Flora Baumbach's unfortunate habit of smiling in inappropriate situations makes her a natural object of suspicion. However, as the story unfolds, we discover that she's a kind, affable, caring figure, who forms a kind of mother-daughter relationship with Turtle Wexler, her partner in the game. Nevertheless, everyone in The Westing Game has some kind of motive for killing Sam Westing, and Flora is no exception.

All that money would certainly come in useful for a dress-maker who isn't getting any younger. Though it might be difficult to imagine a kindly old mother figure like Flora actually killing someone, she has the best motive of all to get rid of Sam: his money. Then again, maybe she has a more personal motive for killing him. She made a wedding dress for Sam's daughter, Violet. Sadly, Violet killed herself. Perhaps Flora blames Sam in some way for his daughter's suicide. Flora was incredibly close to her own daughter, Rosalie, a young woman with Down syndrome who passed away at the age of nineteen. So perhaps she feels Violet's death more personally than anyone else.