Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-09-07
MYSTERY C[0AKS
SUICIDE Of GIRL;
IDENTITY LEARNED
Victim of Great Falls Trag-
edy, Miss FIossie RoseI,
War Worker.

Miss Flossie Rosel OF Tennessee. for
merly a government worker employed ir
the Navy Department, last night ended
her life in the presence of several
witnesses by jumping into the river
at Great Falls, Va. Identification of the
young woman was furnished today by
Miss Elizabeth Fankel of the govern
ment dormitories. where Miss Rosel
lived, when she recognized the crum-
pied brown hat that was left on the
edge of the cliff before the girl 1eaped
to her death.
Miss Fankel came to police head
quarters a little before noon today
and asked to see the hat which had
been found last night. Shown the
article, she positively identified it as
the property Of Miss Rosel. who has
been sublettins a n,I room aa1,,,nr,ss in the G-H
According to the story told by Miss
Fankef, from whose desk calendar
had been torn a slip of paper found
near the spot where Miss Rosel jump
ed OF the Cliff, the young. Eonan 1!s hsd "a,
been employed at the May 0epart-
ment.
Despondency n Motive.
She resigned from the Navy Depart
men on october 81 last. and as fas
as is known was never employed
steadily after that time. AS a result
of this information. police believe
that the motive for the drowning was
dependency.
she had been employed in the Navy
allotment Office since the outbreak OF
the war, according to the appoint
ment clerk of the Navy Department.
Records of the Navy Department show
that she was born in August, 1880 in
Kansas. She had later moved to Tens
nessee. !,
Miss Frankel when she appeared
at police headquarters said that sne
did not know very much about Miss
Rosel. except that she had. come to
this city from Tennessee and had
lived quietly during her residence at
the dormitories.
still Search for Body.
She had probably torn the sheet
from the calendar. it was said to
make a memorandum of another
rocming house on it, as she was ABOUT
to give up her room at the uorml-
tories. -.
At the government dormitories it
was learned that Miss Rosel was
probably about thirty years old. and
was from the town of Lubinell. Tenn.
Beyond this no accurate Information
was to be had. Police will continue
the investigation in an endeavor to
locate relatives or friends
detective Thomas Walsh today ac-
companied a squad from the harbor
precinct up to Great Falls in an ef-
fort to locate a spot where the ed
dies of the river might allow drag
p;nc to locate the body.
From witnesses of the drowning 1T
was learned by the police that Miss
Posel Jumped into the river after
h.ine warned by Charles A. Blatch-
ford of Canton. Ohio. stopping AT 81?
1st street northeast, and Miss Helen
u. Hyde of the adjutant generals OIL
fee of the War Department. TO leave
a dangerous spot where she mad oeen
standing for some time.
She had climbed to high rock
overlooking the spout on the Nir-
ginia side. they say. and was on the
edge of a precipice. When warned
she replied that she was used to
rocks and had no fear of an
accident. The couple walked away.
AS they did so Mr.. Blatchford was
again attracted by the noise Miss
Rosel made in going closer to the
edge Of the cliff. He flashed a pocket
on her and called out a
warning. AS he did she leaped into
the air and disappeared in the dark
ness of the chasm.
Officer Ernest Dickey of the Great
Falls police force arrived on the scene
just as she dropped over the ledge. Near
the spot where she had been standing
was found a pocketbook with IS cents
and a return ticket to Washington in
it. handkerchief and the slip of
calendar with 1886 T.
written on it.
Police expect to recover the body
in the lower river today.