Mystery author Ed McBain, in his 1984 novel "Lizzie", suggested that Borden committed the murders after being caught in a lesbian tryst with Sullivan. McBain elaborated on his speculation in a 1999 interview, speculating that Abby had caught Lizzie and Sullivan together and had reacted with horror and disgust, and that Lizzie had killed Abby with a candlestick. When Andrew returned she had confessed to him, but killed him in a rage with a hatchet when he reacted exactly as Abby had. McBain further speculates that Sullivan disposed of the hatchet somewhere afterwards. In her later years, Borden was rumored to be a lesbian, but there was no such speculation about Sullivan, who found other employment after the murders and later married a man she met while working as a maid in Butte, Montana. She died in Butte in 1948, where she allegedly gave a deathbed confession to her sister, stating that she had changed her testimony on the stand in order to protect Borden.