2 Aug 1841 - Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
Case File: Mary Cecilia Rogers
[Copies of this article were also published in the New York Tribune (New York City); the Madisonian (Washington, D.C.); the Boston Post (Boston, Massachusetts); and The Public Ledger (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). The Public Ledge notes that they received their information from The Sun. The Boston Post published on Aug 4 and noted that they received their information from the New York Courier and The Star.]
On Sunday morning week, Miss Cecilia Rogers (who formerly attended John Anderson’s store in Broadway, and was known as “The Beautiful Cigar Girl,”) left her home, 162 Nassau street, for a walk; and at the corner of Theatre Alley she was met and accosted by a young man, apparently an acquaintance, with whom she proceeded towards Barclay street, as if for an excursion to Hoboken. Nothing further was heard of her that day by her friends, and alarmed by her non-appearance they advertised for her in Tuesday’s papers. Still nothing was seen or heard of her till Wednesday, when Mr. H. G. Luther and two other gentlemen, who were passing the Sybil’s Cave, near Castle Point, Hoboken, in a sail-boat, were shocked by the sight of the body of a young female in the water. They brought it ashore, a Coroner’s Inquest was summoned, and it was proved to be the body of Miss Rogers, and it was evident that she had been horribly outraged and murdered! The Inquest returned a verdict of murder by some person or persons unknown.
We understand that the deceased was a young woman of good character, and was soon to have been married to a worthy young man of this city. It is added that suspicion rests on a young man who has absented himself from the city since the murder was committed.