The Daily Alaska empire., 1951-05-09
Red Airfield Smashed by 300 AlEed Planes
BODY OF WOMAN IS IDENTIFIED AS
 MILDRED MfMURpHY

A coroner's jury, meeting yester. day at 3:30 pm, returned a verdic of probable suicide by drowning in the case of Mary Adams" whose body was found floating off the north end of Douglas Island about noon.
 Mildred E. McMurphy, alias, Mary Adams, missed from the boat wher it docked here. apparently leaped from the deck of the Denali at about midnight May 5. Her ticket was for passage from Seward to Juneau. She had been going under the name of Mary Adams in Anchorage. accord ing to a hotel receipt found among papers in an overnight bag which was tied around the waist of her body when found.
 The body was recovered from the water by two trollers, Ken Willard and Cliff Mason, and brought to Aux Bay where Acting U. s. Marshal Walter Hellan and U. S. Commis- sioner and Coroner Gordan Gray went in answer to the summons of the two trollers.
 Her Real Name
 In the bag was a marriage certifi- cate showing that the woman had been married October 4, 1925 to Clarence E. McMurphy at Hartford, Vermont. Her maiden name was Mildred E. Hill and she was born at Lebanon, New Hampshire, Nov 23. 1906. Her husband was listed as machinist, born in Randolph Cer- ter, Vt. The marriage license had been issued at Springfield, Vt, on Sept. 29, 1925.
 Other papers in the bag showed that Mildred McMurphy had en- listed in the Army in l943. She serv- ed in Europe from April 1914 te < November 1945, as a court reporter ius the Judge Advocate Section Headquarters, Third Army, unti Nov. 13, 1s45 when she received an honorable discharge. Hsr serial number was A-110148 in the 49Otf Reinforcement Army.
 In December 1945 she worked fol the War Department as a civilian technician and her Identification card for this department reads Height, 5 feet inch; weight, l0S pounds; hair, auburn; eyes, gray.
 Gordon Gray said there was nc record of when she came to Alaska but apparently she was using the alias Mary Adams in the Territory which, according to the marriage certificate, was her mothers maiden name = Mary Elizabeth Adams Her fathers name is given as George Dickson Hill of Lebanon.
 In Overnight Case
 There is evidently no doubt but what her death was suicide, auth critics said. The overnight case, tieo with handkerchief to leather belt around her waist, was weighted down with cold cream jars. bottles of lotions and other articles which probably would have caused her tc sink had not the air in her clothes kept her afloat, She was barefoot and had on only a pair of dark peddle pushers and bolero jacket She seemed carefully made up - rouge on her lips and pink polisr on her toenails and fingernails.
 The body was brought to Carter's mortuary and Gray has sent wire to Chicago address listed under the husbands name. He ordered hel baggage, which went on to Seattit on the Denali, put in storage there
 Gray said one theory was tha' she might have been in Juneal before. Had her home been in tns States, she probably would have bought passage from Seward tt Seattle, but the fact that she Wal coming to Juneau could indicate that she either had friends here ol that she was coming here to work Efforts are still being made to con tact her husband or other relatives