Source: St Louis Post Dispatch

Henry Beckerle, a farmer living two miles west of St Charles, Mo., said to a Post-Dispatch reporter Wednesday that he will come to St Louis and aid in the search for the body of his daughter Martha, a novice in the sisterhood of Notre Dame, who leaped into the river from the convent grounds at the foor of Railroad avenue, south of Carondelet, at sunrise Monday.

In religion Miss Beckerle was known as Sister Editha. She was 21 years old and had been at the convent two years studying the sisterhood. She became a novice last August, and when she leaped into the river she wore the long white veil with which she had been invested at an elaborate ceremony.

After the 19 novices had attended the impressive high mass at the convent last Sunday they were told that they would be assigned as assistants to the nuns of the order who teach classes in the parochial schools of st Louis. sister Editha showed some nervousness when the announcement was made and anxiously asked the mistress of novices to what school she would be assigned.

She was told that she would be sent Monday morning to the St Alphonsus (Rock Church) School, the highest grade parochial school in st Louis, where the requirements for teachers are greater than at any of the other institutions of the kind in the city.

Making no comment she turned and silently walked away.

At 7 o'clock Monday morning the tug Lockwood, engaged in transporting coal across the river for the Iron Mountain Railroad, was making its first trip off the point where the majestic buildings of the convent over look the Mississippi.

As told exclusively in late editions of Tuesday's Post Dispatch the crew of the busy tug were suddenly attracted by a flash of snowy white on the lawn of the convent grounds. In the full light of the morning sun they saw a young woman walking down the grassy slope and through a fringe of trees tot he water's edge.

Her long white veil was drawn around her, completely concealing the black habit which she wore underneath it.

Her dark hair was covered by a white cap. Slowly she walked to the water's edge and several of the men on the boat involuntarily shouted to her. If she heard them she gave no notice.

Bending over, she stood looking at the swift current below her for a moment. Then she walked backwords 10 feet. Lifting her veil she turned her face upward.

In the dazzling morning light the men on the tug could see her lips moving as if in prayer. Thus she stood immovable as a statue for a minute. Then she ran forward swiftly and leaped into the stream.

One of the men on the tug pulled the whistle valve, sounding a distress signal, which attracted the attention of Fred Hex, a fisherman whose skiff was moored near the convent grounds.

The novice never came to the surface after her leap, but her long white veil could be seen dancing on the sunlit waters too close to the shore for the tug to approach.

Hex, in his skiff, rowed over to it. As the veil became water soaked it melted like snow and gradually faded from the sight. All further efforts to recover the body were unavailing.

At the convent it was said tht Sister Editha arose at 5:30 a.m.. She did not appear at breakfast, but this was no considered unusual, as it was thought that she might have chosen to fast.

shortly after 7 o'clock, when the novices were assembled to be taken to their assignments at the parochial schoold, she was missed. The mistress of candidates was at once sent to St Charles to tell her parents what had happened.