Tarrytown, Nov 22 (THAINDIAN NEWS) Anne Scripps Douglas was a newspaper heiress whose daughter Anne Morell Petrillo, committed suicide by jumping from the Tappan Zee Bridge.

Petrillo’s mother, Anne Scripps Douglas is the great-great-granddaughter of Detroit News founder James Scripps, was beaten to death with a hammer in Anne’s bedroom by her stepfather, Scott Douglas, on New Year’s Eve in 1993.

Anne was born with a silver spoon in her mouth and she led a very privileged life. She was the descendant of the men who founded what would one day become the Scripps Howard newspaper chain, once publishers of the Detroit News, Cincinnati Post and other newspapers across America.

Anne did a rigorous academic and disciplinary course at the all-girls Sacred Heart Convent near Albany and after graduation returned to Manhattan where she studied at the Duchesne Residence School, a two-year college for Catholic women. Later she married her husband Anthony Morell, who was a bond trader. Soon the family included her daughters Anne and Alexandra.

After 18 years of marriage she divorced from her husband Anthony. For her, her daughters were the world and nothing else mattered. Soon she met Scott Doughlas, who pursued her and ultimately married her too. And in a short span of time she was living the life of a battered woman.