Randolph-Macon Woman's College haunting

[Natasha's Dance]

This is actually in response to posts earlier in this thread, from
four years ago, but figured I would add what information I have about
this.

Not Heinz, she was a daughter of the Hellman (Mayonaise) family. The
painting in question hangs in the Maier Museum of Art (on campus).
Here's a link to "Red Umbrella":

http://maier.rmwc.edu/OBJ*93$4486?page=93

And a bit more info on it:

20th Century Painting

Red Umbrella
1972
20th Century
25 in. x 29 1/4 in. (63.5 cm x 74.3 cm)

Colleen Browning
(Cregg, County Cork, Ireland, 1929 - )
Primary

Medium and Support: Oil on Canvas

Credit Line: Gift of the Cynthia L. Hellman Memorial Fund, 1973

It is a beautiful, ethereal painting.

Yes, her name was Cynthia. I have never heard that she watches the
painting, nor that she was actually raped. I knew someone at RMWC who
had researched this and discovered that Miss Hellman walked every day
from campus to the local post office (about a block) to mail letters
(I don't know to whom, but it was apparently a very regular thing) and
usually wore her "Dr. Scholl's" sandals. Anyone who remembers these
torture devices knows that they are of hard wood and make a
distinctive sound as one walks. The story goes that there was a local
man who happened to live in a house on her daily route. He was, I
believe, a diagnosed skizophrenic, and what drove him to go after her
was he hated the sound her shoes made. I believe he was sent to a
psychiatric institution, but was due to get out...I think this year
(2004 or thereabouts). She tried to escape him by running onto campus,
but he caught her and yes, it's said she suffered very severe burns
because he repeatedly threw her against a large outdoor radiator (I
don't know the exact term)from which hot steam was escaping. It was
told to me by the daughter of a student who was there at the time (and
her father, who was a visiting boyfriend) that her screams could be
heard by those sitting on a balcony of a nearby campus building. When
she was found she was so badly burned that she could not be positively
identified. All students were ordered to return to their rooms so
they could be accounted for, and those who were off campus (it was a
weekend)were contacted to verify their safety. And so, it was process
of elimination that determined who had been murdered.
The rumor still goes that she can be heard running and/or screaming
down the street where she tried in vain to escape (I have personally
never heard this and go down the same street often), and some say that
her dorm room is haunted, particuarly a closet door that one may "ask"
her to open. And yes, after what happened many trees and shrubs were
cut.
One bit of good advice about being in a similar situation is to never
duck down a side street. Stay on the main road, it will attract far
more attention and increase chances of survival. The area Cynthia ran
for was behind one of the more isolated, larger buildings on the
campus, behind it is almost like being under a hill. She didn't have
much chance to escape. :(

[tampa...@gmail.com]

That's not what happened. Ms. Hellman's shoes were found in front of the laundromat on Rivermont Avenue, about 350 yards from where her body was found. There is no proof of where she had been although there is speculation she went to the 7-11 on Bedford Avenue or [like yourself] to the post office which is approximately across Rivermont from where her shoes were found. She was not sexually assaulted. She was fully clothed, except for her shoes. Smith lived at least 1/2 mile past the 7-11, on the far side from the College. There was no reason for Hellman to walk past his house, ever! There is speculation that Hellman may have been to the Dalhia, but it is located between Smith's house and the 7-11 and Hellman still would not have walked past Smith's house going to/from campus. I remember the cops were still 'working' when I went to pick up papers for my paper route the next morning at the corner of Rivermont and Norfolk Avenues. I went to elementary school with Smith's son.

[lane...@lcps.k12.va.us]

Well, there is more to this story. My mother may have been the last person to see that woman alive. It was very very late at night maybe after midnight and my mother was driving over to a girlfriends house in the middle of the night. My brother and I were in the car I was about 8 and my brother about 4. He was asleep and I was starring out the passenger side window. My mother saw this woman run down Rivermont Ave in front of the shops toward Randolph Macon Woman's College.We were stopped at the light and my mother looked over and saw a couple which looked like they were fighting. The girl pulled away and went running toward the college. She didn't think much of it cause she believed it was two lovers having a quarrel. The next day she was horrified to find out that she witness the confrontation before that man murdered her. She called in to the police and made a statement but never appeared in court. Talking about eerie....

[slba...@randolphcollege.edu]

On Wednesday, August 18, 2004 9:43:31 PM UTC-4, Natasha's Dance wrote:

Hello, I'm a fellow student at the school. I'm not sure how much help I'll bring, but I found a copy of the story written about her in the newspaper. Or I guess, rather her murder. It doesn't say she was raped, but it was the early 1970s and I doubt they would've put that in the paper. The man who killed her was out on bond.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1298&dat=19730428&id=HQJOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=MYwDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6090,3457838

It's under the headline "Police Arrest Man In Slaying Of Coed"

[jennifer...@gmail.com]

Cindy Hellman was the sister of a friend of mine in high school. She graduated from Robert E Lee HS in Houston in 1972. She was very popular and very, very beautiful. I can still remember the morning she was found like it was yesterday. And no, she was not a part of the Hellmann's Mayonnaise family.

[das...@gmail.com]

Cynthia was in my sister’s class at R-MWC as a freshman; I was a junior that year. Cynthia walked to the 7-11 on Bedford Avenue to get candy; she had tried to get others in the dorm (Webb) to go with her, but it was late and no one accompanied her. Unfortunately, the fellow who murdered her saw her in the 7-11 and followed her. He caught up with her at the light at Rivermont Ave. There was a struggle, and rather than stay on Rivermont Ave., Cynthia ran down Norfolk Ave. which was dark and deserted at that time of night. She entered campus at the gate on Norfolk Ave. Cynthia did scream, but by the time the Pinkerton Guard found her, she had been beaten badly and was placed on the steam grate at the Science Building. No allegation of rape ever was made.

Until Cynthia’s death, all of us at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College believed that we always would be safe on campus. This “magical thinking” turned out to be Cynthia’s undoing. Had she stayed on Rivermont Avenue, a more heavily trafficked main road, passerbys may have been able to interceded. Instead, she chose the shortest route back to campus, Norfolk Avenue, and entered campus between two deserted buildings.

Cythia’s parents purchased the painting and gave it to R-MWC in her memory. She was a vibrant and engaging young woman who was much loved. I have always found it to be a very poignant painting. It hung in Main Hall’s lobby for many years. During that time, I never heard any rumors regarding Cynthia’s painting being haunted, but I doubt any of my fellow students thought of it as anything other than incredibly sad.