Abigail Marston was an important side character in both of the Red Dead Redemption games. Though her husband John Marston dies at the end of the original Red Dead Redemption, Abigail and their son Jack manage to escape the Pinkertons and government forces, leading players to believe that both of them are safe momentarily. That’s why it’s surprising that the game simply glosses over Abigail’s death when it moves on to the epilogue.
In the epilogue of the original Red Dead Redemption, a scene shows Jack burying his mother next to Uncle and John’s graves on the hill next to the family’s former ranch. Her tombstone reveals she was only 37 years old when she passed. However, the game doesn’t disclose how or why she died.
The game assumes that players will easily accept Abigail died of unknown causes, but it, unfortunately, lost a good opportunity to expand on the circumstances leading up to this character’s death. Given how important Abigail was to the story of both Red Dead Redemption games, the character deserves more closure. But a specific fact about Abigail’s backstory before she fell in love with John Marston may reveal how she eventually died.
Abigail’s Old Line Of Work May Have Caused Her Death
Abigail originally became associated with the Van der Lindes when she was working as a prostitute. She only stopped working when she fell in love with John. When referring to Abigail and John’s relationship, Dutch says, “We all had her, but he married her.” It’s also been heavily implied that Jack may not be John’s biological son. “You don’t look much like a Marston… maybe a Williamson or an Escuela,” Arthur Morgan says during RDR2, implying Abigail likely provided services to Javier and Bill before settling down with John.
Considering she would’ve needed a new way to support herself and Jack, Abigail may have gone back to her old ways after John’s death. With a lack of knowledge concerning proper hygiene, it was common for sex workers in the early twentieth century to suffer from a variety of sexually transmitted diseases, such as syphilis. It’s not outlandish to think that Abigail may have contracted something while on the job, causing her untimely death. Simply being in close quarters with someone would be enough to contract a fatal disease such as tuberculosis, a common death sentence for the time. This is similarly what happened to Thomas Downes’ wife Edith after he died of TB; she became a prostitute in order to support herself and her son. The real difference, though, is that Edith Downes was able to escape to a better life by the end of RDR2, while Abigail wasn't so lucky.
There is, of course, still a big chance Abigail Marston died another way. She may have been killed by someone seeking revenge against John, particularly associates of the gang members he hunted down in the first game. Or it could have been something completely random, like a freak illness, animal attack, or accident. Either way, unfortunately, the true cause of Abigail’s death will remain a mystery thanks to the reluctance of the Red Dead Redemption games to name a definite reason.