Cited Charges of Favoritism in Winning Title : ‘Harassed’ Miss Hungary Kills Herself

BUDAPEST, Hungary — Seventeen-year-old Csilla Andrea Molnar, Miss Hungary, committed suicide after complaining of harassment over winning the crown last year, the Hungarian news media reported today.

Molnar was found unconscious in her parents’ home Thursday in the town of Fonyod on Lake Balaton and taken to a hospital but could not be revived. She died of an overdose of Lidocaine, a drug used as an anesthetic and to control irregular heartbeats, officials said.

“She took great amounts of poison and her heart could not bear it,” said a physician, Istvan Schneider.

Her father went into shock on learning of her death and was hospitalized, the Hungarian news media reports said.

In a recent Budapest radio interview, Molnar complained of all the attention focused on her.

“I don’t know whether I can bear this,” she said. “Everybody is harassing me. They ask: ‘Where and from whom did you get those beautiful clothes? Who helped you? Do you or your father have special connections with the jury?’ And so on.”

Rumors circulated after she won the title last October that her father had contacts on the panel that selected her.

Molnar visited Vienna and Malta after winning the title. She had also been invited to California in August.

Beauty contests are not widespread in socialist countries although Poland sponsors one. The contest in Hungary has been criticized by some hard-liners as capitalistic.