Elizabeth Newton Day Steagall, 25, was one of the civilians killed during the Howard Johnson’s hotel siege in downtown New Orleans on January 7, 1973. She and her husband, Dr. Robert Vernon Steagall, Jr., were staying at the hotel when a lone gunman began setting fires to draw people into his line of fire and then shot from upper floors and the roof.

The attacker was identified as 23-year-old Mark Essex, whose attacks had begun on New Year’s Eve, 1972. Investigators later found a map of New Orleans with the Howard Johnson’s circled and militant, anti-police slogans on his apartment walls, indicating planning and racial motive. Over the course of the incident Essex killed nine people, including five police officers, and wounded twelve others.

The siege ended on the rooftop when officers returned fire and Essex was killed; because the shooter died at the scene, no arrests were made in connection with the deaths of Elizabeth Steagall and the other victims.

Did anyone who knew Elizabeth or her husband stay in touch with their family after 1973 or has additional information about their time in New Orleans?