ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – Channel 4 is learning more about the 80-year-old St. Augustine woman who took her own life Friday on FSCJ Northside campus.
Neighbors of the woman, Phyliss Frank, said she lived in St. Augustine for more than 20 years. They told Channel 4 she killed herself because she couldn't come to terms with retiring from her job at the Criminal Justice Academy.
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Bob Sykes, one of Frank's neighbors, said he's lived a few doors down from her for 10 of those years.
"She was a great girl," said Sykes. "An old maid, never married, but that was her choice."
On Friday, police said Frank was headed to lunch with a police recruit when she inexplicably took her co-worker's personal firearm and shot herself.
Frank was an administrative specialist for 30 years for the police academy at Florida State College at Jacksonville's north campus, and she was set to retire in January. Sykes said the full-time job is what kept her going.
"She left her door open and her key on the mat," Sykes said. "I hope she is in a better place."