Some women were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joseph, and Salome.
Karel Hanhart writes, about this episode:
At any rate, John was Mark's first interpreter, focussing the narrative, the "theology", of his Haggadah (being "handed over" to the Gentiles) on the scene of the "mother of Jesus" under the cross (19:26f.), faithful Israel "passing over" to the Gentiles, going into exile. True, Mark had the women observe the crucifixion "at a distance" (makrothen, "from afar"), not under the cross as in John. But as the parallels show (Mark 5:6; 8:3; 11:13), the use of this Greek adverb "from a distance" was Mark's literary way of providing a link between 30 and 70 and developments leading up to the Temple's destruction...
(The Open Tomb, p. 396, my bold)
In red the error. The only Salome of my knowledge who is connected with Jesus in the tradition is the Jannaeus's wife Alexandra/Salome. No wonder that the same Hanhart confesses that the enigma about Salome is without solution, but a trace, however small, has to be followed.
Therefore it is false the following statement:
Unlike-other historical figures appearing in the narrative who are evidently identifiable from the New Testament - Mary, Jesus, Pilate, Peter, Simon, Paul and even Joseph and Yohanan (John) - Queen Helena does not appear in the New Testament
(Toledot Yeshu (»The Life Story of Jesus«) Revisited, p. 256, my bold)
Since the Toledoth Jeschu talks about Queen Helen condemning Jesus to death, then there is some irony in the fact that now Salome/Helen figures in the Gospel as a witness of the death of Jesus, but only "from a distance".
The other woman who is 'from a distance' is Mary of Magdala, i.e. the Helen of Simon Magus: no wonder she also is held debtly 'to distance'.
Finally, the mother of James is the Mary denied by Jesus himself, hence the "distance" is prescribed by Jesus himself.
In only a row, Mark has been able to divide Jesus from the enemies of Mark:
- Simonians ('Mary of Magdala')
- Judaizers ('Mary mother of James')
- anti-Christian Jewish rumors about Jesus ('Salome')