and a computer. The place is somewhat cluttered,
and Webster's office is no
exception. Webster, shortly after retiring from the Kirkland
Police Department, became
bored and sought work that was both challenging and intriguing.
"To be honest with you, it's
absolutely fascinating. I wish I didn't like this work because
I'd like to just go home and
rest. But I'm excited about going to work every day. It's a
pretty interesting thing because
you never know what your challenges are going to be on any given
day." I take a seat
across from him and he opens the file on Mary Anderson: "Here's
our girl."
Webster places several large 8" x 10" photographs on the table.
I scrutinize them. It's the
first time I've actually seen Mary Anderson, and I'm overwhelmed
by the lack of drama in
the photos. Mary Anderson is dressed in black leggings and a
black top. The sheets on the
bed have been stripped and she is lying with her hands at her
side. Her feet are bare and
her head is propped against a bank of dark pillows. Her
reddish-brown hair is neatly
combed. Her face has been neatly applied with make-up. A Bible
is opened upon her chest,
face down. Mary Anderson's eyes are closed and, if I were to
give these photos to a
passerby on the street, he or she would most likely assume that
they were photos of a
woman taking a nap.
#Post#: 3292--------------------------------------------------
Re: ''MARY ANDERSON'' WF, 30-50, suicide at Hotel Vintage Park i
n Seattle, WA - 9 Oct 1996 *GRAPHIC*
By: Akoya Date: March 7, 2020, 2:02 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
continued
"That's just exactly how she was found," Webster says. "The
Bible was opened to the
Twenty-Third Psalm." After discovering her body, Webster ran an
initial check of fingerprints
through several agencies -- Interpol, NCIC, AFIS, and the RCMP;
he came up empty. He ran
a check for dental records; that, too, proved futile. Webster
completed computer searches
and missing-persons checks; they came up empty. When Mary
Anderson checked into the
Hotel Vintage Park, she paid cash for her room. She left an
address of 132 East Third
Street, New York, NY 11103; the address does not exist. She left
a phone number of (212)
569-5549; the phone number does not exist.
Webster was stumped.
"This looked like a very easy case to solve," Webster says. "We
had the lady's name, we had
her address, we had the note, we had the cause of death.
Basically it appeared, on the
surface -- at the beginning of the investigation -- that we had
everything we needed in
order to solve this very quickly. If this had been correct
information, we would have had this
solved within twenty minutes. And twenty minutes have now become
a year-and-a-half."
Webster is not an inept or indifferent investigator. Still
unidentified are twenty-five bodily
remains in King County since 1982; at any given moment, the city
of Los Angeles has more
than 400. "We don't let go of them," Webster asserts. "You have
to look at it from the
standpoint that these people have family members out there --
brothers or sisters or
mothers or fathers or husbands or wives or whatever -- and they
have a right to know. You
would hate to go through life thinking, 'I haven't seen my
brother since 1982. Where the
hell is he? Is he alive? Is he dead?' The family has a right to
have that settled for them.
That's why we work [these cases] so hard." Nor is Webster a
rookie investigator. In the past
year alone, he has investigated everything from Native American
remains to the dead body
of a full-term infant discovered in a restroom trash container.
On Sunday, July 27, 1997, fishermen in the clear waters of the
Snoqualmie River discovered
dozens of human bones -- including an intact skull, arm and leg
bones, several teeth, lower
jaws, and parts of at least four skulls -- belonging to ten
people. Police divers found a
burlap potato sack on the river bottom and an anthropological
examination revealed that
the bones were dumped in the river only days before the
fishermen discovered them.
Webster, along with Forensic Anthropologist Kathy Taylor,
learned that the bones were at
least two hundred years old and were the remains of at least one
juvenile. Webster believes
the bones were part of a private collection, in that at least
three bones had been varnished
or covered with shellac.
On November 20, 1997, a female employee of a Lake City Way
Chevron convenience store
discovered the dead body of a full-term infant in a restroom
trash container. Webster
investigated the incident and determined that the baby boy
(nicknamed "Baby Boy Doe")
had been born alive -- healthy and uninjured -- two days before.
A review of the store's
security cameras revealed a young, dark-haired woman entering
the restroom on November
18th, and it is believed that the unidentified woman was the
baby's mother. "This one just
kind of pulled at everybody's heartstrings," Webster comments,
reflecting on the incident.
The Seattle Police Department and the KCMEO hosted a burial
service, the Archdiocese of
Seattle donated a gravesite, the Associated Catholic Cemeteries
donated clothes and a
teddy bear, and Flintoft's Issaquah Funeral Home donated a small
casket. Webster, referring
to the donations, remarks, "It just seemed like the right thing
to do for the little guy."
On Saturday, July 6, 1996, Sammiejo White, 11, and her sister,
Carmen Joy Cubias, 9, left
the Crest Motel at North 141st Street and Aurora Avenue North,
to buy cigarettes for an
older brother. On Tuesday, February 10, 1998, the girls' remains
were found buried in a field
on an abandoned farm in Bothell. A transient living in the barn
discovered the remains.
Webster interviewed the girls' mother, Margaret Bernice Delaney,
for more than two hours.
Delaney told Webster that the girls were "independent," and the
family often traveled by
bus; the girls were very familiar with the bus system. Delaney
and her daughters arrived in
Seattle from the Tri-Cities area in 1995 -- the year that
Delaney gave birth to her ninth
child. "Neither girl had money," Delaney told Webster. "But they
knew how to panhandle."
The family paid for the one-bedroom motel room with donations
from a local charity.
Webster concluded that the girls were victims of "homicidal
violence" and, with the help of
Forensic Anthropologist Taylor, it was determined that the girls
died shortly after they
disappeared. "The death certificate was signed, after we made
the identification, as 'a
homicidal violence of undetermined etiology.' The reason we were
able to say it was a
homicidal death was because we had nothing but bone fragments,
and no other logical
conclusion could be drawn. But nine- and thirteen-year-old girls
do not die and then bury
their own bodies."
On Monday, February 23, 1998, Jason Henrickson was digging a
garden in the backyard of
his girlfriend's University District home when he found a human
skull. "I didn't believe it at
#Post#: 3293--------------------------------------------------
Re: ''MARY ANDERSON'' WF, 30-50, suicide at Hotel Vintage Park i
n Seattle, WA - 9 Oct 1996 *GRAPHIC*
By: Akoya Date: March 7, 2020, 2:05 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
continued
first," Henrickson reported. "It looked like a gourd. I hit it
with a pickax in the face and the
skull came rolling out, leaving a big hole in the dirt. I
thought for sure it was a murder
victim." Webster's team investigated the find and concluded that
the sizes and shapes of the
bones indicated that a man, woman and child were buried at the
site, possibly around the
turn of the century.
Mary Anderson's case seems simple compared to some of the others
Webster has handled.
Hers seems a basic case of suicide, yet it continues to baffle
Webster. When the checks on
fingerprints, dental records, and missing-persons rosters came
up empty, Webster began to
scramble. "We checked taxi companies, the YWCA, area
restaurants, and Nordstrom. We
checked manufacturers of the clothing that we could identify,
which included one in Canada,
and several in the United States." When the autopsy was
performed, examiners removed a
copper intrauterine device from Mary Anderson's corpse. "We
explored the part number of
the IUD. It came back. We found out it's been sold thousands and
thousands of times all
over the continent. So that led nowhere. We even [tried to
identify the] chemical
composition [of the cyanide] so that we could go back to some of
the scientific supply
houses and see if they could identify it by a batch number. If
they could identify it by a
batch number, then they could tell us what area it was sold in.
Then we could focus on that
particular area. If we could have found out that this was a
chemical that was only sold in,
say, New Jersey, then we [would have had] a place to focus our
investigation. But there
were no records or anything like that."
Newspaper articles about Mary Anderson were soon published in
the Seattle Times and
Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The case was aired nationally on
Hard Copy. Webster's office was
bombarded with more than 200 leads. "The majority of them were
really just more
suggestive, you know, like a suggestion to do this or that,"
Webster explains, flipping
through the file and reading off some of the leads. "For
example, 'Well, she looks European.
Look in Europe.' Rather broad. But we did get twelve [leads]
back that had promise. One
lead came from Pico Rivera, California, of a lady that appeared
to be the same approximate
age and so forth. However, the lady that they believed it was
had dentures, webbed toes,
and a scar on her thigh; our lady did not. So we cleared that
one."
Several tipsters commented that Mary Anderson's handwriting
"looked European." Webster
thought this was interesting. "You know, she does look European.
She also looks Greek.
Though we did determine her race, there was no way
anthropologically to determine
ethnicity. Other than we know she's Caucasian and she's probably
European. Just like you
and me, is about what it boils down to." Webster scans more
leads -- one from a psychic in
College Place, Washington ("The name came to me in a vision.").
Another lead pointed to a
woman who had had a hysterectomy; Mary Anderson had not. "This
was a good one,"
Webster says, pulling a sheet from the file.
"Everything was in place on this [lead], but this woman was seen
alive after [Mary Anderson
died]." A man in California, recalling a classmate at Encinal
Junior High School who
resembled Mary Anderson, sent a choir photo from a 1962 yearbook
to compare with the
photos of Mary Anderson's corpse. A man living in Alaska
contacted Webster and reported
that he recalled a Mary Anderson who lived in Hillsboro, Oregon,
during the 1950s. A
Seattle-area antique collector contacted Webster to report that
he recalled seeing a woman
who resembled Mary Anderson working at an area flea market or
antiques store. All leads
were pursued and, unfortunately, zero closure was placed on the
Mary Anderson case.
"We have worked an endless number of hours on this case,"
Webster tells me, rubbing his
eyes. "We've gone down different paths of investigative
techniques and they have all led
nowhere. That's basically the long and short of Mary Anderson.
After an intense
investigation, we have no idea who this lady is."
If you want to know the whos and whats and whens and wheres of
Mary Anderson, it's
really quite simple. No matter how deeply you dig, how far you
research, how hard you
attempt to re-trace her steps, your search will likely leave you
frustrated and fascinated.
You will soon discover that the facts and clues and tips
surrounding Mary Anderson's identity
are both everywhere and nowhere.
Why did she leave a Bible open on her chest? Simple: she was
religious. But committing
suicide seems sacrilegious. Moreover, most religious dogma
forbids the self-slain body to
rest in peace.
Why did she kill herself in Room 214 at the Hotel Vintage Park?
Simple: she had been in
that room before. But investigators concluded that the room was
picked at random; Mary
Anderson made no reservations and the hotel staff picked the
room.
#Post#: 3294--------------------------------------------------
Re: ''MARY ANDERSON'' WF, 30-50, suicide at Hotel Vintage Park i
n Seattle, WA - 9 Oct 1996 *GRAPHIC*
By: Akoya Date: March 7, 2020, 2:08 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
continued
Why did she ingest cyanide? Simple: it is one of the quickest
and most painless ways to die.
The victim is dead in a matter of seconds, the result of sudden
cardiac arrest. But cyanide is
also an extremely difficult substance to obtain. It isn't sold
over-the-counter and to obtain it
one would have to work at either a chemical laboratory or a
mining supply company. Even
then, detailed records are kept when the chemical is issued.
After researching Mary Anderson's case for several months, I had
a gut feeling that Mary
Anderson intended to baffle those who would find her body.
Everything about her is false --
her address and phone number are non-existent. Her name is
phony. And any identification
that isn't false simply does not exist.
The woman appears rootless.
"I have the distinct feeling that she left a clue in that room
and we missed it," Webster
explains. "There may have been something there that, if it would
have been maybe
understood or identified, that there may have been some sort of
a clue there that might
have helped us. But we didn't find anything." Webster pauses a
moment. His gaze trails. He
continues, slowly, "There was...one thing...that did concern me.
It seems like there was a
copy of either the Seattle Weekly or The Stranger there and it
was open and there were
three maple leaves on a page. I don't know what page it was open
to. And we didn't do
anything other than observe it. Not that it's to say that there
may have been something
there. It's just that...when an investigation goes on this long,
you start really drilling down
to try and find the most obvious things."
Ironically, renowned Forensic Anthropologist William R. Maples,
in his book Dead Men Do
Tell Tales: The Strange and Fascinating Cases of a Forensic
Anthropologist, observes that
suicides such as Mary Anderson's are commonplace. "There is
a...type of suicide," Dr.
Maples writes, "which may be called the fastidious suicide,
involving a person who wishes to
look beautiful in death, to die tidily, or to cause as little
trouble as possible to the
investigators afterward. Women will often put on a pretty
nightgown and apply makeup
before killing themselves. Many of the skeletons that come to my
laboratory belong to
suicide victims who behaved like shy hermits in their final
hours. Usually they are found in
remote, out-of-the-way places. People often go to some hidden
place to kill themselves,
whether from a desire to act alone and unhindered, or because
they wish simply to
disappear in solitude, spending their last moments in reflective
silence."
The only way I knew to acquaint myself with Mary Anderson was to
visit key places she had
been. I had to retrace her steps. The catch, though, was that I
could only think of two
places she had been: Room 214 at Hotel Vintage Park -- where she
lived for a day before
taking her life; and Crown Hill Cemetery -- where she is buried.
I assessed my situation. Jerry Webster and his team of
investigators had pursued nearly
200 leads, conducted record checks in the United States and
Canada, and pleaded their
case on national television. As Webster explained to me, "There
have been a horrendous
number of hours put into this thing...ut we can't say the one
thing we need to know --
who the hell is she?" Webster had the financial backing and
investigative resources of the
county. I had a Pearlcorder, a note pad, some pens, and very
little experience in
investigation. My situation was not promising. I basically
wanted to know as much as I could
about a woman who was very mysterious and very dead.
I decided to pay a visit to the Hotel Vintage Park -- a historic
locale in downtown Seattle. In
the late-1920s, the McNaught Mansion -- the home of prominent
Seattle attorney James
McNaught, constructed in 1883 and later moved across the street
in 1904 to make way for
the public library -- was razed for construction of the Kennedy
Hotel and its ground-floor
restaurant, The Gold Coin, which was a popular hangout for
stockbrokers. In January 1992
San Francisco hotel magnate Bill Kimpton purchased the ten-story
Kennedy Hotel for $7
million. Kimpton owned a chain of hotels in Seattle (Alexis
Hotel), Portland (Hotel Vintage
Plaza, Fifth Avenue Suites,) San Francisco (Hotel Monaco,
Prescott Hotel), and Los Angeles
(Beverly Prescott Hotel). The Kennedy Hotel's building delighted
Kimpton. He commented,
" love the character of the...building. look for downtown
historic-type hotels, then
renovate them to bring back the old glory." The Kennedy Hotel
shut down, and the building
was gutted, renovated, and transformed into the Hotel Vintage
Park. In August 1992 the
Hotel Vintage Park opened to much fanfare. A Seattle Times
reporter commented, "The wine
flowed faster than the spring runoff at Wednesday night's grand
opening reception for the
Hotel Vintage Park." Each of the Hotel's 126 rooms were named
after Washington vineyards
and wineries. The Hotel's grand suite -- a sprawling room with a
wood-burning fireplace,
tiled spa bath, draped canopy bed, surround-sound stereo and
multiple jet shower -- was
named after Washington State's eponymous Chateau Ste. Michelle.
Celebrities soon
frequented the Hotel and its ground-floor restaurant, Tulio's.
One Times columnist cooed,
"Actors Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward were in town, staying in
the Chateau St.
#Post#: 3295--------------------------------------------------
Re: ''MARY ANDERSON'' WF, 30-50, suicide at Hotel Vintage Park i
n Seattle, WA - 9 Oct 1996 *GRAPHIC*
By: Akoya Date: March 7, 2020, 2:10 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
continued
Michelle suite at the Hotel Vintage Park. [They] hosted a party
for six friends at Tulio's [and]
asked for their favorite table."
As far as the Hotel Vintage Park is concerned, Mary Anderson
never checked into Room 214.
The Hotel, it seems, is in serious denial. "We went through some
problems with the Hotel,"
Webster had told me earlier. "They did not want the name of the
hotel published. We never
identified it as the Hotel Vintage Park, but anyone who can read
an address can find that
out. [And the address] is a matter of public record." Webster
didn't think the Hotel was
being unreasonable. He understood why they would want to keep
Mary Anderson and the
history of Room 214 under wraps. "Nobody would want that kind of
publicity," he added.
"It's a commercial venture and you certainly don't want to have
that kind of information
[public]. For instance, if you had a friend in your house who
committed suicide, I don't think
you'd want that to show up in the Seattle Times." Mary
Anderson's death was not the first
to occur in that building, either. On August 14, 1990, a
sixteen-year-old girl, staying at the
Kennedy Hotel with her parents, fell to her death from the tenth
floor.
One Saturday afternoon in May, I entered the Hotel Vintage Park.
The lobby was filled with
well-dressed tourists lounging on couches and waiting for their
tables at Tulio's. I rode the
elevator up to the second floor, and stepped into a narrow
alcove lined with brass accents
and tall mirrors. I followed a hallway down to Room 214, which,
rather spookily, was the
last suite before the fire exit. I stood outside the door,
staring at the suite's door and, more
importantly, imagining what was beyond that door. I wondered if
Mary Anderson had passed
anyone in the hallway, en route to her suite. Did they
acknowledge her? Did they find her to
be peculiar? Did she request assistance with her bags and, if
so, did the bellhop strike up a
pointless conversation about the weather?
I placed my hand on the door, running it along the smooth wood.
I stared back down the
hallway, toward the elevator. The hallway was beautiful and
carpeted and lined with
flowered wallpaper. I placed my hand on the door handle and
applied a little pressure.
The door was locked.
I stepped back, staring at the door. Mary Anderson was dogging
me. The door to the hotel
suite where she spent the last days of her life was locked. I
was not allowed access. Later,
in an e-mail message to Webster at the KCMEO, I described my
visit to Room 214. Webster
replied, "I am glad to hear that you did not get into Room 214.
Do you realize that it would
be Burglary? I guess you would have plenty of time to write if
you were sitting in a jail cell!
If you do get in the room, say Hi to Mary for me and see if you
can get her address and
phone number by chance."
Shortly after my visit to Room 214, I contacted the Hotel's
General Manager, Sam Johnson,
via e-mail and posed a few questions...
Dear Mr. Johnson,
I am a freelance journalist presently writing an article about
the October 9, 1996, suicide of
"Mary Anderson" in Room 214 at the Hotel Vintage Park. I am
hoping that you could take
the time to answer a few questions regarding Ms. Anderson's
death:
Do you think Ms. Anderson picked the Hotel Vintage Park for a
specific reason, or do you
think the Hotel was chosen at random?
Are there similar cases of mysterious deaths or suicides at the
Hotel Vintage Park?
Do you have any ideas or theories as to the identity of Ms.
Anderson?
Thank you for taking the time to consider my questions and I
look forward to hearing from
you in the near future.
Sincerely,
Todd Matthews
Manager Johnson never responded to my queries, and the Hotel
never commented to me
about this case.
I DON’T ENVY any new investigator joining Webster's team.
It isn't because of the work. My impression is that
investigators who work day-in and dayout
at the KCMEO don't perceive corpses as spooky or repulsive.
After awhile, the bodies
*****************************************************
DIR Next Page