Lucy Betz
Cincinnati Enquirer, Sunday, 26 May 1901, page 3
LUCY FOUND
The body of Miss Lucy Betz, daughter of the late Frank Betz, a
prominent lumber merchant of Newport, who on April 27, made her escape from the
Bethesda Hospital, was found in the river yesterday morning below North Bend.
Joseph Geiger, a fisherman of that village, was rowing across the river when he
discovered the remains among a lot of driftwood.
In the corset, confined with a comb, were found two letters, which proved conclusively that Miss Betz had committed suicide by drowning. The first letter read as follows:
"Dear Sister Anna: I have proved myself unfaithful to you and I ask no forgiveness, I know it is impossible to bear this great sorrow with fortitude. Remember, I always told you there was no help for me. I can't live for you or mother. I have lost all love for you all. I despise the world. Now, be brave and console yourself with others. I am sorry I have lived to cause such a dreadful calamity, Your unfaithful. L"
The ofther note is as follows: "In case I am found, please keep the affair as quiet as possible, as I am from a highly respectful family and would never commit this deed, but I can enjoy life no longer. I am sorry to cause such a calamity but it must be done. I suffer no longer for nobody. Break the news mildly to poor mother. Notify L Betz at 30 East Eleventh street, Newport Ky. Lucy Betz"
Three brothers, Louis, Albert, and Robert positively identified the clothing and body at the morgue as that of their sister. Miss Betz failed in health last October and previous to that time had left her home on several occasions and wandered about Newport. Mrs. Betz suffered from heart disease and for two years has been confined to her home. The remains will be removed to Newport this morning.
********************************************
Cincinnati Enquirer, Monday, 27 May 1901, page 10
FUNERAL
A sad cortège left the County Morgue at 10 yesterday morning, a hearse and two carriages, the former vehicle containing a white satin covered casket in which reposed the remains of Lucy Betz, who leaped to her death in the Ohio River on the night of April 27. The three brothers of the deceased, Albert, Robert and Louis Betz, decided to move the remains to St Stephen Catholic Cemetery in Newport Ky, where the remains were put in a vault.
Nor services were held, but the pastor of the church will officiate when the remains are interred in the family lot this morning and a mass for the dead will be celebrated at St Stephen Church tomorrow morning. Her mother, aged 111 and helpless, confined to her home at Eleventh and Orchard streets, Newport, still believes that her beloved daughter is being cared for at the Bethesda Hospital in Walnut Hills. She was never told of the disappearance from the hospital. Mrs. Betz is afflicted with heart disease, and in all probability will never be told.
The brother are all emphatic in their statement that the deceased had not a trouble on earth and are unable to assign a cause for her rash act, excepting that she suffered from a nervous prostration, but had never exhibited suicidal tendencies.