110833861
At approximately 8:11 a.m. Sept. 11, officers from the 3rd District responded to a call from the Holiday Inn, 900 Packer Ave. They arranged for transport to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania after hotel personnel led them to 48-year-old Amy Persky Newman, Officer Jillian Russell of the Police Public Affairs Unit said.
A conference attendee at the location had ventured to the women’s restroom and noticed blood pooling in one of the stalls, with law enforcement agents finding Newman, a sixth-grade instructor at Francis Scott Key Elementary School, 2230 S. Eighth St., suffering from scissor and steak knife wounds to her neck, arms and a breast. At 3:40 p.m., following a surgical procedure, hospital staff pronounced her dead.
Authorities, who are treating the matter as a suicide based on the discovery of a note at the school, divulged that the deceased figure, of Newtown in Bucks County, had reported for her duties at her normal time yet left after a testy phone conversation, Russell said. She left her purse in her vehicle and proceeded directly to the restroom. Officials have not released the contents of the school-situated note supposedly penned by Newman, who had logged 20 years at Key.
Contact Managing Editor Joseph Myers at jmyers@southphillyreview.com or ext. 124.
110833861
110833871
