Woman dies in fall from Museum of Industry roof

by Jacqueline Watts
editor@baltimoreguide.com

A woman trying to jump from the roof of the Baltimore Museum of Industry to its neon sign fell and died last Thursday morning.
Mary Elizabeth Rollins, 27, was with three others on the roof of the museum at about 2:30 a.m. when the accident occurred, said Agent Troy Harris, a spokesman for the Baltimore Police Department.

Police did not identify the other three people at the scene, but said that one of the people present was the museum’s receptionist.
Police said that alcohol might have been a factor in the incident. The group had visited two bars before going over to the museum, according to the police report. Results of a toxicology test are not yet in, and Rollins’ death is still under investigation.
Rollins was a firefighter and emergency medical technician with the Howard County Fire Department, assigned to a firehouse in Ellicott City. She lived at the HarborView condominiums on Key Highway.
Roland Woodward, executive director of the Museum of Industry, said the staff was in shock. He said that no one is authorized to go up on the roof except maintenance staff and contractors. “We have no idea what they were doing there,” he said.
Museum employees said that the roof was not used for functions, and that no one went up there to sunbathe or relax.
Woodward said that the museum’s neon sign was timed to shut off shortly after midnight, so it should have been off at 2:30 a.m., the approximate time of Rollins’ fatal fall.
The group apparently got to the roof by way of an outside staircase.
“We know that one of our employees was indeed one of them,” said Woodward, “but we have not been able to talk to her in any depth. She has not been an any shape to talk.
“It has been a great shock to everyone here,” said Woodward. “It is a very, very sad thing.”