 Schiavi was doing a photography assignment for the New York City newspaper "PM" in northern Iran at the time of her death.Lea Schiavi was murdered by undetermined assailants in South Persia on April 24, 1942 while her husband Winston Burdett was reporting in India.While the murder was never solved it is believed to be, based on the testimony of Burdett, that the murder was directly related to Burdett's no longer spying for the Soviet Union due to his ongoing disillusionment with Communism.