Suicide

Mary Ann Ellis

LINLEY
Mary Ann Ellis.

WOODS
She was a beautiful woman!

LINLEY
I looked over some photos of the scene. Mary Ann hanged herself in a junior high school.

WOODS
Mary Ann? I haven't heard the name but somehow I saw that face before.

LINLEY
Mary Ann Ellis lived in a small rural town. She was the only child of Deborah and Harold Ellis. Both are deceased and Mary Ann had been married to David Ellis for about 8 years.

WOODS
A beautiful woman committed suicide. Naturally, people ask why!

LINLEY
I made some background checks about Mary Ann and found out that she went to junior high school and then to high school in a different town.

WOODS
This means Mary Ann didn't hang herself in the school she went to?!

LINLEY
Right, according to the data we have from her life, she did never attend the school of Saint George.

WOODS
Saint George?

LINLEY
Yeah, that's the name of the small rural town.

WOODS
Oh okay! And what happened there exactly?

LINLEY
Monday morning the cleaning woman entered the school and found Mary Ann Ellis hanged.

WOODS
Where did Mary Ann hang herself? Right at the entrance of the school?

LINLEY
Not quite. One walks through the first glass door. There is a short hallway. On the left side is the entry into the wardrobe of the pupils and on the right side in the hallway is the school principal's office. If you walk through the second glass door, past the school principal's office you are struck by a hall with a high ceiling. The classrooms are spread circular at the back of the hall. Right on the left side is a staircase that leads to the gymnasium in the cellar. While another staircase leads to the upper floor into a workshop where pupils usually tinker. On the right side is a room that is dedicated to the teachers.

WOODS
The school principal and the teachers have separate rooms?

LINLEY
Yes.

WOODS
How many classes are there?

LINLEY
4.

WOODS
And Mary Ann hanged herself from the ceiling with a rope?

LINLEY
Yes!

WOODS
How did she tie the rope to the high ceiling?

LINLEY
The police found a ladder.

WOODS
Where?

LINLEY
In the cellar.

WOODS
Where the gymnasium is?

LINLEY
Yes!

WOODS
What does this tell you?

LINLEY
Well, it could be that Mary Ann Ellis tied the rope around the bar on the ceiling with help of a ladder and then carried the ladder back downstairs.

WOODS
But why did she bother? She wanted to kill herself!

LINLEY
I think this doesn't look like an ordinary suicide. Because you are right, why would anyone bother if they just want to end their lives? If Mary Ann wanted to commit suicide she could have hanged herself at her home or somewhere private, not in a public sphere. Mary Ann wanted to be seen.

WOODS
Mary Ann was beautiful and women who look like her know that they are beautiful!

LINLEY
Yeah, but I don't think that Mary Ann wanted to preserve her beauty. Narcissistic personalities who are obsessed with themselves and their beauty spent a lot of time thinking about how to preserve their beauty even after death.
But Mary Ann hanged herself. She probably knew what the rope would do to her beautiful face. Women mostly tend to use poison.