Sunday, December 4, 1892
San Diego Union
Mrs. Lottie A. Bernard Was Lizzie Wyllie of Detroit
In the City of Her Home She Was a Book-Bindery Girl
Leaving There Five Weeks Ago in Company With a Married Man
He Who Caused Her to Err Was John Longfield, and He Was Probably Her Deserter at Orange
Special to the Union
DETROIT, MICH., Dec 3, 1892 – The identity of Mrs. Lottie Anderson Bernard, who committed suicide on Tuesday night at San Diego, Cal., is now established from the description given. She is Miss Lizzie Wyllie, of 102 National avenue, this city. Mrs. Elizabeth Wyllie, who lives at the above number, has received a dispatch from relatives in San Diego which identifies the dead girl as her daughter. The description of her clothes tallies with those worn by Lizzie Wyllie when she left here some five or six weeks ago. The suicide has two moles on her left cheek, a ring on a finger of the left hand and another ring was found in one of her pockets. The Detroit police were asked for a description of Lizzie Wyllie and the description furnished tallies in almost every detail with that of the dead woman.
Lizzie and her sister, May, were employed in Winn & Hammond’s book-bindery until about two months ago, when they were both discharged. Miss Lizzie, the dead girl, because she was too intimate with John Longfield, who was also discharged. A few days before Lizzie left, Longfield called at the house and said he was going to California. Before Lizzie disappeared, she had said she was going away to look for work, and might go as far as California. The police state positively that Lizzie and Longfield went away together. He is a married man.
Mrs. Wyllie, mother of Lizzie, says: “I have relatives in both San Diego and Pasadena. The ones at San Diego have not seen Lizzie since she was a little girl, and she is now 24, the age given in the original dispatch from San Diego. I have telegraphed my friends in Pasadena, who know Lizzie well, to go down and take care of her remains.”
DEVELOPMENTS IN SAN DIEGO
The only word received from Detroit yesterday was a request from Miss May Wyllie asking that a tin-type be sent of the dead girl. A telegram was received from the president of the bank through which the man Allen sent the money to the girl, as follows:
HAMBURG, Iowa, Dec. 3, 1892
Johnson & Co., Undertakers, San Diego
Neither Allen nor I know the relatives of Mrs. Bernard. Her husband supposed to be in Wichita, Kan.
J. P. Beach
It is supposed that the erring girl and Longfield, traveling under the name of Bernard, went to Hamburg, and that the relations were then made which enabled the girl to call on Allen for money. Longfield may have intimated to Allen that he was going to Wichita. The story of Jos. E. Jones, that he traveled with the couple from Denver, and that they quarreled, with the result that the man deserted the girl at Orange, is doubtless correct. The girl invented the story of her brother the account for her presence at Coronado without money, baggage or friends. It could not be ascertained last might who the relatives of the girl are who reside here.
Los Angeles Times
MYSTERY SOLVED
The Identity of the Coronado Suicide Disclosed
A Poor Detroit Girl Who Had Eloped, Presumably With a Married Man – No Trace of the Latter Yet Discovered
By Telegraph to the Times
DETROIT (Mich.) Dec. 3 – [Special]
The identity of Miss Lottie Anderson Bernard, who committed suicide on Tuesday night at San Diego, Cal. is now established from the description given. She is Miss Lizzie Wyllie of No. 102 National avenue, this city. Mrs. Elizabeth Wyllie, who lives at the above number, has received a dispatch from relatives in San Diego, which identifies the dead girl as her daughter. The description of her clothes tallies with those worn by Lizzie Wyllie when she left here some five or six weeks ago. The suicide has two moles on her left cheek; she had a ring on a finger of the left hand and another ring was found in one of her pockets. Mrs. Wyllie says that her daughter was marked as stated in the dispatch, and had the rings spoken of. The Detroit police were asked for a description of Lizzie Wyllie, and the description tallied in almost every detail with that of the drowned woman.
Lizzie and her sister May were employed in Winn & Hammond’s book bindery until about a month ago, when they were both discharged. Miss Lizzie Wyllie, the dead girl, was discharged because she was too intimate with John Longfield, who was also discharged. A hew days before Lizzie left her home, Longfield called at the house and said he was going to California. Before Lizzie disappeared she had said she was going away and look for work and might go as far as California. The police state positively that Lizzie and Longfield went away together. His is a married man.
Mrs. Wyllie, mother of Lizzie, says: “ I have relations in both San Diego and Pasadena. The ones at San Diego have not seen Lizzie since she was a little girl, and she is not 24 years old, the age given in the original dispatch from San Diego. I have telegraphed my friends in Pasadena, who know Lizzie well, to go down and take care of her remains.”
Longfield’s whereabouts are unknown. The family cannot explain the money said to have been found on the body, nor Lizzie’s connection with the Hamburg (Iowa) bank.
San Francisco Chronicle
HER NAME WAS WYLLIE
Identity of the Coronado Suicide
She Eloped With a Married Man
The Dead Girl Was a Bookbinder of Detroit and Was Out of Employment
Special Dispatch to the Chronicle
DETROIT (Mich.), December 5 – Driven almost to distraction by worry and shame Mrs. Elizabeth Wyllie of Detroit admitted this afternoon that it was her daughter Lizzie who was found dead with a bullet wound in her head, inflicted by her own hand, on the sands of the ocean beach at San Diego, Cal., last Tuesday night. With the stricken mother’s admission came the statement that her daughter had eloped a month before with a married man of this city. The young woman left here without a dollar and her paramour was known to have but little money.
Miss Wyllie, or “Mrs. L. Anderson Bernard,” as she signed herself at San Diego, lived here with her widowed mother and brother and her sister in moderate circumstances. The two girls worked in a bookbindery, but were laid off in September because of dull times. Lizzie became despondent and several times remarked to people that she would not remain in Detroit doing nothing. She spoke then of going even as far as California, if necessary, to seek employment. She made a long visit to her married sister in Grand Rapids and returned six weeks ago. Five weeks ago last Monday she went out ostensibly to go to town on an errand. She never returned.
The anxiety of Mrs. Wyllie and her son and daughter was great. The mother is poor, and evidently depends upon her son for support. She had begged Lizzie not to leave Detroit to seek employment, for she had no money and at home she was sure of getting at least her daily food. It soon became evident to the girl’s relatives that her errand was not to secure work and that she did not go alone. By a little investigation they discovered that a Detroit man, whom they suspected, had also disappeared. He had been calling on Lizzie occasionally, but was regarded by the family merely as a friend, not as a lover.
On the Saturday before Lizzie’s disappearance this man called in the afternoon at the Wyllie house and bade them all good-by. He said he was going south and would probably reach Southern California
before he returned. “I will be picking roses in California while your feet are freezing in Detroit,” he said to May Wyllie, jocosely.
For four weeks the Wyllie family watched and waited for news from Lizzie, and their suspicions settled down into the conviction that she had gone with the man who coolly and smilingly told them of his intended trip to California. They read the newspapers more closely than ever before, and finally the story of the strange suicide of “Mrs. L. Anderson Bernard” was before them.
“Mrs. Bernard,” the telegram said, was 24 years old. That was the age of Lizzie. It was in Southern California that the tragedy occurred, and there was where it was suspected Lizzie had gone. The dispatches described Mrs. Bernard as of pre-possessing appearance, and Lizzie was certainly an attractive girl. The name “L. Anderson Bernard” was suggestive of the lost daughter. The initial is that of the name of Lizzie and Anderson is the name of the married sister in Grand Rapids. So strong became the conviction that the suicide in San Diego was Lizzie that last night May Wyllie telegraphed to the Chief of Police of that city for a full description of the deceased.
This morning a dispatch was received from Undertaker Johnson of San Diego as follows:
“Height, 5 feet 6 inches; complexion, fair, but sallow; medium length black hair, two small moles on left cheek, broad features, high cheekbones, brown eyes; weight, 150 pounds; age, about 26; good teeth, plain gold ring on third finger of left hand; ring of pure gold, with four pearls and blue stone in center; black corset.”
Mrs. Wyllie read the telegram as far as the mention of the two moles and then the paper dropped from her hands. “My Lizzie; it’s my Lizzie,” she sobbed repeatedly. “What will become of me?” Not a word of reproach came from her lips upon the name of the dead girl.
John G. Longfield, a local bookbinder under whom Lizzie worked, is the man with whom she eloped. He is married, and left behind a wife and two children. Mrs. Longfield, while admitting that her husband has not been home for five weeks, says he has been at work in Cleveland all the time and is there now. The sole phase of the strange affair that cannot be explained is the fact that she was expecting money from one G. L. Allen of Hamburg, Ia. The local officers believe that the girl and Longfield had somehow secured the money by illegal means and that in her fear of the discovery of her crimes the girl killed herself.
