Woman attacked as daughter slept, husband sought
BRONXVILLE, N.Y. (Reuter) - An heiress to the Scripps newspaper fortune has died
a week after being bludgeoned in her home while her daughter slept a few rooms
away, police said yesterday.
Anne Scripps Douglas, 47, died in hospital Thursday afternoon. She never
regained consciousness after the New Year's Eve beating in her posh home some 25
kilometres (15 miles) north of New York city, a hospital spokesperson said.
Her lawyer John Kelly told reporters late Thursday she "passed away as a result
of a vicious, senseless beating" with a blunt object.
A warrant has been issued for the arrest of her husband, Scott Douglas,
Bronxville police said.
His idling BMW was found on the nearby Tappan Zee bridge over the Hudson River
early New Year's Day, hours after the beating.
Police searched the river for any sign of Douglas but found nothing and called
off the search after five days.
They have since asked anyone who saw someone walking, hitchhiking or being
picked up on the bridge to contact police.
The couple's 3-year-old daughter Victoria was asleep in another room when
police, alerted by relatives who were concerned when Scripps Douglas did not
answer phone calls, entered their home.
Neighbors were quoted in local news reports as saying Scripps Douglas was
seeking a divorce from her husband, a former house painter whom she met when she
hired him to paint the house, the reports said.
She was the great-great-grandaughter of newspaper publisher James Scripps,
half-brother and business associate of Edward Wyllis Scripps, who was the
founder of the U.S. media group today known as Scripps Howard.
