D.C. Police Still Looking For Murderer of Alumna

District of Columbia police currently have no suspects in last month's murder of a 1984 Harvard graduate.

Florence Essyalenne, who graduated with honors in French literature, was found stabbed to death in her Capitol Hill apartment by D.C. police October 27.

Although Eyssalenne was the third paralegal at the Washington firm of Spiegel & McDiarmid to be killed within the last five years, "there is no connection between the murders," Det. Cathy Jones of the District police said in a telephone interview yesterday.

In June 1981, Kathryn Schilling, a Georgetown University graduate, was raped and shot in the head five times on the way home from work. A jury convicted 24-year-old Donald Gates of her rape and first-degree murder in October 1982. Gates remains in prison.

The murderer of Helen J. Reed, a graduate of Howard University, who died on May 9, 1982, remains at large. Like Eyssalenne, Reed, 24, was found stabbed to death in her apartment.

No Connection

However, Det. Bob Law of the Prince Georges County, Md. Police, who are handling the case, denied that Reed's murder had anything to do with Eyssalenne's.

"It's just one of those weird flukes," Law said.

Spiegel & McDiarmid employs 80 people, 12 of whom are paralegals, according to Thomas Trauger, a partner in the firm.

As of November 1, 122 people had been killed in Washington, a city of 500,000, police officials said.

Originally From Brooklyn

While at Harvard, Eyssalenne lived in Cabot House and worked as a dorm crew supervisor. Originally from Brooklyn, N.Y., she moved to Washington after graduation to work for Spiegel & McDiarmid.

In addition to working as a paralegal, Eyssalenne was taking German classes at Georgetown and tutoring students in foreign languages. She also planned to return to her French literature studies, friends said.