I feel the time of year must also be taken into account. When she had left London it had been late August/early September, but now it was November, the nights were long and dark, the prospect of spending the entire winter on the island, with nothing to do but stalk its bracing, windswept beaches and hills, must have been daunting. Her behaviour on her last day suggests she was afraid to stay on the island, but at the same time resigned to it. Curiously, she certainly doesn’t seem to have made any coherent plans to return to her life in London. The scratches on her body, if they existed (they seem to have been a later addition, and some argue that only her feet were scratched up), are a bit more difficult to explain. It could be that she fell into some brambles, but the posthumous examination didn't contain any reports of thorns being found in her skin. Iona did not harbor large predators, such as foxes, that might have tried to scavenge the body, and no bite marks were found either. Her death remains a mystery to this day. Was she murdered by people offended by her unconventional views? Was her death supernatural or merely the inevitable conclusion of untreated paranoid schizophrenia? The Mysterious Death of Netta Fornario is a chilling account mixing fiction with the real events of a still controversial death, suitable for age 14+.

Netta Fornario’s missing papers… - Cipher Mysteries Netta Fornario’s missing papers… - Cipher Mysteries

The doctor who examined the body could not narrow down the time of death. Therefore, he pronounced that she could have died at any time from the 17th to the 19th when her body was found. He apparently also had trouble determining a cause of death. So he covered all the bases and settled on either “exposure to the elements” or “heart failure.” Neither of which could account for mysterious deep scratches on Netta’s body and on the bottoms of her feet. Was she running from something? She was eventually found on the Tuesday, by what the locals described as a ‘faery mound’ to the South of Loch Staonaig." A letter she sent to Mrs Varney last week stated :- “Do not be surprised if you do not hear from me for a long time. I have a terrible healing case.”While some skeptics swear that she died from “exposure to the elements,” believers of Scottish folklore have a completely different theory about what took her life. tells of a lady visitor who fell victim to the fairies of the fairy hill on Iona. She apparently slipped out one night to the fairy hill naked carrying only a knife with which to open the hill, and she was found dead in the morning beside the fairy hill (Sithean Mor, it’s just by the road to Machair – aka Angels’ Hill where Columba spoke with the angels). According to the story she was buried at Reilig Odhrain. Netta was devastated that she couldn’t leave and attempted to calm herself down by taking a Sunday night stroll. That was the last time she was ever seen alive. The Mystery

Netta Fornario - A woman engrossed by the Curious Death of Netta Fornario - A woman engrossed by the

Netta was especially interested in something she called “green elementals” (also known as “faeries”), which is what brought her to Iona, Scotland in the 1920s. Iona, Scotland Well this one at least looks a little more promising!...although I have to admit that's only because I don't recognize her like I did the others...In her final years, Moina was destitute and discouraged. She attempted to revive her art career by painting portaits but was only modestly successful. Her health declined. Near the end she refused to eat. She died on July 25, 1928. FURTHER READING: She seems to have resigned herself to this though. In fact, after a short spell in her room, she emerged and told Mrs MacRae that she had changed her mind, and that she would be staying indefinitely on the island. Netta’s sudden change of mood can seem baffling at first. I sometimes wonder if she had simply taken something as a “sign” that she was meant to stay on Iona. Someone like Netta would find symbolism in just about anything, and her belief in fate/destiny/karma would have been acutely strong. Hence her air of fatalism at this moment. The Aos S í , or Shee in our story, are far removed from the typical fairy tale. Folklore describes them as a supernatural race of beings that live in a parallel universe overlapping our own. In Gaelic folklore, they are descended from the Tuath Dé , a pre-Christian race of demigods. In other traditions, they are considered fallen angels, cast out of heaven but not damned to H ell. By all accounts, they are ancient and powerful beings worthy of fear and respect.

A Mystical Island and the Mysterious Death of the Occultist

According to Francis King’s book Ritual Magic in England, Fornario told her landlady that “certain people” were affecting her telepathically. The disappearance of NettaThere is also Chapter 17 of Classic Scottish Murder Stories online, which brings together yet more strands. e.g. “ Richard Wilson quotes from the Glasgow Bulletin a report which describes the body as lying in a sleeping posture on the right side, the head resting on the right hand. A knife was found a few feet away. There were a few scratches on the feet […]. Otherwise, there were no marks on the body. Netta Fornario was a thirty year old woman living in London. Born to an Italian father who loved to travel to ancient places like egypt, Netta developed a keen interest in the occult, supernatural and spiritual at a young age. Some skeptics believe that Netta’s death wasn’t related to spirits and can be explained medically. Medical experts have theorized that it’s very possible that Netta had ketoacidosis, a sometimes deadly condition in which there is a massive build-up of acid in your bloodstream. Greer, Mary K. Women of the Golden Dawn: Rebels and Priestesses. Rochester, Vt.: Inner Traditions, 1995.