According to the "Clipper", "she received the thanks of the New York Fire Department for her bravery and advice, and the press unite in editorially praising her actions." In 1891, while touring the United States with Adam Forepaugh's circus, she nearly died during a show in New Mexico. She performed with the cannon as well as on a tight wire. The wire was about 40 feet off the ground, running from the side of the circus tent to two poles braced together in the centre, fit with a platform. According to a witness interviewed in the "Mackay Mercury", the poles were supposed to be fastened together with a steel band, but it was accidentally left off. When she was out on the wire, starting to put up an umbrella, she signalled to her coworkers, who thought she wanted them to tighten the wire. When they did so, the poles came apart and Richter fell to the ground. She landed on her hands and knees, and one of the poles fell on her back. When the poles were moved and someone picked her up, her body could not straighten out. Two men pulled her shoulders and legs to straighten out her appearance. The crowd panicked and she was heard screaming. The witness said it was "the most horrible accident I ever witnessed ... and I have seen a good many accidents in my day." She had broken her back. Local medical professionals provided short-term treatment before she was taken to facilities in New York. The accident effectively retired her from her circus career, and she spent several months in a suspended full body cast. At some point Rossa and her husband moved back to England, living in a house in Upper Norwood. He died in 1915 and requested that his ashes be spread to the "four winds" on the boat ride between the UK and US. British laws did not allow it, but she fulfilled his request secretly the following year, and then returned to England. In an update in a 1933 issue of "The Bystander", she said that she was living on her own in Southern England, enjoying playing roulette when she had the opportunity. She died on 8 December 1937 at Camberwell House hospital in Peckham. Press coverage of Richter's performances remarked on the impressive spectacle of the act and her fearlessness and athleticism. "The West Australian" wrote that "there was never a more fearless woman gymnast" and said that "fear was to her an unknown quantity". That she also jumped out of buildings to demonstrate the functionality of a safety net further established that she was brave even outside of the confines of a circus tent.