Dead woman was nu nursery teacher By Christopher Spruce Of the NEWS Staff A young woman whose body was found beside Old County Road in Newport Sunday was scheduled to go to work at a Bangor school for preschoolers at the time of her disappearance two years ago, the NEWS learned Thursday. Ms. Martha Bicknell, director of the Children's House Montessori School on Essex Street. confirmed reports Thursday that Ellen L. Choate, 24. of the Philadelphia, Pa., area was due to work as a substitute teaching assistant at the school beginning June 2, 1975, but failed to show up. Ms. Bicknell said Miss Choate had done student teaching at, the Children's House for three weeks in May, 1975, before returning to Philadelphia to graduate from a year's Montessori training, which represented post - graduate work for the woman. She was then scheduled to substitute teach at the Bangor school for the last two weeks of the 1975 school vear. The woman, who was reported missing during the first week of June, 1975, had indicated whe would accept a fulltime teaching position at Children's House the next fall. "We had a verbal committment for her to work with us. Ms. Bicknell said. The school director said a friend of Miss Choate contacted the school and was "quite concerned"' when she failed to show up for the job during the first week of June, 1975. Police were later notified, but no trace of the girl was found until Sunday when her partially decomposed body was discovered in Newport. Newport Police Chief Charles Jackson, who is investigating the death of the woman with Maine State Police, said Thursday that investigators didn't have actual proof of where the dead woman worked or was going to work before her death. But he admitted that the Children's House was one of the places police were checking on. Ms. Bicknell said she had not vet been contacted by police but allowed they had probably had difficulty locating her if they had tried because of a change in address and the summer closing of the school. Jackson said investigators were still awaiting reports from Dr. Henry Ryan, chief medical examiner for the state, regarding determination of what caused "an unnatural hole" in the side of the woman's skull. Police have said they are working on the distinct possibility that the woman died by violent means, perhaps from a gunshot wound to the head. Ryan reported Wednesday that the body had lain unburied in the spot where it was found for at least a year and probably two. In an unrelated investigation, state police investigators in Northeast Harbor reported Thursday that there were no new developments in the case of a 27-year-old Hingham, Mass., woman who was found beaten to death June 19. Lt. Richard Bowley said police had no suspect as yet in the slaying of Leslie E. Spellman, whose body was found in the Asticou Azalea Gardens by tourists 13 days ago. She reportedly had been intending to take a backpacking tour of Acadia National Park at the time of her death. BUCKSPORT MILL X FEE 3085 #* REGIS!