The Strange and Violent Death of Evelyn Consuela Rosemann in Yosemite National Park
Summary
The front page of the October 22nd, 1968 edition of the Madera Tribune contained the following three paragraphs:
YOSEMITE (UPI)-A woman who apparently fell from the top of Nevada Falls here has been identified as Evelyn Consoela Rosemann, 24, San Francisco.
Park officials said her body was found by a hiker Saturday. Authorities estimated the young woman had been dead for about a week.
A park spokesman said Miss Rosemann apparently hiked to the top of the falls and fell to the bottom.
Nevada Fall (convention is to call waterfalls “fall” in Yosemite) is a 594-foot high waterfall in Yosemite National Park that is a popular hiking destination.
The account given in the book Off the Wall: Death in Yosemite (written by search and rescue employees) is much more detailed and disturbing.
Rosemann was employed as a masseuse at the time of her death and had previously worked as a topless waitress.
Her “badly battered body” was found 200 feet from the base of Nevada Fall. She was wearing torn trousers and a sweater, but no underwear.
The book says that her “clothes were not as they should have been,” describing how her pants were pulled down and gathered about her ankles and her sweater was pulled up and behind her head. A black sweater was found near her feet.
She had either fallen or been thrown from the top of Nevada Fall.
Death in Yosemite continues to say “after her fall she had been man-handled.”
Rosemann’s purse was found on the bridge above Nevada Fall.
An autopsy revealed that she had died the previous day and had suffered “severe and traumatic injuries.”
How did she manage to go over the fall? It was October and cool, so it was unlikely she went swimming (also unlikely she would have worn pants and a sweater in the water).
Also, the river flows quite low that time of year, giving someone who falls in some chance of self-rescue before going over.
When discovered, her body had already been moved from the point of impact. Traces of the material of her pants were found closer to the fall. Portions of her brain matter were found on a rock about 50 feet towards the center of the stream.
The state of her clothes being almost yanked off was very strange. It may have been done by the river, or it may have been done by human action.
Most disturbingly, the autopsy showed that sexual intercourse had occurred near the time of her death, and that it likely happened after she was dead (i.e. she was raped postmortem).
Question
Murder, suicide, accident – what happened???
Links
Madera Tribune, October 22, 1968 (retrieved from the California Digital Newspaper Collection, Center for Bibliographic Studies and Research, University of California, Riverside):
Nevada Fall Wikipedia link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevada_Fall
Off the Wall: Death in Yosemite by Michael P. Ghiglieri, Charles R. Farabee
https://www.amazon.com/Off-Wall-Yosemite-Michael-Ghiglieri/dp/0970097360/
Nevada Fall National Park Service page:
https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/vernalnevadatrail.htm