Daughter of Slain Newspaper Heiress Commits Suicide

By: Crimesider Staff
Topics: Daily Blotter

(AP Photo, file)

Photo: Anne Morell Petrillo

TARRYTOWN, N.Y. (AP) A body found Sunday in the Hudson River likely is that of a woman who jumped from the Tappan Zee Bridge last week, 15 years after her stepfather leaped to his death from the bridge following a brutal family killing, police said.

State Police Sgt. Todd Parent said they believe the body belongs to Anne Morell Petrillo, a daughter of slain newspaper heiress Anne Scripps Douglas, the great-great-granddaughter of The Detroit News founder James E. Scripps.

Witnesses saw the 38-year-old Petrillo, of Rye Brook, in Westchester County, stop her car on the bridge and jump on Thursday, police said. Petrillo left her identification and a note, but police have refused to describe the note.

They have called her case a suicide.

The Rockland County medical examiner's office was expected to make the official identification of the body, state police Investigator Joseph Becerra told The Journal News on Sunday.

(AP Photo, file)

Photo: Anne Scripps Douglas.

Petrillo's stepfather, Scott Douglas, leaped to his death from the bridge on New Year's Day 1994.

Police later found that he had bludgeoned Scripps Douglas with a claw hammer the previous night in their home in Bronxville. Petrillo found her mother's bloodied body.

Scripps Douglas, who was 47, also was a great-great-grandniece of E.W. Scripps, the founder of Cincinnati-based E.W. Scripps Co., which owns newspapers and television stations.

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by Madeleine26 September 28, 2009 2:03 PM EDT: This is one of the worst ledes I've ever seen. I realize it's an AP story, but it should have been rewritten or at least edited before it was posted. The lede makes it sound as if Anne Petrillo's stepfather killed himself because he was so distraught over "a family member's" killing. (We can assume know from the headline that the dead family member is his wife, but we don't know for sure.) But then we learn that he was the killer and he killed himself only after offing his wife!

Instead of Anne Douglas being referred to as a family member in the lede, why isn't she called his wife -- or better yet -- Petrillo's mom?

Really sloppy work.; Reply to this comment