Copyright 1994 The New York Times Company
The New York Times
By JOSEPH BERGER, Special to The New York Times
As new details emerged about her mounting fears that her husband might attack
her, Anne Scripps Douglas was remembered today as a dedicated mother at a
funeral Mass here.
Four hundred mourners filled the nave of St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church,
where Mrs. Douglas's body lay in a cherrywood coffin draped with a pall
embroidered with gold. The mourners saw one of her two daughters from a previous
marriage, Anne Morell, step up to the pulpit while a cousin, Brooke Morell, read
a brief letter the daughter had written but did not want to read herself. "You
were the best mom. We will never forget you," Anne Morell wrote. "We know you
are at peace now and out of pain."
Mrs. Douglas, a 47-year-old heiress to the Scripps newspaper fortune, was found
severely beaten at her home here early on New Year's Day, a few hours after her
husband's 1982 BMW was found abandoned, its engine still running, on the Tappan
Zee Bridge.
Husband Is Charged
After searching the Hudson River and finding no trace of him, authorities have
charged the husband, Scott Douglas, a 38-year-old contractor, with her murder
and have issued a warrant for his arrest, though they say they are not certain
he is alive. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has joined the search, charging
Mr. Douglas with unlawful flight.
Today, members of a group that helps victims of domestic violence, the National
Coalition for Family Justice, said Mrs. Douglas had sought their help twice last
month, complaining that her husband would lose control when he was drunk and
turn violent and that a Family Court protection order she had obtained was not
stopping him from being abusive.
"She was frightened," said Monica Getz, the group's chairman. "She said he had a
history of violence. She said she was concerned for her daughter."
Ms. Getz said that another member of the group, Deidre Akerson, urged Mrs.
Douglas to go to a shelter for battered women but Mrs. Douglas seemed more
inclined to attend the group's next meeting, which will be on Saturday.
New details also emerged today about what happened after Mrs. Douglas was
beaten. A relative of Mrs. Douglas's children, who spoke on condition of
anonymity, said that shortly after the attack, Scott Douglas called his brother
and told him something was wrong at the house.
The brother, whose name the relative did not know, called the police and they
discovered Mrs. Douglas's body in an upstairs bedroom. The relative said he did
not know if the phone call indicated Mr. Douglas's remorse or simply a decision
to get his wife medical help.
As he left the church today, G. Michael O'Neil 3d, a cousin of Mrs. Douglas's
first husband, Anthony X. Morell, said that on New Year's Eve, Mrs. Douglas's
daughter Anne had been concerned about Mr. Douglas's threats against her mother,
but that Mrs. Douglas dismissed them as "one of his moods." The daughter then
went out for the evening, and when she returned the police were at her home and
her mother was unconscious.
At the Mass, Msgr. James Connolly delivered the homily and described Mrs.
Douglas as a "dedicated mother" and a "person of a trusting nature, a good,
decent person."
Among those at the funeral were Mrs. Douglas's oldest daughter, Alexandra; Mrs.
Douglas's mother, Anne Gibbs Scripps; her brother, James E. Scripps 4th, and her
sister, Mary G. Scripps. The family decided that Mrs. Douglas's daughter with
Mr. Douglas, Victoria, 3 years old, would not attend.
Mrs. Douglas, the great-great-granddaughter of James E. Scripps, the founder of
The Detroit News, was buried later in the day at St. Agnes Cemetery in Menands,
N.Y., near her childhood home outside Albany.
GRAPHIC: Photo: A bagpiper playing yesterday outside St. Joseph's Roman Catholic
Church in Bronxville, N.Y., as the coffin of Anne Scripps Douglas left the
church. Four hundred mourners attended the funeral Mass for Mrs. Douglas, an
heiress to the Scripps newspaper fortune, who was found beaten on New Year's
Day. (Alan Zale for The New York Times)
