Zelda Fitzgerald died locked in a fifth-floor room when fire destroyed Highland Hospital in 1948; nine women died and no one was charged

Zelda Fitzgerald, 47, was a patient at Highland Hospital, a sanatorium that Duke University's neuropsychiatric department took over in 1939. On 10 March 1948 she was sedated and locked in a fifth-floor room of the Central Building, which held 29 women. Night nurse Doris Anderson smelled smoke about 11:30 p.m. and found fire on the third floor in the diet kitchen, near the dumbwaiter shaft. The fire spread through the shaft to every floor. Rescuers saved 11 women. Nine patients died: two after being brought out, and seven from the fifth floor. Zelda's body was found in the south wing the next evening and confirmed by dental records. Staff suspected an electric coffee urn. Night supervisor Willie Mae Hall later told police she might have started the fire, though she said "I don't know." A coroner's jury first cleared the hospital. The case reopened in April; Hall was committed to Graylyn Mental Hospital and discharged in under two weeks. No one was charged. Families of the dead filed civil suits that settled out of court. Zelda was buried at St. Mary's cemetery in Rockville, Maryland, beside F. Scott Fitzgerald, who died in 1940.