The Pittsburgh Press (May 19, 1944)
Friends reveal ‘dance of death’
Indian entertained just before drowning
New York (UP) –
Less than eight hours before she drowned in the Hudson River, Valsa Anna Matthai, 22-year-old Bombay, India, heiress, wearing a luxurious native gown, danced a “dance of death,” her friends revealed today.
The girl entertained fellow students living at International House, and after the “dance of death,” consented to do her own improvised version of it in “jive.”
Her friends said she was cheerful as she went to the stage at a formal bazar.
As police traced the last hours of her life, they envisioned her returning to her room soon after 11:00 p.m. ET. Sometime during the early morning of March 20, she changed to slacks and brown polo coat at 4:35 a.m. She walked from the hotel into a snowy night never to be seen alive again. The body was found in the river Wednesday night after a two-month search.
Her watch stopped at 5:17 a.m., indicating she died 42 minutes after leaving the warm lobby of the hotel.
Dr. Alexander Gettler, city toxicologist, yesterday began an analysis of the internal organs, in an effort definitely to determine the cause of death, although pathologist Dr. Thomas A. Gonzales had announced the cause as drowning after an autopsy and said there were no indications of violence.