NEW FROM THE MAKERS OF

U N R E S O LV E D

Unsolved crimes & events that have

baff led the world’s greatest minds

25
OF THE
WORLD’S MOST
PECULIAR CRIMES
AND CASES
Edition
Digital

DISAPPEARANCES • MURDERS • SECRET SIGNALS • ALIENS

EDITION
THIRD
WELCOM E
When no word was received of nine students
trekking Russia’s remote Ural Mountains in
February 1959, alarm bells rang. A search
party was sent into the snowy abyss to rescue
them, but instead of grateful faces, the team
stumbled across something much more bizarre
and gruesome. Five bodies were found within a
kilometre of their camp, undressed, burnt, and
injured. Over the next few months, the corpses
of the remaining four were found missing
tongues, eyeballs or – most mysteriously of all
– physically unharmed, but with catastrophic
internal injuries. For decades the case of the
Dyatlov Pass incident became the fodder of
conspiracy theories, and even the official
conclusion in 2020 by the Russian government
of death by hypothermia in the wake of an
avalanche failed to satisfy many.
Over the decades, many events and crimes
– from seemingly straightforward to the
utterly bizarre – have remained unsolved. In
Unresolved Mysteries, explore some of the
world’s most striking unsolved mysteries – can
you work out the truth?
 U N R E S O LV E D

Future PLC Quay House, The Ambury, Bath, BA1 1UA

Bookazine Editorial
Editor Philippa Grafton
Designer Steve Dacombe
Compiled by Drew Sleep & Adam Markiewicz
Senior Art Editor Andy Downes
Head of Art & Design Greg Whitaker
Editorial Director Jon White
Cover images
Getty Images, Alamy, Nicolas Cado / AFP
Photography
Getty Images, Alamy, Nicolas Cado / AFP, Shutterstock, Corbis, NASA
All copyrights and trademarks are recognised and respected
Advertising
Media packs are available on request
Commercial Director Clare Dove
International
Head of Print Licensing Rachel Shaw
[email protected]
www.futurecontenthub.com
Circulation
Head of Newstrade Tim Mathers
Production
Head of Production Mark Constance
Production Project Manager Matthew Eglinton
Advertising Production Manager Joanne Crosby
Digital Editions Controller Jason Hudson
Production Managers Keely Miller, Nola Cokely,
Vivienne Calvert, Fran Twentyman
Printed in the UK
Distributed by Marketforce, 5 Churchill Place, Canary Wharf, London, E14 5HU
www.marketforce.co.uk Tel: 0203 787 9001
Unresolved Mysteries Third Edition (AHB4959)
© 2022 Future Publishing Limited

We are committed to only using magazine paper which is derived from responsibly managed,
certified forestry and chlorine-free manufacture. The paper in this bookazine was sourced
and produced from sustainable managed forests, conforming to strict environmental and
socioeconomic standards.

All contents © 2022 Future Publishing Limited or published under licence. All rights reserved.
No part of this magazine may be used, stored, transmitted or reproduced in any way without
the prior written permission of the publisher. Future Publishing Limited (company number
2008885) is registered in England and Wales. Registered office: Quay House, The Ambury,
Bath BA1 1UA. All information contained in this publication is for information only and is, as far
as we are aware, correct at the time of going to press. Future cannot accept any responsibility
for errors or inaccuracies in such information. You are advised to contact manufacturers and
retailers directly with regard to the price of products/services referred to in this publication. Apps
and websites mentioned in this publication are not under our control. We are not responsible for
their contents or any other changes or updates to them. This magazine is fully independent and
not affiliated in any way with the companies mentioned herein.

Future plc is a public Chief executive Zillah Byng-Thorne

company quoted on the Non-executive chairman Richard Huntingford
London Stock Exchange Chief financial officer Penny Ladkin-Brand
(symbol: FUTR)
www.futureplc.com Tel +44 (0)1225 442 244

Part of the

bookazine series

This bookazine is printed

on recycled paper
 UNRESOLVED MYSTERIES

CONTENTS
UNEXPLAINED DEATHS
10 Unsolved murders and 32
mysterious deaths
16 The mysterious man of
Somerton beach
24 Murder behind closed doors
32 The Atlanta child
murders re-examined
40 Mystery of the Yuba County 5
48

Getty Images
The Chicago Tylenol murders

MYSTERIOUS 64 106
DISAPPEARANCES
58 Vanished into thin air
64 The disappearing skyjacker
72 The disappearance of
Philip Cairns
Getty Images
80 Snatched from the
Alamy

supermarket
88 Run for your life
96 The disappearance of 88
Andrew Gosden

“NOT EVEN THE GREATEST OF

MAGICIANS CAN REALLY VANISH 48
INTO THIN AIR”
6
 CONTENTS

THE WEIRD & WACKY

106 Something’s afoot in the
Salish Sea
112 Are we really alone?
118 The biggest art theft in history
122 Secret signals

16
Shutterstock

10

58 80
Getty Images

112 122

Getty Images
Getty Images

Getty Images

7
 UNRESOLVED MYSTERIES

UNEXPLAINED
DEATHS 24 MURDER BEHIND
CLOSED DOORS

Getty Images
Getty Images

via Getty Images

Nicolas Cado / AFP

8
 UNEXPLAINED DEATHS

16 THE MYSTERIOUS MAN

OF SOMERTON BEACH

“IT SOON BECAME CLEAR

s
age
ty Im
THAT SOMETHING TRULY

Get
DREADFUL HAD HAPPENED
TO THE MYSTERY MAN
FROM THE BEACH” 10 UNSOLVED MURDERS AND
MYSTERIOUS DEATHS

Getty Images
40 MYSTERY OF THE
YUBA COUNTY 5

32 THE ATLANTA CHILD

48 THE CHICAGO
Getty Images

TYLENOL MURDERS
Getty Images

MURDERS RE-EXAMINED

9
 UNEXPLAINED DEATHS

UNSOLVED MURDERS
AND MYSTERIOUS
DEATHS
Around the world, people have
gone missing or been found
dead, their deaths becoming a
mythologised mystery
WRITTEN BY NELL DARBY

10
 UNSOLVED MURDERS AND MYSTERIOUS DEATHS

Searchers find the students’

abandoned tent, covered in
snow, in February 1959. The
students had left the tent either
barefoot or just in their socks

M
ysterious deaths have always grabbed
our attention. Even where there might
be a logical reason behind a death,
we want to believe that we are being Group leader Igor Dyatlov’s smiling face leaps
out from newspaper reports on the incident that
lied to, or that there is another reason continues to fascinate us decades after it occurred
behind it. Such is human nature; unless we have

THE DYATLOV
evidence for something, we are naturally inclined
to doubt what we are told, or even what we
see. Over the centuries, there have been many
mysterious deaths, and attendant conspiracy
theories. Here are just a few of the cases that have

PASS MYSTERY
made us stop and think, and that continue to
capture public attention.

A tomb in Yekaterinburg’s
Mikhailov Cemetery includes
photos of those who died so
They were innocently hiking through the
mysteriously 60 years ago
They were innocently hiking through
Ural young
the Ural Mountains – but nine Mountains – but nine young Russians
Russians never came backnever came back
They were nine experienced ‘ski hikers’ – using other men and two women, who all wanted to
their skis to hike through snowy terrain – who set go ski-hiking to the mountain of Otorten. The
out one winter’s day in 1959 to trek to the summit youngest member of the party was Lyudmila
of a mountain in the Russian wilderness. They Dubinina, who was just 20 years old; the oldest
never came home, their disappearance becoming was Semyon Zolotaryov, who was 38. Most of the
an enduring mystery. party, though, were in their early 20s.
The individuals were students and graduates Their plan was to travel by train to the town of
from the Ural Polytechnic Institute, now known Ivdel, from where they would travel by truck to
as the Ural State Technical University. The an isolated village called Vizhay. They arrived in
institute was based in Yekaterinburg in Russia, Vizhay on 26 January, where they bought loaves
a city notorious for being where the Russian of bread to eat, and stayed the night, getting
imperial family was massacred in 1918. Their their last decent sleep before starting to trek
base, therefore, already had a rather dark history, towards Otorten. Two days in, they lost one of
and Russia itself was seen to Western eyes as their members, Yuri Yudin; not to any mysterious
something of a dark and mysterious land. The circumstance, but from health problems. He
Cold War had arguably started at the end of World suffered from rheumatism, and found the pain he
War II, and there was a mutual suspicion between was experiencing from his knees and other joints
Russia and the United States. Now, coverage of too much to continue. He turned back, but the
“THEY WERE NOW EXPOSED Russian intrigue was exacerbated by this new
mystery in the heart of the Ural Mountains.
other nine continued. It would turn out that Yuri
had had a lucky escape, and would go on to live a

TO THE ELEMENTS IN THE The ski-hiking trip had been organised by

23-year-old radio engineering student Igor Dyatlov,
long life – unlike the other students.
This was all in the future, however. After Yuri

DEPTHS OF WINTER” a keen skier. The group he gathered together

originally numbered ten: Igor, together with seven
had left them, the others trekked on with their
skis and poles, and eventually, on 31 January, they

11
 UNEXPLAINED DEATHS

arrived on the edge of highlands that marked a

change in conditions to uphill climbing. They
went to store some food and equipment in the
woods, so that they could retrieve them on their
way back – thus also lightening their load during
the climb – and on 1 February, they started to
move through a pass. They were hoping to get
through the pass before setting up camp on the
WHO WAS SEMYON?
opposite side, but the weather put paid to their There was a further mystery with the Dyatlov Pass nine,
plans. Snowstorms moved in, making it virtually when the identity of one of their number was investigated
impossible to see; the group got confused,
travelling in the wrong direction and heading Semyon Alekseevich Zolotaryov (sometimes
too far west. They could have moved downhill spelled Zolotarev) was the oldest of the
to set up camp in a sheltered area, taking some ski-hikers that fateful February. Born on 2
respite until the weather cleared, but Igor Dyatlov February 1921, he was 38 at the time, and so
was reluctant to move downhill and then have to might be assumed to have had a more varied
head back up later, and so the group, on realising life than the others, some of whom were
they had gone the wrong way, simply stopped young enough to be his children.
and established their camp on the eastern slope Yet his life might have been even more
of Kholat Syakhl, a place whose name translates interesting than anyone could have ever
as the ominous ‘Dead Mountain’. They were imagined. Rumours abounded about who
now exposed to the elements in the depths of a Semyon actually was, and reached a climax
Russian winter. in 2014, when his remains were exhumed
Back in Yekaterinburg, nobody was aware that following several requests from journalists.
this is what had happened. Dyatlov had promised His remains indicated first that his injuries
to send a telegram back to their sports club when were more consistent with a car crash than
the group returned safely to Vizhay – a date he a natural event; and, even more shockingly,
estimated would be around 12 February, although his DNA did not have any link to the
he had mentioned to the poorly Yuri Yudin that DNA of known living relatives of Semyon
the group might have to take longer. This was Zolotaryov. His remains had been buried at
not unusual, and the group’s friends and families the Ivanovskoe Cemetery in Yekaterinburg,
would not have been too worried when no word Russia, but there were no burial records for
was sent from Vizhay, as delays could occur. anyone of that name there.
However, when nothing had been heard by 20 The only thing that could be determined
February, over a week later, relatives became positively was that a reconstruction of the
concerned. A rescue group, involving students face of the buried corpse had similarities to
and teachers from the Ural Polytechnic Institute, post-war photographs of Semyon. This has led
set off in search of the party, but found nothing. to claims that the man who died in the Urals
Military forces were then sent – but still, it took was someone who had adopted the identity
The dashing Semyon Zolotaryov was the
until 26 February for there to be any news of the of Semyon after the end of World War II for oldest member of the doomed ski-hiking
missing students. unknown reasons; truly a mystery in itself. group, but was he who he claimed to be?
It was not good news. The search party had
found the students’ campsite, which included
a damaged – and abandoned – tent. Covered in
snow, the tent contained all the group’s known This was where the story originally ended: bodies found in different locations? Various
possessions, including their shoes. Leading out no more bodies were visible. Then on 4 May, theories abounded about their deaths. It
of the tent were eight or nine sets of footprints, more than two months after the original, was said that local indigenous people might
indicating that the group, all shoeless, had horrific discoveries, the final four – Lyudmila have attacked the students for being on their
made their way out of the tent into the snowy Dubinina, Alexander Kolevatov, Nikolai territory, but there was no evidence either of
expanse, either barefoot or simply in their socks – Thibeaux-Brignolles and Semyon Zolotaryov other people being present at the time, or of
something that made no sense, given the bitterly were found, buried under four metres (13 feet) any fighting. The inquests into their deaths
cold temperatures of around -30 degrees Celsius of snow in a ravine. It looked like they had should have settled the mystery, but instead,
(-22 degrees Fahrenheit). died at separate times, and as they had died, it seemed to increase it.
The tracks led 500 metres (1,640 feet) away, at their clothes had been taken by the survivors The first five students to have been found
which point they became snow covered. Under a in an attempt to keep warm. Lyudmila were deemed to have died from hypothermia,
Siberian pine tree were the remains of a small fire was wearing Yuri Krivonischenko’s ripped although it was revealed that Slobodin also
– and two bodies, clad only in underwear, barefoot. trousers, for example, and had wrapped her had a small skull fracture. However, the
The bodies were those of Yuri Krivonischenko, left leg in someone else’s torn jacket. bodies found in May were different. Three
and Yuri Doroshenko. Between the pine where the What had happened that could have had substantial skull injuries (Nikolai had
two men’s bodies were found, and the abandoned caused the deaths of nine young, fit and well died from his); both Lyudmila and Semyon
camp, three more bodies were found, each at people? These were experienced ski-hikers; had serious chest fractures, yet no sign
different distances from the tree. Two were men and women who were used to the cold of external trauma or soft-tissue damage.
Zinaida Kolmogorova and Rustem Slobodin; the of a Russian winter. Why had they gone Horribly, Lyudmila’s eyes and tongue were
third was the group’s leader, Dyatlov. out barefoot, en masse, and why were their missing, as were Semyon’s eyes.

12
 UNSOLVED MURDERS AND MYSTERIOUS DEATHS

“ALTHOUGH THEY HAD LEFT BEHIND CAMERAS

AND DIARIES, THERE IS STILL SIGNIFICANT DOUBT The official investigation into
the Dyatlov Pass incident

ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED” turned up very little

The official verdict was that all nine had That element of the unknown has led to their a Russian Yeti. It is not, then, unsurprising that
died due to a ‘compelling natural force’, deaths 60 years ago continuing to be seen as a in February 2019, Russian prosecutors started
but it could not be determined what that mystery. Newspaper reports have continued to a new investigation into the case, in an attempt
was. Theories included an avalanche, or explore the case over the subsequent decades. to clear up the rumours and theories around
the effects of hypothermia, when a person In 2013, a film was made based loosely on the ‘bizarre’ deaths. A criminal investigation
believes they are actually warm, and try and the events. Originally titled The Dyatlov Pass had originally been opened into the case in
take off layers of clothing, thus exacerbating Incident (it was later renamed Devil’s Pass), the February 1959, but when it was decided that
the situation. But there were problems with fact that this film played rather fast and loose nature was to blame, the investigation was
determining what had happened. Although with the original events, and utilised previous shelved after just three months.
some of the individuals had undoubtedly died theories involving military or even extra- This remarkable new investigation
of hypothermia – and Lyudmila Dubinina’s terrestrial involvement, added to the sense of presented their findings in July 2020,
missing eyes and tongue could possibly have unreality surrounding the original chain of revealing their conclusion that the group had
been the result of putrefaction, her body being events. Director Renny Harlin says he believes perished as a result of hypothermia caused
found face down in a stream – others had the Dyatlov Pass incident was the result of a by an avalance, which forced the unprepared
injuries that couldn’t be explained. Although government experiment going wrong; one of group to vacate their camp in poor visibility.
they had left behind cameras and diaries, there the theories that has long been posited is the “It was a heroic struggle. There was no panic.
is still significant doubt about what happened. possibility that the group came into contact But they had no chance to save themselves
Postmortems showed that they hadn’t eaten with the government testing of a nuclear or under the circumstances,” concluded the
for six to eight hours before they had died, but military weapon. Other theories, too, remain, deputy head of the regional prosecutor’s office,
what they did in those hours is unknown. from a parachute mine exercise to an assault by Andrey Kuryakov.

13
 UNEXPLAINED DEATHS

BELLA IN THE
WYCH ELM
The Hagley Wood mystery started with
boys searching for birds’ nests, but ended as
something more ominous
It was April 1943, and World War II was being been dead for up to two years. Nobody seemed to
fought, affecting the daily lives of millions. Yet know who she was, and after the initial interest in
in Hagley Wood, near Birmingham, children her, it waned, and her identity, it appeared, would
were continuing to play as normal, war being never be known. But then, after eight months,
something of an abstract concept for the young. graffiti started to appear locally, each being a
On one spring day that April, four boys were permutation of the question: ‘Who put Bella in the
out searching for birds’ nests and their eggs. In wych elm?’ The graffiti was all in the same hand,
their mid-teens, this might be the last year such but in different locations. Bella was referred to as
innocent occupations would be their focus; it Bella, Luebella, or ‘Hagley Wood Bella’.
certainly would be after this fateful day. There were now two mysteries: who was the
The boys spotted a fascinating tree, an old young woman found murdered in the wych elm,
wych elm. It had a hollowed-out trunk, and was and who was the person leaving the graffiti?
A drawing of ‘Bella’ and the clothes
rather creepy looking. Fifteen-year-old Bob Farmer Did that person know ‘Bella’, or know who killed she was found in was produced to
was despatched to climb the tree, but from higher her? Or was it the murderer himself leaving aid identification, but the woman
remains unknown to this day
up, he looked back down into the hollow trunk. A incriminating messages, frustrated that the police
face – or what had once been a face – was looking could not get anywhere with the case?
back at him. Theories continued to be explored over the
Bob had seen a skull, still with some hair and years that followed, mainly involving witchcraft,
skin attached. He and his friends, being curious as Bella’s hand had been severed. A decade after
boys still, although obviously shocked, examined her corpse was discovered, a letter was sent to
the skull, before replacing it. When they got home, a local journalist, claiming that Bella had been
one boy told his father, who called the police. killed as part of a Nazi spy ring. Then Bella’s body
What they then found was the body of a young itself went missing.
woman – taffeta stuffed in her mouth – wearing Over the past 70 years, Bella has continued
a blue, striped cardigan, a skirt, and a pair of to fascinate investigators and historians. In
old shoes. Her body was examined, and it was 2018, her face was re-created using craniofacial
determined that she was around 35 years old, a identification, but her identity remains unknown,
mother, and small – just five feet tall. She had also and likely will for eternity.

The skull of Bella, the unknown Four boys found the body of a
woman whose body was found in a woman in a wych elm like this, when
wych elm tree in the Midlands in 1943 they were searching for birds’ eggs
A monument in Hagley shows how
the Hagley Wood mystery has never
been forgotten. The graffiti echoes the
1940s’ examples found in the area

“A LETTER WAS SENT

TO A LOCAL JOURNALIST,
CLAIMING THAT BELLA
HAD BEEN KILLED AS PART
OF A NAZI SPY RING”
14
 UNSOLVED MURDERS AND MYSTERIOUS DEATHS

Murdered on 15 January 1947,

Elizabeth was just 22 years old

Police were keen to find out what

happened to Elizabeth, but never did
THE BLACK DAHLIA
Found dead and mutilated in an LA
street, Elizabeth Short has been the
subject of many books since…
Her face still looks out from than Marilyn Monroe, both, like so many other
the covers of several books young women of the 1930s and 1940s, would seek
today. She looks away to to make their mark in the movie-making business.
the side, smiling; a striking Unfortunately, Elizabeth was never to make it in
young woman with a mass life, although she became famous in death. She
of artfully curled black hair, was quick to move from Boston, and was eager
a made-up face and a look of to settle in California, where her father now lived.
hopefulness. This is Elizabeth She didn’t get on with the man she hadn’t seen
Short, an aspiring actress at since she was a child and soon moved on. In the
22 years old. Another image, summer of 1946, she moved to LA in the hope of
though, also shows the same getting an acting break. It never came.
woman in a different light. Her body was found in a vacant lot near
This time, she stares straight Leimert Park on the night of 15 January 1947.
at the camera, mouth open, her She had been cut in half, drained of blood and
expression more aggressive, less mutilated, but then – bizarrely – washed. A local
innocent, posing for a mugshot woman found the nude body, looking more like
after her arrest for underage a doll than a real woman. However, this was a
drinking. Both images are of woman – one whose face had been slashed, and
Elizabeth, and they reflect the whose intestines had been pulled out. She had
different sides of her personality. been raped, but had died from blows to her head
Although she is forever now and face, her body being cut in half postmortem.
Eliza associated with Los Angeles, A crowd of onlookers soon began to gather at
b
actre eth Short Elizabeth, who became known the scene, including journalists, and this became
s w
Ange s who hop as an asp
le e
Inste s would d her mo iring
as the ‘Black Dahlia’, was actually symbolic of the case – a murder that attracted,
ad, it b v
broug ring her s e to Los born in Boston on 29 July 1924, and continues to attract, substantial attention. It is
ht he u
r dea ccess. the third of five daughters. Her now said to be one of the oldest unsolved cases in
th
father deserted his family when LA County, and despite numerous investigations,
she was just five. Two years older suspects and theories, it is likely to remain so.

15
 UNEXPLAINED DEATHS

THE MYSTERIOUS MAN OF

SOMERTON
BEACH
While investigating the body of a man found dead
on the sands of Somerton Beach, detectives would
unearth secret codes, hidden phone numbers and
a Russian spy ring – leaving them with more
unanswered questions than viable clues

Getty Images
WRITTEN BY JOANNA ELPHICK

16
THE MYSTERIOUS MAN OF SOMERTON BEACH

Getty Images

17
 UNEXPLAINED DEATHS

T “IT SOON BECAME CLEAR

he young couple taking an evening down upon the corpse from the top of the steps.
walk along Somerton Beach didn’t think However, it was not until 6.30am on the morning
much of the man they saw lying on the of 1 December that John Lyons and two other
sand with his head propped against the
old seawall. He appeared drowsy, for he
gentlemen on horseback established that the
sleeping figure was actually dead. The police were
THAT SOMETHING TRULY
lethargically raised his right arm before dropping
it into his lap limply. They assumed he was just
soon called and Detective Sergeant Lionel Leane,
who was to lead the initial investigation, carefully DREADFUL HAD HAPPENED
catching the last of the sun’s rays, and so they
left him to relax as they made their way up the
25 wooden steps leading to the corner of The
noted down the scene before him. Leaning
against the seawall with his legs fully extended
towards the sea and his feet casually crossed, the
TO THE MYSTERY MAN
Esplanade and Bickford Terrace, in the shadow
of the Crippled Children’s Home. It was 7pm on
man looked for all the world as if he had simply
fallen asleep. A cigarette precariously balanced on
FROM THE BEACH”
30 November 1948, and they were to be the last the collar of his elegant double-breasted jacket, as and a small, slim waist, the man appeared to
people to see the mysterious Somerton Man while if it had slipped from the corner of his mouth, just have been in good physical shape. However, the
he was still alive. as if he had dozed off. Having taken photographs autopsy was to prove otherwise. Upon opening
30 minutes later, another pair of walkers of the body in situ, Leane decided to carry out a up the body, it soon became clear that something
strolling along the beach, which was near thorough search of the gentleman’s possessions. truly dreadful had happened to the mystery man
Glenelg, just south of Adelaide in south Australia, A number of items were noted down and bagged from the beach. Blood had mixed in with his last
noticed that the prostrate figure must be dead up for evidence, including a packet of cigarettes, a meal within the stomach, which was, along with
drunk, as he appeared oblivious to the gathering comb, chewing gum and an unused train ticket. the pharynx, duodenum, kidneys and spleen,
mosquitoes. Sadly, it wouldn’t be long before the heavily congested. The gullet had ulcerated and
insects would also take an unhealthy interest in SUICIDE OR MURDER? there were obvious signs of an acute gastric
him, since, in that short space of time, as the sun Having gathered all the evidence available from haemorrhage. This was clearly not a natural death.
finally dipped below the horizon, he had passed an initial search, the detective had the body sent But could it have been a suicide? Cleland thought
away. Further witnesses later came forward to John Burton Cleland, a leading pathologist of not. The unknown man had been poisoned,
to tell detectives of a strange character gazing the time. At 1.5 metres tall with broad shoulders probably with a soluble hypnotic or barbiturate,

Paul Lawson creates the plaster cast

of the Somerton Man. He would
later comment on Jessica Thomson’s
dramatic reaction on seeing it despite
her denial of knowing who he was

Getty Images

18
 THE MYSTERIOUS MAN OF SOMERTON BEACH

WITNESS
SCENE OF CRIME OR
THE WATCHING MAN
During the initial investigation, one
TRAGIC ACCIDENT?
witness came forward stating that he A number of clues were discovered at
had observed a shadowy figure looking the scene that, although intriguing,
down upon the body from above on the ultimately carried the investigation no
corner of The Esplanade and Bickford further forward
Terrace. The character was never traced.

CLUE VICTIM
THE UNLIT CIGARETTE THE SOMERTON MAN
A cigarette was found carefully balanced
on the right collar of the unknown man’s The body was discovered leaning against the seawall. Had
coat. Since it had not been lit, it was he committed suicide, been poisoned or died of positional
unlikely to have dropped out of his mouth asphyxia while dozing on the beach? Nobody knew.
while he was sleeping. Had it been placed
there on purpose by the killer?

CLUE
STRIPED TIE
The stripes on the tie worn by the unknown man sloped
with a negative gradient, as seen in fashion in the United
CLUE States at the time. People in both Australia and the UK
traditionally wear their stripes in the ‘heart to sword’
THE ‘TAMAM SHUD’ NOTE position, thereby supporting the American connection.
Journalist Frank Kennedy recognised from where the
phrase had originated and called the police with details
of the Persian book of collected poems. The unusual font
helped pinpoint the exact edition they were hunting for.

EVENT

Rebekka Hearl
SOMERTON MAN MOVES
At 7pm, witnesses saw the man move his right arm. It
was later established that this was not the action of a
man swatting away mosquitoes, but rather the Somerton
Man’s last convulsion brought about by the poison
coursing through his bloodstream.

CLUE
PERSONAL EFFECTS
A half empty packet of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit Chewing
Gum held yet another American connection, since
this was a popular brand in the USA and was not sold
in Australia at that time. Similarly, an aluminium
comb found on him was American in design. The
10.50am unused train ticket to Henley Beach must
have been bought between 6.15am and 2pm on 30
November. Only three such tickets were issued that
day. A bus ticket was also discovered, which departed
at 11.15am from opposite the railway station. Someone
had replaced the Army Club cigarettes with a more
Rebekka Hearl

expensive brand, Kensitas. Was this his choice or the

work of the killer?

19
 UNEXPLAINED DEATHS

JUST A COINCIDENCE?
Three years before the discovery of the Somerton Man, 34-year-
old George Marshall from Singapore was found dead just across
from Clifton Gardens in Ashton Park. He was discovered lying
on his back as if fast asleep. Stranger still, a copy of the Rubáiyát
Of Omar Khayyám had been left open and carefully balanced on
his chest. George, the brother of Singapore’s first chief minister,
David Marshall, was thought to have committed suicide by
ingesting poison. On 15 August 1945, the authorities carried out
an inquest into his death. Under two weeks later, on 28 August,
a woman by the name of Gwenneth Dorothy Graham, who
had given testimony at the hearing, was found floating face
downwards in her bath water. Her wrists had been slit.

THE ENCRYPTED
MESSAGE
The five lines of text discovered on the last page of the Rubáiyát
Of Omar Khayyám have never been deciphered and therefore
remain a tantalising mystery to conspiracy theorists around the
world. Initially thought to be a foreign phrase, cryptographers
now believe the encrypted message is of English origin. In 2004,
a retired detective suggested that the last line stood for ‘It’s
Time To Move To South Australia Moseley Street’, which would
link the message to Jessica Thomson’s address. Computational
linguists agree that it is probably English and more likely to be
shorthand than code. Further specialists have claimed that
micro writing can be seen using a UV backlight and an Olympus
camera set to macro with optical magnification. Images of this
were released on the internet in March 2017.

which would have caused the victim The fact that he carried no identification or
to vomit excessively after ingestion. wallet upon him indicated suicide, but when the
As there was no vomit present at the clothes were examined, it was discovered that
scene, the detective theorised that the the labels had been carefully removed. This was
man had been moved post-poisoning, highly suspicious, and not in keeping with a
therefore ruling out suicide. The suicide theory. With the lack of vomit and removal
couple on the beach had unwittingly of identifying marks, all notions of suicide were
witnessed his final death throes. abandoned. This man, whoever he was, had most
The questions were many, the likely been murdered and carefully placed on
evidence limited. Cleland estimated Somerton Beach sands.
the time of death at 2am. The man’s
hands and fingernails suggested MORE EVIDENCE, MORE QUESTIONS
he had not been a casual labourer Less than a month later, a brown suitcase was
while his calf muscles indicated he discovered by staff at the Adelaide railway
had been a long-distance runner station. Although all labels had been removed
or possibly a dancer. His toes were from it, it was quickly established that the case
unusually shaped, as if he had forced had been checked into the cloakroom on 30
them into pointed shoes or ballet November and had almost certainly belonged to
The book found in a slippers, but Cleland thought it was the unknown man found on the beach. Detective
Getty Images

car featured a code that

remains undeciphered more likely that he had suffered Lionel Leane and his colleagues, Dave Bartlett
to this day from dystonia of the toes. and Len Brown, opened the suitcase to discover

20
 THE MYSTERIOUS MAN OF SOMERTON BEACH

Rebekka Hearl
er cast of the Somerton Man’s
When she was shown the plast
Thom son looke d as if she was about to faint,
face, Jessica
claim she did not know who he was
despite her

A secret pocket inside the Somerton

Man’s clothes was found to contain
Salvation Army Captain Em Webb conducted the a piece of paper torn from this copy
Somerton Man’s funeral service, which was paid for of the Rubáiyát Of Omar Khayyám,
Getty Images

Getty Images
by the South Australian Grandstand Bookmakers which was later found on the back
Association. Reporters and police officers look on seat of a Glenelg doctor’s car

pyjamas, a dressing gown and slippers along with

an electrician’s screwdriver, a pair of sharpened
scissors, a sharpened table knife, a stencilling
“WHEN IT FINALLY CAME TO DETERMINING THE CAUSE
brush and a zinc square used to protect the knife.
On removing a pair of trousers from the case,
a scattering of sand fell out of the cuffs. A card,
OF DEATH, NO ONE COULD BE ABSOLUTELY POSITIVE”
neatly wrapped with orange-waxed thread, was Equally strange was the fact that there were no professor of pharmacology Cedric Stanton Hick
discovered that clearly linked the case to the spare pairs of socks found with the underpants to believe that the man had ingested a cardiac
dead body, as exactly the same thread had been and pyjamas. The detectives were baffled and glycoside such as digitalis or ouabain, a highly
used to mend the trousers worn by the victim. frustrated. More clues had been discovered but toxic substance. However, when it finally came
Once again, the majority of labels had been they seemed to lead them round and round in to determining the cause of death, no one could
removed with the exception of a couple that circles. Having chased up every conceivable lead, be absolutely positive. The Australian police
displayed the name ‘T. Keane’, ‘Kean’ and they appeared to be no further forward. contacted the USA’s FBI asking for help in
‘Keane’. A coat revealed a link to the United On 17 June, Cleland conducted a thorough identifying their corpse but, having consulted
States, as this was the only country that was coroner’s inquest. Most of his conclusions were FBI chief J Edgar Hoover, the agency was not
manufacturing such featherstitching at the time, speculation. The cleanliness of the victim’s shoes able to find a fingerprint match for the man. A
and the style matched those worn in the strongly suggested he had died elsewhere and plaster cast of the unknown man’s head and chest
Getty Images

country. A set of paper and pencils had been been carried to the spot where his body was had also been taken before his burial on 14 June
packed in the suitcase but no correspondence was discovered. This idea was in keeping with the lack 1949 at the West Terrace Cemetery in Adelaide.
discovered, which would have been an extremely of vomit where the body had been discovered. However, one further clue would yield itself at the
useful find. Further analysis of the stomach contents led inquest, and it was to baffle the entire world.

21
 UNEXPLAINED DEATHS

SOMERTON BEACH
The discovery of a secret code instigated a whirlwind of conspiracy theories
During the detailed examination of the dead Detective Leane was not convinced that Jestyn his copy of the book, which had been signed
man’s clothing, a small scrap of paper was was being entirely truthful regarding her lack of ‘Jestyn’ by his then-girlfriend. He could think of
discovered rolled up in the fob pocket of his knowledge of the body’s identity. Once again, he no connection to the unknown man of Somerton
trousers. The words “Tamam Shud” were printed pushed for information and this time he showed and the police were at a loss once again. This
on it in an unusual font. The evidence was her the plaster cast of the man’s face made before time, no new evidence dramatically appeared
photographed and released to the press, and the the inquest. Her reaction was quite extraordinary. to set them off again and, as a result, the case
mysterious clue was printed nationwide in all the Paul Lawson, the creator of the cast, noted that, went cold.
papers. The words, meaning “finished” or “it is having seen it, Jestyn looked away and refused The body of the Somerton Man was finally
ended” in Persian, were soon identified as the last to so much as glance at it again. Leane, on the released and buried in Adelaide in a pitiful
page of Edward FitzGerald’s the Rubáiyát Of Omar other hand, noticed her sudden change in pallor. multiple burial site. However, somebody cared, for
Khayyám, a collection of poems translated from He later stated that she was so taken aback that years later flowers started appearing on the grave.
Persian. It wouldn’t be long before the exact copy he believed she was about to faint. However, she To this day it is unknown who the mourner was.
from which the scrap had been torn was located. stuck to her original story and reiterated that she A variety of suggestions were raised about the
Where the book had been found seems to had never set eyes on the man before. man’s identity, including that he was a Swedish
have been lost over the years. The timing of She did confirm that during World War II station worker, a seaman named Tommy Reade
its discovery is also a mystery but the general she had owned a copy of the Rubáiyát Of Omar and, later, a worker on a steamship. At least three
consensus seems to be that a member of the Khayyám, but told the investigators she had given people came forward saying the body belonged
public found it on the back seat of an unlocked it to a boyfriend, Alf Boxall. After the war, Alf had to Robert Walsh, a 63-year-old woodcutter, but
car in Jetty Road, Glenelg, not far from where contacted her but she was already engaged to witnesses retracted their statements when
the Somerton Man’s body had been discovered. Prosper Thomson and did not want to renew their they discovered that the body lacked certain
The scrap of paper was interesting and once friendship. She had not heard from him since. identifying scars.
again raised the idea that the unknown man Could this be the man on the beach? The police In 2009, Professor Derek Abbott from the
had committed suicide, but it was the book itself were convinced that this was the break they had University of Adelaide decided to take up the
that sparked the imagination of the public and been waiting for. challenge of cracking the Somerton Man mystery
instigated the authorities to call it an “unparalleled In July of 1949, Alf Boxall was located, working once and for all. The investigation covered further
mystery”. Within its pages, the book contained a in a bus depot in Sydney. Although taken aback examination of the bizarre code, re-analysis of the
secret code. by the police interest, he was happy to show them poison and another look at the evasive Jestyn.
Five lines of code, all written in capital letters,
were found in the back of the book. The second
line had been scored through suggesting a “FIVE LINES OF CODE, ALL WRITTEN IN CAPITAL
mistake on the part of the writer, but this
has never been confirmed. Was this a foreign
language, an encrypted message or merely the
LETTERS, WERE FOUND IN THE BACK OF THE BOOK”
ramblings of a madman? Nobody knew for
sure. Specialists were brought in to decipher
its meaning but, to this date, no satisfactory
explanation has been given.
Along with the infuriatingly mysterious code,
detectives found a telephone number, and this
proved to be more useful. Although the number,
X3239, was unlisted, it was quickly traced back
to a local resident by the name Jessica Ellen
Thomson. Jessica, also known as Jo, was a nurse
who lived at 90A Glenelg Street, no more than
400 metres away from Somerton Beach where the
body had been discovered. A strange coincidence?
The detectives doubted it.
Jessica Thomson flatly denied any knowledge
of the unknown man. She didn’t know who he
was or why he might have her phone number
written in the back of his book. She was fearful of
any publicity and insisted that all records of her When a copy of the Rubáiyát
Of Omar Khayyám was found
name be removed from the case. From this point
in a member of the public’s
on a variety of pseudonyms were used including car, it raised more questions
Rebekka Hearl

the pet name ‘Jestyn’, which had been used by her than it answered
former nursing co-workers.

22
 THE MYSTERIOUS MAN OF SOMERTON BEACH

Sadly, Jessica Thomson had passed away in 2007, his career as a dancer with the Australian Ballet.
but her family proved to be far more loquacious. He also had two distinctive facial features: no
In May 2009, Abbott called in dental experts incisors and strangely shaped ears whereby his
to analyse images of the Somerton Man’s teeth. cymba was larger than his cavum. The chances
They concluded that the unknown man had of Robin having the same ear formation and
suffered from an extremely rare genetic disorder hypodontia as the Somerton Man were one in 10
known as hypodontia. Less than two per cent of million and one in 20 million respectively.
the population are afflicted with this condition, Robin passed away in 2009 but was survived by
which leaves the mouth without incisors. The his ex-wife, Roma Egan, and his daughter, Rachel.
canine teeth grow directly next to the two front Abbott sent a photograph of the Somerton Man
teeth, making this a highly unusual yet easily to Roma and asked if she knew of anyone who
If the Somerton
identifiable disorder. resembled the image. Roma did not hesitate – Man was left
Meanwhile, Henneberg had identified another the Somerton Man looked spookily like her late on the beach
by the killer,
unusual trait. The Somerton Man had a rare ear ex-husband Robin. Could Robin Thomson have no witnesses

Rebekka Hearl
formation that meant that his upper ear hollow, been the love child of Jessica Thomson and came forward
or cymba, was larger than his cavum, or lower ear the Somerton Man but passed off as the son of to say they saw
it happen
hollow. This anatomical feature occurs in only one Prosper Thomson? It was an extremely strong
or two per cent of the population. possibility. DNA testing would of course prove
Back in 1946, Jessica Thomson had given birth to it one way or the other, but in 2011, Attorney
a baby boy, whom she named Robin. The child General John Rau refused permission to exhume
was healthy with good musculature, particularly the body of the Somerton Man, as it was not
in his legs, which would ultimately help him in deemed to be in the public’s interest.

THE AFTERMATH
So who was the Somerton Man? The mystery rages on...
By 1949, eight so-called ‘positive’ identifications relationship plus the total lack of identifying
had taken place but all turned out to be incorrect. possessions all led to the tantalising thought of
This had increased to 251 by 1953. a spy ring. Interestingly, former South Australian
More recently, in November 2013, Jessica’s Chief Superintendent Len Brown believed that the

Alamy
daughter, Kate Thomson, agreed to give an man had originally heralded from a country in The suitcase and belongings of the Somerton
interview on 60 Minutes, an American current the Warsaw Pact. He had come to this conclusion Man were found at Adelaide railway station
affairs program. Kate confirmed that her mother during the 1940s due to the fact that police could

ALTERNATIVE
was indeed ‘Jestyn’, but she had not been truthful do nothing to establish an identity, and the Cold
to the detectives all those years ago. She claimed War was under way.
that her mother had admitted to her that she had Derek Abbott, on the other hand, is less inclined
known the Somerton Man all along and, even
more shockingly, she had not been the only one
to know his true identity. Apparently, her mother
to follow the spy ring theory. As he himself stated,
“You don’t have to be a spy to be secretive.” His
conclusion is far more grounded, believing that
THEORIES
believed that “a higher level than the police force” the man was probably no more than a wheeler At one point, the body was named as
was already aware of his name and business. This dealer involved in the black market and, having EC Johnson of Payneham but this was
in itself was dramatic stuff but did Kate have any attempted to reconnect with his lost love, he somewhat undermined when the real Mr
idea what ‘his business’ might have been? Kate had gone for a snooze on the beach where he Johnson turned up at the police station.
was quite sure she did. unfortunately died of positional asphyxia – a great During late November 1959, an inmate of
Kate fervently believed that both the Somerton deal less exciting but possible nonetheless. New Zealand’s Wanganui Prison by the
Man and her own mother were spies working for However, just when everybody thought that name of EB Collins claimed to know the
the Russians. Although this was only speculation, the most likely truth was disappointingly dull, Somerton Man’s true identity. At some point
she had some highly interesting circumstantial a shiny new piece of speculation reared its head his statement was mysteriously misplaced.
evidence to back up her surprising claim. Having and began a fascinating addition to Australia’s Years later, a woman came forward with
given up nursing, Jessica had started teaching unparalleled mystery. In February 2017, an online an identification card of a man named HC
English to incoming migrants. Kate stated that identity by the name of ‘Gordon332’ posted the Reynolds. She thought that the photograph
her mother spoke fluent Russian but never latest suggested name of the Somerton Man. looked similar to that of the Somerton
explained from where or why she had learned During August 1948, Major Pavel Ivanovich Man. The card, given to a foreign seaman
to do so. She also had a deep interest in the Fedosimov of the KGB was seen boarding a during World War I, was passed on to
concept of communism, much to the horror of her ship bound for Russia. He was never seen again. anthropologist Maciej Henneberg. Although
husband, Prosper. Known photographs of Fedosimov strongly the faces were alike, it was the fact that
The rare form of poison used to dispose of suggest he had the same unusual ear formation. both men had a mole on their cheek that
the Somerton Man, the strange undecipherable To this day, Gordon332 continues to post about convinced Henneberg to positively identify
code, the refusal of Jestyn to acknowledge their his theory online at tamamshud.blogspot.com. him as the Somerton Man.

23
 UNEXPLAINED DEATHS

MURDER
BEHIND CLOSED DOORS
When Estelle Chapon noticed that her neighbours’ shutters hadn’t
opened for over a week, she called the police. Her actions instigated
one of France’s most intriguing investigations to date
WRITTEN BY JOANNA ELPHICK
Getty Images
.

Thomas Dupont de Ligonnѐs

28 August 1992 – 5 April 2011

Benoît Dupont de Ligonnѐs Anne Dupont de Ligonnѐs

29 May 1997 – 3/4 April 2011 2 August 1994 – 3/4 April 2011

Arthur Nicolas Dupont de Ligonnѐs

7 July 1990 – 3/4 April 2011

Agnѐs Dupont de Ligonnѐs

9 November 1962 – 3/4 April 2011
NICOLAS CADO/AFP via Getty Images

24
 MURDER BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

T
o the outside world, the Dupont de
Ligonnès seemed the very epitome of an Hundreds of people take to the
upper-middle class French family, with streets of Nantes in memory of
Agnès and her four beloved children
a loving, religious wife and a charming,
supportive husband who doted on
their four beautiful children. Sadly, the tableau
was nothing more than a paper-thin façade
that masked a very different life and as the
investigators moved in, the notion of this happy
family began to unravel.
Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès came from an
aristocratic family and, on the death of his father,
Bernard-Hubert Dupont de Ligonnès, on the 20
January 2011, Xavier inherited the title of Count.
He was a handsome, charismatic and intelligent
man, but, although he gained a degree from the
École Nationale Supérieure de Mécanique et
d’Aérotechnique in engineering, his success as
an entrepreneur and businessman had resulted
in a variety of short-lived successes. His

Getty Images.
professional life was to become heavily embroiled
in the inquiry but, no matter how thoroughly
the police scrutinised his activities, details of
his assorted failing businesses were few and far procedure was extremely costly, ultimately ending
between, ultimately adding to the mystery that
was to unfold. Meanwhile, he presented himself
“THE FAMILY’S DEBTS in failure, and sadly, this expensive setback
was merely the first of a series of crushing
as a productive member of society and a
flourishing businessman. CONTINUED TO MOUNT disappointments. As each business venture nose-
dived, the money decreased until eventually the
His wife, 48-year-old Agnès, taught catechism
at their local Catholic school and, although quiet, UP AND THE MARRIAGE family were living off Agnès’ inheritance. By the
time of the massacre in 2011, even this money
gave the impression of a contented woman to
her neighbours. On marrying Xavier, she
brought with her a son, Arthur, from a previous
RAPIDLY SOURED” was dwindling and Xavier was facing financial
ruin and desperate humiliation. He was a financial
disaster and an unsuccessful businessman.
relationship. Just like the three children born to but never let her part-time career get in the way When Xavier’s father passed away it was
the couple within wedlock, Arthur was a bright, of her studies. Finally, in 1997, the youngest son, hoped that an inheritance would give them
academic infant. At the time of his death, the Benoît, was born. Blessed with his father’s charm the cash boost they so desperately needed.
20-year-old had been awarded a baccaleuréat and handsome features, the 13-year-old was Unfortunately, Bernard had been as financially
in science and was on his way to achieving a extremely popular at school, but sensitive enough inept as his son and no money was forthcoming.
technical diploma in IT. Thomas, who was born to act as an altar server at his mother’s church. His parting gift consisted of little more than a
two years after Arthur, was the quiet member Friends and neighbours believed them to be a few pieces of furniture and a .22 rifle. Almost
of the family, studying music at the Catholic beautiful and close family, boisterous, loud, lively immediately, Xavier became obsessed with the
University where he lived in the hall of residence. and, most importantly, happy. But appearances gun, joining a shooting range club and obtaining
Anne, their only daughter, followed two years can be deceiving. a gun licence, shocking his family since he had
later and was generally thought to be the most Although friends believed the Dupont de shown little interest in guns before. The debts
academic of the children. Having inherited her Ligonnès family to be contented in Nantes, continued to mount up and the marriage rapidly
mother’s good looks, she subsidised her allowance France, this was not the case and in 2000 they soured but the outward veneer of the perfect
by modelling clothes in a mail-order catalogue had attempted to emigrate to Florida, USA. The family remained intact.

TIMELINE OF EVENTS

THE .22 RIFLE THE SHOPPING SPREE ARTHUR DISAPPEARS OMINOUS PURCHASES
2 FEBRUARY 2011 23 MARCH 2011 1 APRIL 2011 2 APRIL 2011
Xavier obtains a firearms licence having Xavier travels 320km from Arthur fails to turn up to the Xavier visits four different shops,
inherited a gun from his father. He proceeds home in order to purchase bin restaurant where he works to pick buying quicklime from each one
to join a shooting range. He also purchases liners, cement, cleaning products up his wages. until he has amassed 40kg.
a silencer. and a spade.

25
 UNEXPLAINED DEATHS

However, shortly before the family’s unwell. Throughout these strange occurrences,
Crime scene officers prepare to disappearance, a series of bizarre and highly Xavier remained his usual charming, unflappable
remove the bodies from the garden suspicious events took place. Xavier began self. Having called his sister Christine for a
asking questions online about the .22 rifle. chat, he made a table reservation for 9pm at an
“What type of silencer would it take? Where expensive restaurant and then proceeded to invite
could he purchase one?” Having bought a Thomas out to dinner. Staff at La Croix Cadeau
silencer in March, he went on to purchase a noticed that the pair were uncharacteristically
number of portentous items including large subdued and that Thomas had complained of
bin liners, four bags of chalk lime, a trolley feeling sick before making his way back to his
and a spade. He also bought some industrial- halls of residence at university. He was seen one
strength cleaning products and a fresh box of last time on 5 April, when he spent the afternoon
rifle bullets. with his best friend. Having crashed in front of
By 1 April, the family began to disappear. the television, Thomas received a devastating
Arthur, Agnès’ oldest son, was due to pick phone call from his father who explained that he
up his pay-check at the restaurant where he had to come home immediately. Apparently his
waited tables, but he never arrived. Two days mother had been in a tragic road accident and was
later, Xavier took his wife and three biological currently in a coma. The boy said his goodbyes
children, Thomas, Anne and Benoît, to the and, just like his brothers and sister, appeared to
cinema. After the film, the group went out for vanish off the face of the earth.
a meal where they were seen laughing and Although some neighbours claimed to have
joking, the epitome of a close and loving family. seen Agnès later than Tuesday 5 April, it would
That night, Anne and Benoît would vanish, seem that most of their family and friends lost
never to be seen alive again. all communication at this point. Even the family
The following day, Xavier rang La Perverie- dogs, an unruly pair or Labradors, stopped barking
Getty Images.

Sacré-Cœur, the school that Anne and Benoît and, while their immediate neighbours initially
attended, claiming that his youngest children appreciated the quiet respite, it soon seemed an
would not be coming in as they were both ill-omened silence.

A note attached to the door of the family

home requests that all correspondence
is returned to sender

Police officers and fire fighters prepare to

search for Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès in the

Getty Images.
Getty Images.

mountains of Roquebrune-sur-Argens

THE LAST SUPPER SCHOOL ABSENTEES LAST SIGHTING WORRIED FRIENDS

3 APRIL 2011 4 APRIL 2011 OF THOMAS 6 APRIL 2011
Xavier takes Agnès, Thomas,
Anne and Benoît to a restaurant.
Anne and Benoît fail to turn up at
school and do not reply to their
5 APRIL 2011 Friends receive
uncharacteristic texts from
Thomas spends last day with
The youngest siblings are most friends’ emails. Xavier eats out Thomas. Arthur’s girlfriend
friends before receiving a
likely murdered either tonight or with Thomas but the boy seems sees a light on in the family
mysterious message from his
the following night. depressed and unwell. home but no one answers the
father to come home immediately.
door. The dogs no longer bark.
He is most likely murdered tonight.

26
 MURDER BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

3 13 APRIL 2011
HUNT FOR A KILLER LA SEYNE-SUR-MER IN VAR
Xavier had previously lived in Var and, while

1 11 APRIL 2011 in the area, attempted to make contact with

Claudia, an ex-girlfriend. He spent the night
in a local hotel.
BLAGNAC, NEAR TOULOUSE
Police traced Xavier to the Hôtel
Première Classe where he stayed
for one night before paying for
4 14 APRIL 2011
the room with his credit card. He ROQUEBRUNE-SUR-ARGENS IN VAR
was spotted the following day, Police traced Xavier’s movements to an ATM
leaving in his car. where he withdrew €30. A surveillance
camera pictured him that evening entering
the Hotel Formule 1 in the town centre.
2 12 APRIL 2011
LE PONTET IN VAUCLUSE
Here, Xavier used his credit card
5 15 APRIL 2011
to pay €214.59 for a room at the ROQUEBRUNE-SUR-ARGENS IN VAR
Auberge de Cassagne, where The next day, Xavier checked out of the hotel,
he stayed for one night, but never to be seen again. Police discovered his
registered under the false name abandoned car in the hotel car park using an
of Mr Laurent Xavier. automatic number plate recognition system.

1 2
5
4
3

FAMILICIDE: THE ULTIMATE FAMILY BETRAYAL

Getty Images.
Although relatively rare, the act of familicide, or family annihilation, is in fact, the most
common form of mass killings and occurs when a family group is wiped out by a particular
member of that family
The crime can be separated into four distinct of the family, usually the mother, for some to the killer’s dream of the perfect
groups. The anomic killer views his family as perceived wrong by murdering her children family. When John List murdered
nothing more than a status symbol. If the killer’s before killing her. The paranoid killer believes five members of his family in 1971,
financial circumstances alter for the worse, that murdering the family is a kindness and is he claimed that financial problems
the family will be seen as an unwanted drain in fact protecting them against a far worse fate and the fact that his family were no
on resources and will be eliminated. The self- than death. Finally, the disappointed killer rages longer living a religious life were
righteous killer punishes a particular member against the entire family for failing to live up the reasons for his actions. John List believed that
killing his family was the
only way to ensure their
souls would reach heaven

ANOTHER SIGHTING? A LAST GOODBYE THE MYSTERIOUS LETTER MR LAURENT

7 APRIL 2011 8 APRIL 2011 11 APRIL 2011 XAVIER
Neighbours claim to have seen
Agnès, disputing the official date of
Xavier sends his love to his
brother-in-law, mother and
The school is told that the children will
be moving to Australia. Agnès’ boss
12 APRIL 2011
Xavier travels across
death. Xavier is seen loading his car sister. receives a resignation letter. Relatives
southeast France and
with large, heavy bags. receive the infamous ‘DEA letter’. Xavier
starts using a false name.
leaves the family home.

27
 UNEXPLAINED DEATHS

It wasn’t long before friends started to worry. businessman. This was a cover story to hide the down. The Citroën C5, which had supposedly been
Text messages to classmates, supposedly from fact that he had been working for the American given to a friend, was spotted leaving the car park
Thomas, sounded vague, the last reading “I’m out Drug Enforcement Agency but somehow, his cover of a hotel near Toulouse, where Xavier had spent
of battery, my dad’s looking for a new charger had been blown and that the “situation has now the night. He had then travelled southeast using a
for me”. Meanwhile, friends of Anne and Benoît become potentially dangerous for us here and false name but still using his credit card and was
received no replies to their text messages and has required us to take emergency measures”. clearly heading towards his old stomping ground in
emails. Arthur’s girlfriend became so distressed The family had been forced into a Federal Var. It was here that he attempted to meet up with
that she decided to take a trip out to the family Witness Protection Program as a result. The letter
home only to be left standing on the doorstop. then went on to give instructions on how his
Despite a light glowing from a first floor window, possessions should be dealt with.
nobody answered the door and she was forced to The family were left confused and suspicious.
walk away. There was no concrete proof that the missive had
If this wasn’t ominous enough, Xavier been written by Xavier and grammatical mistakes
then went on to engage in some alarming strongly suggested it had not. Lies within the
correspondence with his family’s friends and letter were quickly spotted. ‘Xavier’ had claimed
work colleagues. The children’s school received a that his metallic-blue Citroën had been given
to a friend but this simply wasn’t true. Equally

“DURING A THOROUGH disturbing was the warning not to poke around on

the back terrace. Whatever did it all mean?
While family members attempted to make
SEARCH OF THE BACK sense of the strange events unfolding, nearby
neighbours of the Dupont de Ligonnès were

GARDEN ON 21 APRIL, becoming anxious over the sudden quietness of

55 Boulevard Robert-Schuman. The family home

TWO GRAVES WERE was normally a riot of noise and movement but
now all was still.

DISCOVERED UNDER THE

On 13 April, a neighbour called the police
telling them of her concerns. They arrived to find
a note had been taped to the letter box stating
TERRACE PATIO IN A DARK, “Please return all correspondence to sender. A judicial seal is secured across the
front door of the family home as the

Getty Images
Thank you”. Family photographs had been taken

CRAMPED CRAWL SPACE” from the walls and linen had been stripped from
the beds but there was no sign that any crime
entire house becomes a crime scene

had occurred. Relatives were not convinced and

final payment settlement and an accompanying continued to lodge complaints resulting in five
letter explained that the family were relocating police visits, but it was on the sixth and final visit
to Australia. The same story was used in a that the massacre was discovered.
resignation letter, supposedly from Agnès, sent to During a thorough search of the back garden
the Catholic School where she worked. All loose on 21 April, two graves were discovered under the
ends were being tied. However, the strangest terrace patio in a dark, cramped crawl space. One
correspondence was yet to come, in the form of contained the remains of Agnès, Arthur, Anne and
an unsigned, long-winded, four-page letter sent Benoît, while the other held the body of Thomas.
to Xavier’s immediate family. In it he attempted The two family dogs had also been killed and
to explain his family’s sudden departure. The hidden beneath the patio. The graves had been
move to Australia was, in fact, a ruse and they scattered with religious icons in some twisted
were actually on their way to America but funereal ceremony. A wife and her children had

Getty Images
this information was not to be shared with been brutally murdered but where was their father? Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès’ registration form
for the local rifle club where he practiced
anyone. To the absolute disbelief of his relatives, The police began tracing Xavier’s last known shooting after inheriting the .22 rifle
Xavier explained that he had not been a failed steps in the hopes that they could track him

THE POLICE ARE CALLED ONE LAST AN INVESTIGATION A GRUESOME

13 APRIL 2011 CCTV IMAGE BEGINS DISCOVERY
Neighbours become suspicious of
Agnès’ stationary car and call the
14 APRIL 2011 19 APRIL 2011 21 APRIL 2011
Xavier is caught on camera Having searched the property five The bodies of Agnès and her four
police. They search the property but
for the last time as he times to no avail, an investigation children are found under the
are not overly concerned. Xavier
enters a hotel in Var. is set up. Police are concerned by terrace patio. The abandoned
attempts to contact an ex-girlfriend.
Xavier’s suspicious purchases. Citroën C5 is found.

28
 MURDER BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

an ex-girlfriend but the reunion never took place. The hunt was on to track down Xavier, either
Further sightings followed, the final confirmed as a sixth victim or as the killer. Many believed

Getty Images
image being captured on 14 April by a surveillance that the errant father had murdered his family
camera in the town of Roquebrune-sur-Argens. only to commit suicide elsewhere. This would
The following morning Xavier abandoned his car certainly explain the openness of his actions
and disappeared for good and, with the discovery after apparently fleeing the murder scene. The
of the bodies beneath the patio terrace, he became last sighting had been in Roquebrune-sur-Argens
a wanted man. where he checked out of a hotel, carrying nothing
Autopsies, carried out the day after the bodies but a small backpack. Since the surrounding area
were unearthed, showed that the children had consisted of sheer cliffs, mountains, caves and
been drugged with sleeping pills before being plunging crevices, police employed professional
shot twice in the back of the head. Agnès had also spelunkers to search for his body. Their efforts
been shot but her body contained no traces of were futile, however, and no trace of Xavier has
the drug. It seemed that whoever had killed her ever been found.
knew that she used a sleep apnea machine and Later investigations have proved equally
had turned it off during the night. The murder disappointing. The body of a man found in
weapon had been a .22 rifle, instantly linking the mountains two years later, followed by the
the bodies to their absent father. Crime scene discovery of some bones in a nearby forest in
investigators scoured the property looking for April 2015, turned out not to be the missing
clues and were baffled by the lack of physical suspect but the hunt continues and the mystery
evidence. How was it possible to fire ten bullets lingers. The arrival of a photograph of Arthur
without leaving behind a single drop of blood? and Benoît, sent to a journalist in Nantes, caused
The behaviour of the Nantes prosecutor a ripple of excitement. The image of the two
compounded the mystery by insisting that the sons of Xavier sitting at a kitchen table was, in
Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès stares family be buried as soon as possible, and strongly itself, unremarkable, but an inscription scrawled
defiantly at the camera. Was this man
really capable of murdering his wife advising that relatives should not view the on the reverse reading “I’m still alive” looked
and four children in cold blood? victims’ bodies. Who then, formally identified the highly promising. Sadly, the photo, dated 11 July
Dupont de Ligonnès? 2015, was yet another dead end since neither the
Getty Images

A partial view taken on 23 April

2011 shows the room of the
The police discovered that Xavier Auberge de Cassagne where Xavier
stayed at the luxury hotel Auberge de spent the night of 12 April
Cassagne in Le Pontet on 12 April

THE AUTOPSIES THE FUNERAL THE SEARCH FOR BRINGING UP

22 APRIL 2011 28 APRIL 2011 XAVIER CONTINUES OLD BODIES
Autopsies reveal all victims have
been shot with a .22 rifle. An
The family’s funeral is held in
Nantes. The bodies are cremated.
23 JUNE 2011 9 APRIL 2013
Caving experts are called in to Investigators begin searching the
international arrest warrant is A private ceremony is held two
search Roquebrune-sur-Argens, old mines around Cannet-des-
issued for Xavier. days later in Noyers-sur-Serein,
since they believe Xavier may Maures, where the bodies of the
home of Agnès’ family.
have committed suicide. Massié family were found in 1981.

29
 UNEXPLAINED DEATHS

photographer or the sender could be established.

Far from aiding the investigation, the picture and
Flowers, candles, toys
its enigmatic inscription merely confused the and photographs are left
situation further. outside the family home
by friends and neighbours
Almost a decade later and the police are no
closer to solving the case of the Dupont de
Ligonnès family. In truth, there are far more
questions than answers. Is Xavier the brutal killer
of his entire family and if so, why? We know that
his marriage was not the perfect union that the
couple carefully portrayed. Agnès had complained
online that “there is no more tenderness between
us, no more attention, no softness, no sex”. She
went on to say that her husband had even claimed
“if we could all die tomorrow, that would be
better”. So did Xavier obliterate his family only to
commit suicide a few days later? It would explain
his lack of interest in covering his tracks but if that
is the case, where is the body? There would be no
point in him attempting to hide his death and if

Getty Images
he had killed himself while out on the mountain
trails, surely someone would have stumbled upon
it by now?
Why send the strange letter claiming his
involvement in the DEA and the subsequent need
to enter Witness Protection? If this were truly the
case, then any communication with his relatives
would have been utterly forbidden. If the family Relatives and friends come out of the church
of Notre-Dame, Noyers-sur-Serein, on 30
had indeed left France for a new life in America, April 2011, after the private funeral ceremony
who were the bodies buried under the terrace? No of the Dupont de Ligonnès family members
conclusive DNA testing was carried out and the
remaining family members were never given the
opportunity to verify the corpses. Considering the
complexity of the case, the bodies were released
for burial remarkably soon after their discovery.
The questions continue to mount up but,
frustratingly, answers are not forthcoming, even
though sightings of Xavier persist. A man, thought
to be the missing father, was arrested in Glasgow,
Scotland, as recently as 2019. Initially, the
situation looked promising since his fingerprints
appeared to be a match. However, DNA testing
proved it to be nothing more than another
disappointing dead end.
At the end of the purported letter from Xavier to
his relatives, having explained the reason for their

Getty Images
sudden departure, he sends his love and signs off
“we’ll have so many stories to tell you later on!” It
seems the world will have to wait to hear them.

A FRUITLESS BONES! FURTHER A MYSTERIOUS

SEARCH 28 APRIL 2015 DISAPPOINTMENT PACKAGE
2 MAY 2013 Bones are discovered close
to where Xavier disappeared
1 MAY 2015 11 JULY 2015
Yet another search is carried DNA analysis proves that the A photograph of Arthur and
alongside a bill dated 2011.
out but, once again, it ends bones do not belong to Xavier. Benoît is mailed to a journalist
in disappointment. in Nantes. “I’m still alive” is
written on the reverse.

30
 MURDER BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

“ALMOST A DECADE LATER AND THE The Dupont de Ligonnès children

POLICE ARE NO CLOSER TO SOLVING during happier times

THE CASE OF THE DUPONT DE LIGONNÈS

FAMILY. IN TRUTH, THERE ARE FAR
MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS”

Getty Images
Getty Images
Getty Images
Messages were stuck on the door of
the Dupont de Ligonnès family house
as part of a silent march to mark the
first anniversary of the murders

THE MONASTERY RAID A SIGHTING IN MORE DNA TESTS UNSOLVED MYSTERIES

9 JANUARY 2018 SCOTLAND 12 OCTOBER 2019 8 JULY 2020
Armed police raid the Saint-Desert
Monastery in Roquebrune-sur-
11 OCTOBER 2019 Further tests are carried
out only to reveal that the
Netflix releases an episode of
Unsolved Mysteries entitled ‘House of
A man suspected of being
Argens after worshippers claim to suspect is not Xavier Dupont Terror’, featuring the strange deaths
Xavier is arrested at Glasgow
have spotted him pretending to be de Ligonnès. of the Dupont de Ligonnès family
Airport after it is thought
a monk. It turns out to be another and the disappearance of their
that he is using a stolen
wild goose chase. patriarch, Xavier.
French passport.
31
 UNEXPLAINED DEATHS

THE ATLANTA CHILD MURDERS

RE-EXAMINED Forty years after the Atlanta Child Murders shocked the
world there are still many unanswered questions, and
when even the victims’ mothers are unconvinced by Wayne
Williams’ guilt, it’s time the case was re-examined...
WRITTEN BY JOANNA ELPHICK
Getty Images

32
THE ATLANTA CHILD MURDERS

Williams was convicted of

the murders of Nathaniel
Cater and Jimmy Ray Payne

Getty Images

33
 UNEXPLAINED DEATHS

W
hen Wayne Williams was charged deaths. The abduction and murder of a female the deteriorated state of the victims’ bodies.
and convicted of murdering two child, 12-year-old Angel Lanier, confused the Finding a recognisable pattern was going to be
young adults, it also ended a two-year matter further. Just how many child killers were extremely difficult.
investigation into the killing of at least there hunting across the Atlanta region? Within a year of the first deaths, victims began
28 African-American children, the Eleven-year-old Jeffery Mathis was next to turning up at a rate of roughly one per month,
assumption being that he had murdered them disappear, just one week after Angel’s murder. starting with the abduction of 14-year-old Lubie
all. But as time went by, people began to doubt His little body would not be found for another Geter. His best friend, Terry Pue, was murdered
the conviction and take Williams’ protestations of 11 months, making cause of death an impossible 19 days later. The Black community of Atlanta
innocence a little more seriously. task. A further 11 young victims were snatched were both terrified for their families and furious
The killer first struck in the summer of 1979 and murdered before the year was out, including at the lack of action. Parents started picking up
when the bodies of two 14-year-old boys were the youngest victim, seven-year-old LaTonya their children from school and stopped them from
discovered in a remote wooded area of Atlanta. Wilson who, witnesses stated, had been abducted playing on the waste ground near their homes.
Edward Smith had vanished on the 21 July and from her home by two men. While the majority The fear was palpable and the people demanded
had been shot in the back. Alfred Evans went of the children had been strangled, two boys, justice and protection.
missing four days later only to be found Eric Middlebrooks and Patrick Rogers, died from Over one hundred of Atlanta’s finest officers
strangled and abandoned on nearby wasteland. blunt force trauma to the head. Nine-year-old interviewed 20,000 people face-to-face while
Ten days later, a third victim went missing, Anthony Carter, meanwhile, had been stabbed 15,000 more individuals were questioned over
but this time the body of Milton Harvey was multiple times. On at least four occasions, the the telephone. Ronald Reagan, the president at
not located until two months later. So far the cause of death remained undetermined due to the time, pledged a substantial grant to help fund
children had all been young teenagers but on 21
October, nine-year-old Yusuf Bell failed to return
home after running an errand for a neighbour.
“THE BLACK COMMUNITY OF ATLANTA WERE BOTH
Witnesses last saw the boy climbing into a blue
car. His strangled corpse was discovered 18 days TERRIFIED FOR THEIR FAMILIES AND FURIOUS AT THE
later in an abandoned school, but police failed
to spot a connection to the previous children’s LACK OF ACTION FROM THE POLICE”
Witnesses are called to
testify that they saw
Williams with one of the
victims, Billy Barrett,
before his disappearance
Getty Images

34
 THE ATLANTA CHILD MURDERS

Getty Images
Were the Ku Klux Klan
involved in the Atlanta
Child Murders?

MODUS
OPERANDI
‘Leopards don’t change their
spots,’ so the saying goes.
The same could be said for
serial killers when it comes
to their particular habits

By the late 1970s, the FBI’s Behavioural

Sciences Unit had gathered together a vast
amount of information regarding the conduct
of serial killers. It soon became apparent
that even the most outrageous of criminal
behaviour can be categorised into certain
predictable patterns. However, each
individual killer will carry his own unique
methodology, known as his modus operandi.
The likelihood of a criminal altering his MO
during a killing spree is infinitesimal and it
is often such clues that leads an investigative
team into separating the acts of different
offenders working at the same time and in the
the investigation, while 35 FBI agents were sent open waste ground. Now the killer was disposing same location.
to Atlanta in the hopes that a specially crafted of the bodies in the nearby rivers, thereby An MO will include such factors as the
task force, utilising the latest technology and washing away the only evidence the police had to choice of weapon, methods of disposing
profiling techniques, might solve the case and link the crimes to the criminal. of the bodies, location, time of day, and
end the tsunami wave of fear sweeping Georgia. Shortly after this ill-conceived revelation, the selection of victims. This last point is highly
Meanwhile bounty hunters came from far and victim typology altered. The last teenager to be pertinent when considering the likelihood
wide in order to grab a share of the $100,000 murdered was 17-year-old William Barrett, who of Williams being the killer of all of the
reward money and become an international hero disappeared on 11 May 1981, while the remaining Atlanta victims. They were predominantly
and local residents, doubting the capabilities of six victims were all in their twenties. Eddie young boys, suggesting possible homosexual
the lawmen, walked the streets at night, armed Duncan, Larry Rogers, Michael McIntosh and urges. However, two of the proposed victims
with baseball bats, desperately searching for the Jimmy Ray Payne ranged in age from 20 to 23 were little girls, a highly unlikely choice for
man who was killing their children. and were all either strangled or asphyxiated. such a serial killer. The bodies had been
Curfews were imposed but still the children Then, in April of the same year, 28-year-old John sexualised with one victim having another
went missing. The police had very little to go on Porter went missing. Once recovered, his body person’s panties stuffed into her mouth. Such
but, in a desperate bid to calm the media frenzy, was discovered to have been covered in multiple behaviour was not seen with any other Atlanta
someone released a vital piece of information. stab wounds, the victim of a frenzied attack. child murder.
Scene of crime investigators had managed to This was quite different to the majority of the
recover a selection of hairs and fibres from a other murders and yet, the crime would later be

Getty Images
few of the bodies and this, they believed, would attributed to Wayne Williams.
inevitably lead them to the culprit. Two types of Having given away their best evidence to link
fibre were particularly interesting, yellow-green the murders together, the FBI and police units
nylon and violet acetate. The coarse yellow-green decided to begin patrolling the length of the
fibres were thought to have originated from a rug Chattahoochee River, one of the killer’s favourite
or carpet and were immediately taken by the FBI dumping grounds since the media exposé. In
who determined that it had been manufactured the early hours of 22 May 1981, a team of officers
by Wellman Inc, a textile company in Boston. were staking out the South Drive Bridge that
Further analysis revealed the dye used, tracking spanned the Chattahoochee River. Two Atlanta
the fibres to a carpet manufacturer in Dalton, policemen and two FBI agents were chatting to
Georgia. The carpet, known as ‘Luxaire’, was made one another as they patrolled the river’s edge
in a variety of colours, this one being ‘English when they heard a loud splash in the darkness.
Olive’. Further fibres were identified as rayon, the While two men ran back to the road in order to John Douglas, former FBI expert on serial
type of material used to make car mats. seal off the bridge, the other officers dived into killers, prepares to give testimony on the
importance of a killer’s MO. Like many
The decision to reveal their one clue was an the water in a desperate bid to find what had others, he does not believe Williams
unmitigated disaster since the killer had now been dropped in there. Unfortunately, it was murdered all the children in the Atlanta case
been warned. The murders kept occurring but, impossible to see anything in the early morning
from February 1981, were no longer dumped on half-light and it would be another two days before

35
 UNEXPLAINED DEATHS

Jimmy Ray Payne’s

family break down in
tears during his funeral

HOW SCIENCE CAN

CATCH A KILLER
In 1982, when Wayne Williams
was implicated in the murder
of at least 28 children and
adolescents, forensic science –
particularly DNA evidence – was
still in its infancy. Today, more
and more cases are being solved
thanks to modern technology

The discovery of fibres at a crime scene is

considered valuable corroborating evidence and
is often used during trials as a means to providing
associations or exclusions between suspects,
victims and locations. The Suffolk Ripper, Roy
Whiting and Ian Huntley, to name but a few, were
all convicted largely on fibre evidence thanks to
their easy transference. Hair too, can be readily
transferred between people. A simple Microscopy
Test can determine basic differences between
hair types. However, if this is inconclusive, a DNA
profile can be generated from the hair root, if

Getty Images
available. DNA profiling has been a staple tool in
forensic science since 1986; any earlier attempts
were very basic, suggesting a re-examination
of the forensic evidence in the Williams’ trial the body of 27-year-old Nathaniel Cater would be he professed to be a talent recruiter, his main
would be highly beneficial. Although DNA may discovered, a mile downstream. income seemed to come from photographing
be unique, it is impossible to test the entire Police stopped a number of drivers crossing crime and accident scenes and selling them on
genome and so a number of variable regions are the river in those early hours. One of them, to media outlets. From time to time he would
chosen. Known as ‘short tandem repeats’, initial Wayne Bertram Williams, seemed particularly ride alongside the evening ambulance drivers,
investigations looked at four such regions, but, interesting since, after the initial splash, he had but usually, Williams would listen in to his short-
with technological advances, investigators now turned his Chevrolet station wagon around and wave radio in order to monitor police activity,
examine up to 24. This means there is less chance double-backed across the bridge. At the police making sure that he was the first at the scene. His
of two suspects presenting the same profile. station, he had explained that he had been out educated parents were both teachers, a fact that
Today, even very close family members can be and about bright and early in order to audition a weighed heavy on college drop-out Wayne who
separated and clearly identified. young woman, Cheryl Johnson, as he was looking hid his sense of inadequacy behind a swaggering
for a singer. He was, he said, a talent scout, DJ and veneer of disdain for his fellow residents of
photographer among other things. The police let Atlanta. He was known in the neighbourhood as
him go but when all attempts to find Ms Johnson an homosexual with a vicious streak. On closer
or any record of her appointment to corroborate inspection, investigators discovered that in 1976,
his reason for being on the bridge at that time three years before the first of the murders, he had
failed, Mr Williams instantly became a person been arrested and charged with impersonating an
of interest. FBI criminal profiler, John E Douglas, officer of the law. Wayne Williams was a failure
agreed that 23-year-old Wayne Williams matched who relied upon his parents to reassure him of his
Getty Images

the profile that he had assembled so a round-the- self-worth while helping to feed and clothe him.
clock surveillance team was set up and, on Special Agent John Douglas had developed a
3 June, a search warrant was finally obtained for profile of the Atlanta Child Killer and police were
his house and station wagon. amazed at the resemblance to their number one
Modern technological advances Williams was a strange little man who, at suspect. The murderer, so the profile stated, would
mean that hair analysis is far 23 years of age, still lived with his parents in be living in the area, close to his victims, and
more reliable today
a suburb of Dixie Hills in Atlanta. Although would have been over-cossetted by his parents.

36
 THE ATLANTA CHILD MURDERS

Getty Images
He would have an occupation that allowed him A single fragment of rayon, found on Jimmy Jurors are taken to the
to slip in and out of remote locations and would Ray Payne’s shorts, matched the carpeting Jackson Parkway
attempt to remain inconspicuous, choosing to in the vehicle. The discovery of a 24-inch
wear dark-coloured clothing. There was a good nylon cord which, investigators later claimed,
chance that he had been caught impersonating matched the ligature marks found around the
law enforcement in his past. He would be single necks of various victims, and a pair of gloves,
and, uncharacteristically for a serial killer, he were highly suspicious to say the very least.
would be Black. Police were convinced that they Dog hairs, meticulously picked up from the
had found their man. On meeting Williams, back seat, corresponded with hair samples
Douglas described him as “an angry young man found on a number of previous bodies.
seeking power”. On 21 June 1981, the police arrested Williams,
The problem was, there seemed to be little in but without any fingerprints or even a murder
the way of hard evidence linking Williams to the weapon, they decided to err on the side of
crimes other than his appearance on the James caution, and, much to the voluble protests of
Jackson Parkway Bridge on 22 May. It was hoped the other victims’ parents, he was charged with
that a thorough search of his home would provide the first-degree murder of Nathaniel Cater and
further evidence. The first thing investigators Jimmy Ray Payne only. The prosecution’s case
noticed when entering Mr and Mrs Williams’ would rest solely on the circumstantial fibre
residence was the olive green carpet. After careful evidence and would come down to the law of
analysis it was established that the flooring was averages. After all, what were the odds that
‘Luxaire’, just like the fibres recovered from a few such fibres would find themselves on these two
of the earlier bodies. Despite his lifeless corpse individuals when the Luxaire carpet, found in
being thrown into the rushing waters of the Williams’ home, had been manufactured and
Chattahoochee River, an olive green fibre had also sold to cover no more than 6.7 billion square
been recovered from Nathaniel Cater’s hair. yards? The answer, they argued, was virtually
Meanwhile, a comprehensive examination of incalculable considering that fibres from the car
Williams’ station wagon revealed more surprises. were also discovered on the young men. The trial began on 6 January 1982 and ended
52 days later with the jury finding Williams

“DESPITE HIS LIFELESS BODY BEING THROWN INTO THE guilty of the murders of Jimmy Ray Payne and
Nathaniel Cater. When Williams’ lawyer scoffed

CHATTAHOOCHEE RIVER, AN OLIVE GREEN FIBRE HAD at the weak evidence, a startling ruling by the
judge allowed the prosecution to bring forward

BEEN RECOVERED FROM NATHANIEL CATER’S HAIR”

fibre evidence which linked Williams with other
victims despite the fact that he had not been
officially accused of their murders. Twenty-one
further victims, both children and young adults,
were attributed to him but not proven. Their cases
were subsequently closed after the Atlanta Special
Police Task Force claimed that the fibre evidence
clearly linked all deaths back to him. Six more
murders remain unresolved to this day.
No-one, with the exception of Wayne Williams
himself, has argued that he is innocent of all
the crimes, but there is a growing number of
individuals who are convinced that he was
wrongfully blamed for at least some of the Atlanta
Child Murders. Indeed, it could be argued that he
was found guilty under the laws of probability
rather than the laws of the country. If that is the
case, then another killer still roams the highways
and byways of Atlanta.
The jury had been mesmerised by the
prosecution’s statistical analysis, carefully
presented in the form of 40 charts and over
300 photographs of dog hairs and carpet fibres.
However, far less time in court was given to the
chances that one man would change his modus
operandi so dramatically across a comparatively
short space of time, swapping between victim
Homer and Faye
Williams, the parents of
types and murder methodology. Having presented
Wayne, look on in horror the Atlanta Law Enforcement officers with an
Getty Images

as the trial unfolds initial profile, John Douglas has admitted that,
while he firmly believes Williams is guilty of

37
 UNEXPLAINED DEATHS

many of the murders, he doesn’t think that all the

killings should be attributed to him. In fact, he is
the disappearances began. The latest in forensic
technology is currently being utilised, overseen by
“WAYNE WILLIAMS
quite convinced that there “isn’t a single offender”.
Former Atlanta police detective, Danny Agan,
a joint task force consisting of the Atlanta Police
Department, Fulton County District Attorney’s
CONTINUES TO
supports the claim, stating that it seems “unlikely
that Williams… who prosecutors claimed was
Office and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Spurred on by the Black Lives Matter movement, MAINTAIN HIS
attracted to boys, killed the two girls who were
among the victims”.
The case has rumbled on for years with further
Mayor Bottoms is determined to do all that she
can to solve the murders.
Meanwhile, the Atlanta Children’s Memorial
INNOCENCE, AS MUCH
investigations taking place in 2007. Scientific
analysis of the dog hairs found on some of the
Taskforce, a committee group established by
Mayor Bottoms, continues to keep the memory of
A VICTIM OF THE
victims were, once again, examined against
Williams’ dog while DNA tests were carried out
these tragic victims alive in the hearts and minds
of the people of Atlanta. A monument featuring
ATLANTA CHILD
on human hairs found on the victims but
thought to belong to the killer. No conclusive
an eternal flame is in development and is planned
to be installed at their City Hall. KILLER AS THE LITTLE
proof was forthcoming.
Rumours of possible Ku Klux Klan involvement
have been raised on numerous occasions,
Wayne Williams is currently serving two
consecutive life terms and, while many believe
he is at least guilty of some of the murders, he
CHILDREN AND YOUNG
supported by many of the victims’ grieving
parents. A two-month, top-secret investigation
continues to maintain he is innocent, as much
a victim of the Atlanta Child Killer as the little
MEN FOUND MURDERED”
into the KKK’s activities, known as the 8100 File, children and young men found abandoned by
took place during the Atlanta Child Murders but the wayside or floating down the Chattahoochee
was kept out of the trial. Had the information River. On hearing of the proposed re-examination
accumulated by the investigation on the of evidence, he released a statement at a news
movements of the 10,000 white supremacists conference via the Wayne Williams Freedom
been revealed, it would have almost certainly Project, in which he declared: “I stand fully ready
sparked a violent race riot in an area that was and willing to cooperate with any renewed
already a powder keg of emotions. As a result, investigation to find the truth on what happened
information on possible white suspects have been with the purpose of straightening up any lies and
buried along with the file. misconceptions of my unjust convictions.”
Wayne Williams continues to maintain his The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles
innocence and many mothers are still fighting have repeatedly denied all attempts by Williams
for justice after their children’s cases were closed. for an early release as they believe he is still
After one such parent, the mother of 13-year- a threat to society and has shown no sign of
old victim Curtis Walker, met Atlanta Mayor repentance. Should the evidence continue to
Keisha Lance Bottoms, the case was re-examined suggest his involvement in the murders or remain
once again in 2019, giving hope for both the inconclusive one way or the other, the next
families and, potentially, the suspect. The case date for parole consideration has been set for
is particularly personal for the mayor who was November 2027. It seems his future freedom still
a nine-year-old schoolgirl living in Atlanta when hangs by a hair – a dog hair, to be precise.

THE SHERIFF WHO CROSSED THE LINE

Getty Images
As the first African-American to serve as sheriff of DeKalb County, Sidney
Dorsey was considered a local hero by the Black community of Atlanta.
Sadly, he failed to live up to his image

Sidney Dorsey had been highly respected by the promise to deal with corruption within the force and
townsfolk of DeKalb County. While serving as an Dorsey was terrified of what he might discover during
Atlanta homicide detective, he had overseen the his investigations.
first search of Wayne Williams’ house and was later On 15 December 2000, Derwin was in a hurry to get
instrumental in raising concerns over the extent of his home as it was his wife’s birthday. Having popped into
involvement in the child murders. However, during a nearby shop to buy a dozen roses, he pulled up on his
his time as sheriff he had violated his oath of office on driveway only to be ambushed before making it to the
numerous occasions, through theft and racketeering. front door. He was struck down in a hail of bullets, at From local hero to
When he was defeated in the 2000 local county least ten of which hit their target. At the time, Dorsey county disgrace, Sidney
Dorsey now resides at
sheriff’s election by police veteran Derwin Brown, claimed he was innocent but in 2007 he confessed the Georgia State Prison
Dorsey was both furious and panic-stricken. Voters to his part in the murder while serving life in Georgia
had elected Brown predominantly because of his State Prison.

38
THE ATLANTA CHILD MURDERS

Wayne Williams sits

in the back of a police
Getty Images

vehicle, waiting to be
escorted to his trial

39
 UNEXPLAINED DEATHS

MYSTERY OF THE

YUBA
COUNTY 5
Five young men kissed their families goodbye and
drove off to a basketball game. Four returned months
later in body bags and one never returned at all.
What happened on that freezing cold night?
WRITTEN BY JOANNA ELPHICK

40
MYSTERY OF THE YUBA COUNTY 5

41
 UNEXPLAINED DEATHS

I
t was a freezing cold evening on 24 February
1978 when five close friends, Jackie Huett, Ted
Weiher, Jack Madruga, William Sterling and
Gary Dale Mathias, decided to take a mini road
trip, 75 kilometres from their home town of
Yuba City to Chico in order to catch a basketball
game. Although it was cold out, the young men
didn’t feel the need for jackets, as they intended to
drive up in Jack Madruga’s beloved 1969 Mercury
Montego and would be coming straight home after
the game finished at around 10pm. It was important
that they returned home as quickly as possible
when they were done because the group were
playing a game themselves the following day. It was
a big event for their team, the ‘Gateway Gators’, and
they wanted to be up and ready good and early on
Saturday morning.

WRONG TURN
The game had been a good one, and as they had
Jack Madruga’s Mercury Montego
clambered back into the car and pulled out of the ult
made it up the rough road in diffic
esting
California State University carpark they decided to conditions without a scratch, sugg
the driver knew the road intimately
celebrate with some snacks. Three blocks away they
found a late-night market and so pulled in off the
road. The clerk at Behr’s Market would be extremely well; along Highway 70, cutting through the Central when they had fully intended to make the one-
useful to the police when the investigation was Valley. It should have taken them about an hour to hour journey home across the flatlands? Nobody
underway, because he remembered the exact time drive the 75 kilometres, especially since the driving could understand it, but as the parents gathered to
they showed up and what the men bought. He conditions were clear. Although it was bitterly cold, give their statements to the police, it soon became
had been slightly irritated by their arrival as it was the snow had not started to fall across the lowland apparent that this was no ordinary disappearance
closing time and he wanted to shut up shop and go areas and it was a bright, starry night. and these were not your average young men.
home. The men had promised to be quick but had However, the group did not take that route.
then proceeded to buy “half the store”, including Instead, they turned the car around and began FIVE GOOD MEN
milk, Pepsi, a Hostess cherry pie, various chocolate travelling in completely the wrong direction. The Ted Weiher’s mother was the first to realise
bars and a Langendorf lemon pie. Laughing and car would eventually be found four days later, on something was wrong when she went to wake up
joking, the group paid for their food and climbed Tuesday 28 February, 115 kilometres from Chico, her son, as he had requested, and he had not come
back in the car, ready to go home. But the young high up on a lonely mountain road near Oroville, home. She rang William Sterling’s mother Juanita
men didn’t go home, and from that point onwards along the Rogers Cow Camp area. Whatever had in a blind panic only to find that William had failed
their movements became inexplicable. possessed them to travel 2.5-hours up a mountain to come home too. In fact, none of the men had
It was a straightforward journey from Chico back dirt track, at an elevation of over 1,375 metres, made it back the previous night. For most families,
to Yuba City. The men knew the route perfectly through thick snow into the Plumas National Forest a group of young men not coming straight home

Five young men with their whole lives ahead of them disappeared
one cold February evening, never to be seen alive again

JACKIE WILLIAM JACK THEODORE GARY

HUETT STERLING MADRUGA WEIHER MATHIAS
42
 MYSTERY OF THE YUBA COUNTY 5

The Plumas National Forest just above

Feather River after the big thaw. On that
fateful night in February 1978, the view
was decidedly less beautiful

after a night out would not be a cause for alarm, but suffering from drug problems while in Germany five THE MYSTERY BEGINS
these men were slightly different and, under the years earlier. Having been charged with two counts Two of them could drive, all had held down menial
circumstances, there was every reason to be fearful. of assault, Gary was diagnosed with schizophrenia jobs at some point and none of them would have
The friends all suffered in varying degrees from and was subsequently put under a doctor’s care. His reneged on the upcoming Gateway Gators match.
developmental disabilities and were enrolled in a stepfather Bob ensured that he took his medication Their parents were understandably terrified, and
day program for mentally handicapped adults. Each of Cogentin and Stellazine, and had been relieved to when they didn’t show in time for the big game,
one lived at home with his parents. notice a marked improvement in his condition. On the local police were called and an investigation
At 32 years old, Ted Weiher was the eldest. the night of the basketball game he had taken his was launched. Sunday and Monday dragged by
Although he was considered very slow, the gentle tablets as usual, but left them at home because he agonisingly slowly, but on Tuesday Jack Madruga’s
giant had tried to hold down a job as a janitor, but it intended to be back the following day, easily in time pride and joy, his Mercury Montego, was discovered.
had proved too difficult and his family had advised for his next dose. High up in the Sierra Nevada mountains above
him to give it up. He was particularly close to Jackie The men each had their problems, but they all the Feather River, a search team located the car in
Huett, the youngest member of the group, who at coped well and their parents all believed that they a small drift just beyond Elke Retreat. The wheels
24 walked with a stooped head and struggled to were perfectly able to make their way to and from had appeared to have spun in the snow, but the car
use the telephone without support. William Sterling a game without getting into trouble. They were all was not stuck and could easily have been pushed
was deeply religious and was often found reading ‘good men’ who did as they were told and never backwards onto the dirt path. The floor and seats
passages from the Bible to other handicapped deviated from a plan once it had been decided were littered with rubbish; chocolate bar wrappers,
and sick patients at the local psychiatric hospital. upon. A sudden change would have unnerved them lemon and cherry pie boxes, a carton of milk and
His best friend, Jack Madruga, had never been and would have been entirely out of character. The some empty Pepsi bottles. The men had clearly
diagnosed with any mental illness but clearly had parents all agreed that, should something have gone eaten their celebratory feast before leaving the
a very low IQ. However, he had gained a driver’s awry, the five friends would have stuck together, vehicle. But why leave it at all? The petrol tank was
licence and had served in the army. supporting one another as best they could and at least one-quarter full and the car itself was not
25-year-old Gary Dale Mathias was the last would certainly not have abandoned each other if at stuck. Although the keys were missing, the police
member of the gang. He had also served in the all possible. However, later evidence would suggest had no problems in hot-wiring it and starting it
army but had been given psychiatric discharge after that they had done just that. up. There was nothing wrong with the vehicle at
all – in fact it was suspiciously undamaged. The
men must have travelled up the unmade track in

“THE PARENTS ALL AGREED THAT, SHOULD dangerous conditions and somehow avoided every
single bump and rut. The car was not designed for

SOMETHING HAVE GONE AWRY, THE FIVE FRIENDS

such terrain and yet it had survived the journey
unscathed. Police decided that whoever had driven
the car must have known the road like the back
WOULD HAVE STUCK TOGETHER” of his hand in order to have avoided any damage,
but Mrs Madruga later testified that Jack never let

43
 UNEXPLAINED DEATHS

Jack Madruga’s pride and joy, the 1969 turquoise and

white Mercury Montego that was discovered up in the
Plumas National Forest mountains, a 2.5-hour drive from
Chico in the wrong direction to the men’s homes

anybody else drive his car and that he had never

been up that road before. “AS JOSEPH SHONES CLIMBED OUT OF THE CAR HE
Forest Rangers searched the area with no luck,
and five days into their investigation a violent
storm blew in, dropping 23 centimetres of snow
SAW A GROUP OF PEOPLE, INCLUDING A NUMBER OF
over any potential tracks. The investigation was
postponed, leaving the anxious parents to wait until
MEN AND A WOMAN WITH A BABY”
the spring thaw.
during the night of the disappearance but had got that this was the case. Having crawled back into his
A PECULIAR SIGHTING his car stuck in snow about 45 metres beyond the car, Shones turned the engine on and the heater up
While police waited for better weather conditions, spot where the Montego would later be found. He before passing out. During the night he awoke to
a witness came forward claiming to have seen had been digging the wheels out when a sharp pain the sound of whistling, and as he climbed out of the
something suspicious on that Friday night. 55-year- forced him to his knees. Shones believed he was car he saw a group of people, including a number
old Joseph Shones had driven up the mountain road having a heart attack, and doctors later confirmed of men and a woman with a baby, walking up the
road, lit up in the glare of headlights from a car and
a truck. When he called for help, the lights went out,
and he was plunged back into darkness.
Joseph Shones, wh
o had suffered a mi
ld
A few hours later he was woken by the beam of
heart attack near wh
ere Jack’s car was a torch behind him. Once again he yelled for help,
later found, report
ed seeing a group
men and a woman of but the lights were extinguished and the whispering
with
road on the night the a baby by the
men disappeared voices stopped. Shones was deeply unnerved by
the experience, and as soon as he felt better he
began to walk the 13 kilometres to the Mountain
House Lodge, passing Jack Madruga’s empty car
on the way. He soon forgot all about the incident
when he got safely home but was reminded of
the peculiar sighting when police announced the
bizarre disappearance of the men on the news. The
moment he saw the photograph of the missing
Mercury Montego he phoned the police. It soon
became apparent that Joseph Shones had likely
been the last person to see the men alive, but
his statement only seemed to add to the list of
unanswerable questions.
Meanwhile, the young men’s families raised a
$2,600 reward for any information and waited for
the thaw to arrive. The police became desperate,
following misleading eyewitness accounts all over
the county and eventually calling on psychics but,
unsurprisingly, it was all to no avail.

44
 MYSTERY OF THE YUBA COUNTY 5
Ted Weiher’s emaciated body
was found alone in the Forest
Rangers’ trailer. His shoes
were missing and his feet
On 4 June, after the spring thaw, some were frostbitten
motorcyclists riding up through the mountain road
discovered a Forest Rangers’ trailer approximately
30 kilometres further up from where Jack’s car had
been found. One of the windows had been smashed.
As the motorcyclists opened the cabin door they
were hit by a repugnant smell. Something had
crawled in here and died. Sadly, it would turn out to
be Ted Weiher.

HOW THE MYSTERY

UNFOLDED
The clues to unlocking the mystery
lie scattered across the map, from
Yuba City to Bucks Lake

CLUE VICTIM
EVENT OUTSIDE FOOD STORAGE HUT
The hut had enough dehydrated food to JACK AND WILLIAM’S BONES
THE RANGERS’ TRAILER feed the men throughout the winter. It William Sterling’s bones were scattered over 15 metres
They had evidently entered the trailer by also housed the propane gas that could and Jack Madruga’s body was dragged to a nearby
breaking a window but did nothing to cover have kept them warm. stream, his hand curled around his watch. He had been
the hole once inside, even though the wind partially eaten by animals.
and snow was coming in. They must all have
been in there at some point, so why leave
when there was food and shelter?

VICTIM
JACKIE’S BONES
CLUE Jackie Huett’s spinal column and then
his skull were found after the thaw by his
MERCURY MONTEGO CHICO
distraught father and search teams.
Jack Madruga’s car had somehow made
it all the way up the mountain on that
rough road without a scratch, and yet he
did not know the road. The window had
been left open, something his mother CLUE
said he would never have done. RED PICKUP TRUCK
50 kilometres from the site of the abandoned
car, a witness recalled seeing the men in a red
pickup truck. They bought more snacks and
WITNESS made a phone call. It was two days after they
had officially disappeared.
BEHR’S MARKET CLERK
The store was three blocks away from the university. The
clerk recalled how excited the men were because their YUBA CITY
team had won, giving police an insight into their state of
mind before they went up into the mountains.
EVENT 10 MILES
WITNESS HOME
JOSEPH SHONES The men all lived with
EVENT Shones was the last known person
to see the men alive. Although he their parents in Yuba
CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY claimed to have witnessed a woman City, California, and
became firm friends
The basketball match was held at the California State with a baby, it may have been one of
University and ended at 10pm, when the men should have the men hunched up to keep the cold after enrolling in a day
headed straight back to Yuba City. out. He also mentioned the truck program for mentally
headlights, corroborating the ‘red handicapped adults and
truck’ witness account. discovering their shared
love of basketball.
45
 UNEXPLAINED DEATHS

THE INVESTIGATION
Search and rescue teams scoured the surrounding area while police
combed through the trailer in search of clues about the men

Far from providing answers, the body of Ted discovered an unused propane tank in an outside
A P-38 army can opener was found in
Weiher, lovingly wrapped in eight bedsheets, raised shed. All they had needed to do was turn it on but the Rangers’ trailer and had seemingly
more questions. His shoes were missing, while they had chosen, or been forced, to freeze instead. been used by the men. Only Jack
Madruga and Gary Mathias would
Gary Mathias’s trainers lay nearby. A watch that Police officers found matches and plenty of books have known how to use it
none of the families recognised had been placed and furniture that could have been used to create
on the bedside cabinet alongside Ted’s ring. He had a fire, but even this simple act of survival had not
clearly starved to death, and yet there was plenty of been attempted.
food – enough for all the men – stored in an outside The search and rescue team fully expected to
locker. Although there was no key available, the
padlock was flimsy and could easily have been
find all five men inside the trailer, but when they
realised Ted’s was the only corpse present, they THE RED
PICKUP TRUCK
broken. Other cans had been opened with an Army began looking nearby. William Sterling and Jack
P-38 can opener, which only Jack Madruga or Gary Madruga were discovered the next day. Both were
Mathias would have known how to use. The body found on the other side of the road seven kilometres
was painfully thin, and it was estimated that he had from the trailer, William no more than a collection of On 3 March, a woman rang the police claiming
lost up to 45 kilograms in weight while hundreds bones on the forest floor, while Jack Madruga’s half- to have seen the boys in a pickup truck two days
of dehydrated dinners had been just outside. The eaten body lay further up by a stream. Wild animals after the disappearance. She had been working
growth of beard on his face suggested he’d been had clearly found him long before the police. The in a store in Brownsville, 50 kilometres away
hiding in the trailer for up to 13 weeks before distraught families joined in the gruesome search. from the abandoned Mercury Montego, when
he succumbed to starvation. His frostbitten feet Jackie Huett’s backbone was unearthed by his the truck had pulled up. Two men came into the
revealed the arduous trek he must have endured heartbroken father, along with pieces of his clothing. store, buying various snacks. She later identified
through 30 kilometres of freezing snowdrifts to His skull, later identified by the family dentist, was them as Ted Weiher and Jackie Huett. Another
reach the trailer. discovered the following day. man, William Sterling, got out to make a phone
The cabin itself must have been extraordinarily Around one kilometre away, in the opposite call and took Jackie with him. Jackie’s family
cold, and yet they had done nothing to warm direction, rangers found blankets and a rusted torch would later question the validity of this statement,
themselves. The trailer was gas heated, and police by the side of the mountain track, but it was never because Jackie was terrified of phones and always
got Ted Weiher to make a call for him. However,
Joseph Shones distinctly remembered two sets of
William Sterling and Jack Madruga’s
remains were found away from the headlights, one from a truck, out on the mountain
trailer. What drove the two men to pass. If this was true, who owned the truck?
leave the shelter and their friends?

established if they had been used by the men or

had merely been discarded by last year’s hikers.
Although this was all highly strange, the biggest
question on the minds of the search and rescue
team was obvious: where was Gary Mathias?
The undisputed leader of the group had
obviously spent some time in the trailer because he
had left his tennis shoes beside Ted Weiher’s body.
But where had he gone? Did he leave by himself, or
did he leave with his other friends? If so, why hadn’t
the rangers discovered his body? Nothing seemed
to make any sense. Special Agent John Thompson
from the Californian Department of Justice was
called in to assist in the investigation, but it
didn’t take him long to hit a brick wall, just as his
predecessors had. Everybody seemed to come up
with theories but nobody could give him the facts
he so desperately needed. As reporters clamoured
for answers he tried to show them the enormity of
the task, stating, “No explanations. And a thousand
leads. Every day you’ve got a thousand leads.”
As time crawled by it became apparent that the
police could not give the families what they wanted.
Closure was a luxury these parents were unlikely to
ever get.

46
 MYSTERY OF THE YUBA COUNTY 5

What exactly happened to the

five is unknown, and it remains
unlikely to ever be solved

THE AFTERMATH
40 years later and the police are no nearer to solving this perplexing mystery
Warm spring thaws have followed the bitingly cold
winds and heavy snowfall of the Sierra Nevada
mountains for decades, but no new evidence has been
“THEY COULD HAVE SURVIVED THE WINTER, WITH
revealed, leaving the families of Jack, Will, Ted, Jackie
and Gary to only imagine what must have happened PLENTY OF FOOD AND HEATING, YET ONE STARVED TO
up there all those years ago. The questions are endless
but the answers remain frustratingly out of reach.
The men all had their problems, and it was
DEATH WHILE THREE FLED INTO THE NIGHT”
Having discovered the rangers’ trailer, they could animals. His stepfather continues to search for his
conceivable that they might have taken a wrong
easily have survived the winter, with plenty of food and glasses. “I didn’t think a bear would eat that,” he said.
turn after the excitement of the game, heading in the
heating for all five men, and yet one starved to death Perhaps Gary had an episode after a few nights without
opposite direction to home, but were they really so
while three fled into the night only to succumb to the his medication. The men would have been afraid and
confused that, when they found themselves halfway up
cold and be taken by wild animals. left, staggering out into the snow only to die. Ted’s
a mountain pass, they didn’t realise their mistake and
Finally, where is Gary Mathias? He must have frostbite would have kept him in the trailer, unable to
come back down? It seems something, or someone,
made it up to the trailer as he left his trainers before leave. But even this vague theory doesn’t explain why
forced them up Bucks Lane towards Palmetto.
disappearing. Presumably, he took Ted’s boots after his they were up there in the first place. Did someone force
If they had been mistaken in their belief that the
friend passed away, and therefore it was most likely he them up that mountain to die? If so, who and why?
car was stuck in snow and didn’t have the foresight to
who carefully wrapped Ted’s body in the sheets. But Jack Madruga’s mother is convinced there were
‘bump’ it out, why didn’t they walk the 13 kilometres
Ted lingered for some months so Gary must have been sinister motives and that her son was “either tricked or
back down to Mountain House like Joseph Shones,
there too. If the food had remained untouched, he must threatened”. The other parents are equally sceptical that
instead of hiking 32 kilometres up the mountain in
have been equally starving. their men merely got confused, and believe that dark
blizzard conditions on the off-chance that they might
Police considered various theories. Most believe forces were at work that night. One thing is for certain,
find help? They would have had to pass Mountain
that Gary’s body is somewhere up in the mountains, as Undersheriff Jack Beecham has expressed, “This case
House on their drive up, and were guaranteed a warm
swept away by melting snow or dragged off by foraging is bizarre as hell.”
place to stay. Their actions were inexplicable.

47
 UNEXPLAINED DEATHS

THE CHICAGO
TYLENOL
MURDERS
On one infamous day in September 1982, Chicago was
plunged into a state of panic when seven unsuspecting
victims died after taking painkillers laced with
cyanide. The killer has never been caught...
WRITTEN BY NEIL MITCHELL

W
ednesday 29 September 1982 is population, they had been entered into a game of no one has ever been convicted of the killings.
a day etched into the history of Russian roulette with pills instead of bullets. In Catching a murderer (or murderers) with no
Chicago and the state of Illinois the days before social media and rolling 24-hour apparent motive, whose victims were decided
for all the wrong reasons. With news it took time for the individual authorities by an unfortunate roll of the dice and who left
Survivor’s Eye Of The Tiger topping involved with each case to ascertain what was no physical evidence (other than the tainted
the charts, the NFL on hiatus due to a union-led causing people to drop dead and then connect bottles of painkillers) or DNA across multiple
strike and Cheers making its debut on NBC-TV, the dots to paint a fuller, more horrifying picture murder scenes, has frustrated the local police
what would otherwise have been an average as to what had occurred on that now notorious departments and the FBI for over 30 years.
midweek day in the Windy City and surrounding Autumn day. Despite a number of suspects and a conviction
metropolitan area ended in mass murder, panic for extortion in relation to the killings, the
and widespread disbelief. Seven random victims WHY COMMIT SUCH A CRIME? Chicago Tylenol Murders remain an unsolved
were to die of cyanide poisoning after ingesting Unsurprisingly, the majority of mass murderers case. Somewhere out there, barring their own
capsules of Extra-Strength Tylenol that had been are subsequently found to have harboured long- demise, is the person (or persons) responsible
deliberately tainted with the lethal substance. standing grudges, suffer mental health problems for plunging Chicago into a state of collective
In an act of chilling cruelty, some anonymous and/or snap under the pressures of whatever crisis that quickly spread throughout the nation
figure had apparently placed contaminated personal circumstances push them over the and had far-reaching ramifications for the
bottles of the popular, over-the-counter painkiller edge. In the case of what became known as the pharmaceutical industry. Though the ‘who’ and
onto the shelves of numerous stores across the Chicago Tylenol Murders, all of these possibilities the ‘why’ lie at the heart of the case, the fruitless
metropolitan district. Unbeknownst to the local could be true but none have been proven as investigation into the killings and involvement

48
THE CHICAGO TYLENOL MURDERS

49
 UNEXPLAINED DEATHS

A CRIME SCENE
DICTATED BY CHANCE VICTIMS
Early into the investigation, a
suspected ‘placement route’ of the ADAM, STANLEY AND THERESA JANUS
Adam Janus’ purchase of Extra-Strength Tylenol
murderer was drawn up by detectives
from a store in Arlington Heights to combat a cold
signed not only his own death warrant, but his
brother and sister-in-law’s, a day later.

29 SEPTEMBER 1982
VICTIM
MARY MCFARLAND
Having bought Tylenol from a
store located in a mall, McFarland
returned to work at the telephone
centre in Lombard. Later that af-
ternoon, the 30-year-old’s brother, Jack, watched
in horror as McFarland collapsed in the office
where they both worked.
1 OCTOBER 1982 VICTIM
MARY ‘LYNN’ REINER
Witness to her mother’s
death, then eight-year-old
30 SEPTEMBER 1982 Michelle Rosen remembers
to this day the sound of Mary
Reiner’s laboured breathing. Watching her
mother shaking and then collapsing is an
image Michelle has never forgotten.

VICTIM
CLUE MARY KELLERMAN
A 7th grader at Schaumburg’s
UNKNOWN Jane Addams Junior High
Suspecting the killer had moved from
one retail outlet to the next in a single
29 SEPTEMBER 1982 School, Mary Kellerman
complained that morning
day, several routes were drawn up, of a sore throat. She ended the day on a
pinpointing five locations and the likely mortuary slab, killed by Tylenol innocently
path taken between them. The precise purchased at Elk Grove Village.
final outlet is unknown, though it was
thought to be east of Franks Finer Foods.

VICTIM
PAULA JEAN PRINCE
The only video footage of
one of the victims
purchasing Tylenol
involved Paula Jean Prince.
Captured on camera at the Walgreens drug
store situated at 1601 N. Wells, Chicago,
Prince would be the killer’s last victim.

CLUE
THE REGULAR TYLENOL PURCHASE
The ‘smoking gun’ purchase of Regular Tylenol
by Mary Reiner took place at Frank’s Finer Foods,
located at 0N040, Winfield Road, Winfield. Only Extra-
Strength Tylenol Capsules were laced with cyanide.
1 OCTOBER 1982

50
 THE CHICAGO TYLENOL MURDERS

“TO THE HORROR OF

of powerful corporations into the crimes’ that ‘I heard her go into the bathroom. I heard
representation in the media add compelling layers the door close. Then I heard something drop.’
of intrigue into what was already a disturbingly After asking if she was OK but getting no reply
fascinating case. Were the Chicago Tylenol
Murders an act of domestic terrorism or the
from Mary, Dennis opened the bathroom door
and found his daughter unconscious on the floor.
MARY’S PARENTS,
actions of a lone madman with an axe to grind
against the state of Illinois? Was it a disgruntled
Unable to rouse Mary, the Kellermans called
911 and requested medical assistance. Having AND DESPITE THE BEST
employee or former employee of Johnson &
Johnson, the parent company of the Tylenol
brand? This possibility has, to this day, been the
arrived at the scene, Paramedic Dave Spung tried
a number of drugs to try and bring Mary back to
consciousness but nothing worked.
EFFORTS OF MEDICAL
least explored line of enquiry, prompting recent
allegations of a cover-up between the FBI and
The stricken girl was transferred into the
back of an ambulance and rushed to the nearby
STAFF, THE YOUNG GIRL
Johnson & Johnson to absolve the pharmaceutical
giant of financial liability for the killings.
Alexian Brothers Medical Center. To the horror
of Mary’s parents, and despite the best efforts WAS PRONOUNCED DEAD”
of doctors and medical staff, the young girl was nursery, Janus stopped and bought a bottle of
THE FIRST VICTIM pronounced dead at 9.56am. Edmund Donoghue, Tylenol Extra-Strength capsules. Having returned
At 6.30am on the morning of the 29th in Elk the Deputy Chief Medical Examiner for Cook home and eaten lunch with his children, he took a
Grove Village, situated in northeast Illinois County noted that Mary’s body was called couple of the painkillers and within two minutes
adjacent to O’Hare International Airport and in for an autopsy because of her age and the was lying unconscious on the kitchen floor.
Chicago, 12-year-old circumstances of her death, though no hint of Rushed to the Northwest Community Hospital,
Mary Kellerman foul play was considered. This traumatic and Janus died early in the afternoon and his death
awoke feeling devastating experience for the Kellermans would was initially attributed to cardiac arrest by Doctor
ill. Her parents have been tragic enough in isolation; the rapid, Thomas Kim, the medical director of the hospital’s
decided to keep unexplained death of a child being nothing any intensive care unit. Janus’ parents, distraught wife
the young girl off parent should ever have to experience. By the Teresa and other close relatives returned to the
school and Mary end of the day, however, Mary Kellerman would house in Arlington Heights in a state of shock.
took some Extra- be known across the nation as the first of seven The already distressing afternoon would take
Strength Tylenol victims in a shocking crime that would bring an even more tragic turn at around 5pm as the
to help with her together five families under the most bizarrely grieving family members were discussing plans
ailments. In an horrific of circumstances. for Janus’ funeral. His younger brother, Stanley,
interview given to and Stanley’s 19-year old wife, also called Theresa,
Chicago magazine THREE DEATHS TAKE PLACE IN took some Tylenol capsules for a bad back and a
in 2012 on the ARLINGTON HEIGHTS headache respectively. Within minutes, both had
30th anniversary The next victims of the anonymous killer also collapsed. Eight medical staff fought in vain to
of the killings, held the key to uncovering the crime, such rouse Stanley and Theresa from unconsciousness.
Mary’s father were the strange circumstances in which they With their suspicions now raised, Dr Kim, Nurse
Dennis stated occurred. Adam Janus, a 27-year-old postal Helen Jensen, who had been on duty at the time
worker from the northwestern Chicago suburb of Janus’ admittance, Deputy Medical Examiner
of Arlington Heights, had taken a day off Donoghue and several members of the Arlington
from work after feeling the beginnings Heights Fire Department began to try and work
of a cold. After picking his kids up from out what linked the three mysterious deaths.

A store clerk removes Extra-Strength It took the killer just ten

Tylenol from the shelves in a recall that minutes lace each pot of
cost Johnson & Johnson $100 million Tylenol with a deadly dose

51
 UNEXPLAINED DEATHS

THREE DEATHS TAKE PLACE IN

THREE MORE VICTIMS SUCCUMB
At around the time the Janus family returned to
the doomed house in Arlington Heights, Mary
‘Lynn’ Reiner from Winfield, DuPage County
Illinois, innocently took some Extra-Strength
Tylenol. The 27-year-old mother had given birth
to her fourth child less than a week before and
was feeling under the weather, but fate was to
rob Mary of her life and her family of its wife
and mother. Arriving home and finding his wife
collapsed on the floor, Ed Reiner immediately
called for an ambulance and Mary was taken
to Central DuPage Hospital, where she was
pronounced dead at 9.30am the next day.
Mary’s use of Extra-Strength Tylenol would
become something of a ‘smoking gun’ in the
investigations as she was prescribed them at
Central DuPage Hospital rather than purchasing
them at a store. To further complicate matters
involving the Reiners, a devastated Ed was the
first person brought in by detectives investigating
the killings under a theory regarding the crimes
Driving from store to store, that was later discounted.
the killer would have passed At around 6.30pm that evening in Lombard,
as an innocent shopper
also in DuPage County, Mary McFarland told
fellow staff members at the Bell Store where she
was employed that she had a bad headache. Her
“EACH CONTAMINATED CAPSULE OF TYLENOL brother and co-worker Jack Eliason recalled that
Mary went into a back room to take some Tylenol

CONTAINED 65MG OF CYANIDE – BETWEEN 100 AND and, just like the other victims, collapsed shortly
after doing so. John Millner, the Commander of

1,000 TIMES THE DOSE REQUIRED TO KILL SOMEONE” detectives at the police department in Elmhurst
(the suburb where Mary lived) suspected that she

THE INVESTIGATION
With little in the way of evidence to go on, authorities try to identify a suspect

By Monday 4 October 1982 the cyanide poisoning both the pharmaceutical company and the FBI.
murders were international news, and the Chicago Eventually, eight tainted bottles containing 50
City Council passed a motion requiring tamper- cyanide-laced capsules were recovered from five
proof packaging on all drugs to be sold in stores. stores around the Chicago metropolitan area.
Subsequently taken up nationwide in the ‘Tylenol The amount of contaminated bottles may have
Bill’, the tamper-proof bottles and seals we take been much higher but the true figure will never
for granted nowadays were the direct result of be known, as citizens were advised to dispose
the fallout from the Chicago Tylenol Murders. of any Extra-Strength Tylenol they had in their
Johnson & Johnson, though initially reluctant, homes. The story pushed in the media was that a
recalled 31 million bottles of Tylenol from shelves ‘lone madman’ was responsible for the murders;
across America at a cost to the company of carrying out his (or her) sick deed by purchasing
over $100 million. While these measures were bottles of Extra-Strength Tylenol, lacing them with
implemented to protect and reassure the public, cyanide elsewhere and then travelling around the
they also pointed to the very real possibility that metropolitan Chicago region and slipping the now
the tampering of the bottles occurred somewhere lethal painkillers back onto the shelves of stores The fraudster quickly backed
down and denied any
in Johnson & Johnson’s production line. This picked at random. involvment when the law
possibly business-ending theory was, however, Over 100 officers from the law enforcement finally tracked him down
swiftly and somewhat dubiously discredited by departments in Chicago and DuPage and Cook

52
 THE CHICAGO TYLENOL MURDERS

had been poisoned but could have had no idea of

just how accurate his theory would prove to be.
The final unfortunate victim to be dragged Johnson & Johnson
into the killer’s twisted plans was United Airlines Parent of
flight attendant Paula Prince. Arriving into O’Hare McNeil laboratories
Airport on a flight from Las Vegas, Prince visited
a Walgreens store and purchased another bottle Gen tlem en,
of Tylenol that had been laced with cyanide. After As you can see, it is easy to plac e cya nid
missing a dinner date with her sister and failing e (bot h potassium
& sodi um) into capsules sitti ng on stor
to show up for work on Friday 1 October, Prince’s e shel ves. And sinc e
body was discovered in her Old Town apartment. the cya nide is insi de the gela tin, it is
easy to get buyers to
A CRIME UNCOVERED… swa llow the bitt er pill . Another beauty
is tha t cyan ide operates
Throughout the day, off-duty Fire Department quic kly. It tak es so very litt le. And ther
Lieutenant Phil Cappitelli and Fire Investigator
e will be no tim e to
tak e coun ter measures.
Richard Keyworth had been listening to the
messages relayed across the airwaves around
Illinois, and they both noticed that Tylenol If you don’t min d the publ icit y of thes
was mentioned in the spate of unusual deaths e litt le capsules, then
reported. Once Nurse Jensen had been informed do noth ing . So far, I have spen t less tha
n fift y doll ars and it
of their hunch, she recovered the Extra-Strength tak es me less tha n 10-m inutes per bott
pills from the Janus household and it was le.
submitted for testing. The results were shocking:
each contaminated capsule of Tylenol contained If you wan t to stop the kill ing then wire
65mg of cyanide – between 100 and 1,000 $1,000,000.00 to ban k
acco unt # 84-49-59 7 at Con tinenta l Illin
times the dose required to kill someone. The ois ban k Chic ago, Ill.
various police departments worked together with
medical staff to quickly establish that they and
Don’t attempt to involve the FBI or loca
metropolitan Chicago faced a nightmare scenario; l Chic ago aut hori ties
all the mysterious deaths were connected and a with this lett er. A couple of phon e call
major crime of mass murder had been committed.
s by me will undo
anythin g you can possi bly do.
The investigations into the killings, code-named
TYMURS by the FBI, began in earnest, as fears James Lewis’ letter was no
further deaths may happen were foremost in the hoax, but would he have
carried out his implied threat?
minds of the authorities.

counties worked together with the FBI and the first tragic Tylenol murder, when an extortion With Lewis behind bars but more than likely
Illinois Attorney General, Tyrone Fahner, to try letter arrived at the offices of Johnson & Johnson not responsible for the Tylenol murders, the
and crack the disturbing case. demanding $1 million to stop the Tylenol killings. efforts to find the actual killer(s) continued as
More than a thousand potential leads were The investigative team focused on uncovering a number of other suspects were considered at
investigated – from prank callers claiming who was behind the letter and eventually it different times. Firstly, Chicago resident Roger
responsibility to terminated former employees of was traced to James William Lewis, a New York Arnold would be accused, investigated and
Johnson & Johnson – but nothing was sticking City resident with work ties in Chicago. Arrested cleared early in 1983, with his story taking a
and no firm evidence was forthcoming. Ed in December of 1982, Lewis’ handwriting was dramatic, fatal turn later that year. In May 1988,
Reiner was brought in for questioning after it was matched with the letter and one sent to the the Laurie Dann, from Winnetka, Illinois, embarked
posited that he may have poisoned his wife, for White House threatening to bomb it and continue on a shooting rampage that ended with Dann
reasons unclear, and enlisted the help of friends to the poisonings. A con man with a troubled past, taking her own life after holding a family hostage.
distribute tainted Tylenol around the region in an Lewis was convicted of extortion and credit A person with a history of mental illness and
effort to disguise the individual crime by making card fraud and sentenced to 20 years in jail. poisoning attempts, Dann was considered as a
it just one of many. This outlandish theory was Frustratingly for the law enforcement agencies, potential suspect in the Tylenol murders, though
soon discarded, and years later the investigative no direct links to the Tylenol killings have ever no link was ever found. Perhaps the most eye-
team claimed Ed was never really a firm suspect emerged, with Lewis himself resolutely stating catching suspect put forward is Ted Kaczynski,
in a move that highlights just how much straw that he didn’t commit the crimes. As Richard the ‘Unabomber’. Kaczynski’s first four crimes
clutching was involved in hunting down the Brzeczek, the Superintendent of the Chicago took place in Chicago and his parents lived
perpetrator with so few tangible clues available. Police Department at the time, later stated: “It there during the poisonings in 1982. As with the
The first solid breakthrough came on wasn’t James Lewis. James Lewis was an asshole, other suspects, however, no firm link has ever
Wednesday 6 October, just over a week after the an opportunist”. connected Kaczynski to the Tylenol murders.

53
 UNEXPLAINED DEATHS

THE WHISTLE-BLOWER
AND THE SMOKING GUN
A former Johnson & Johnson employee and a victim’s daughter speaks out…
On 23 September 2011, six days shy of the company itself. That he was helped during the Reiner. Michelle Rosen – eight years old at the
anniversary of the Chicago Tylenol Murders, a research stage by Michelle Rosen, the daughter time of her mother’s death and therefore too
book was published that contained damning of Mary ‘Lynn’ Reiner, points to a sense of young to sign the gag order Johnson & Johnson
allegations that the investigation into the crimes distrust among the victims’ families regarding had the victims’ families sign – has called
was deliberately controlled by Johnson & Johnson the official narrative perpetuated by the FBI and the FBI’s handling of the case “irresponsible,
with the full cooperation of the FBI. That book, Johnson & Johnson. disturbing, stressful and odd”, attesting that the
The Tylenol Mafia: Marketing, Murder and Johnson The ‘smoking gun’ in the ‘lone madman’ theory investigation was virtually dead until wind of
& Johnson was written by Scott Bartz, a former that has dominated the investigation for nearly Bartz’s then forthcoming exposé reached the
employee of a subsidiary company of Johnson & 40 years is Mary ‘Lynn’ Reiner and her use of offices of Johnson & Johnson and the authorities.
Johnson with many years experience working in Extra-Strength Tylenol. Reiner was discharged Suddenly, the case was news again and the FBI
the pharmaceutical industry. from Central DuPage Hospital one day prior to would re-activate their efforts to find the killer,
After three years of research and the analysis of the killings after recently giving birth. Reiner but only by focusing on James William Lewis, Ted
over 8,000 documents pertaining to the crimes was prescribed a ‘unit-dose package’ of eight Kaczynski and the phantom ‘lone madman’.
and the investigation, Bartz concluded that the Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules from the hospital A cover-up was entirely possible, as the CEO
bottles of Extra-Strength Tylenol were almost pharmacy. On the day that she died, Reiner had of Johnson & Johnson at the time of the killings
certainly tampered with somewhere along the purchased a bottle of regular Tylenol from a local was one James Burke, who counted FDA chief
distribution and repackaging supply chain – not store that, on inspection after her death, contained Arthur Hayes and the head of the FBI, William
at the store, pharmacy, or hospital. The author six Extra-Strength capsules. Reiner was found to Webster, among his personal friends. Additionally,
also concluded that Johnson & Johnson, fearing have taken two Extra-Strength Tylenol, the maths Burke’s brother was a powerful player in the
financial liability and a huge blow to their adds up and suggests Reiner had dropped the media, with controlling stakes in a number of TV
reputation, took every measure possible to steer lethal capsules into the regular bottle of Tylenol networks and newspapers. In a clear conflict of
the investigation and media reports away from for safekeeping. Crucially, it discredits the official interest, representatives of Johnson & Johnson
looking into this possibility. line that someone went store-to-store planting the worked closely with the FBI from day one, and the
Rather than actively trying to solve the case, lethal bottles for the public to purchase. No ‘lone company was allowed to test the recalled Tylenol
Bartz also attests that the authorities colluded madman’ could have gotten access to a closed themselves. Only one per cent of the recalled
with Johnson & Johnson to perpetuate the ‘lone store pharmacy within a hospital; only someone capsules were ever tested, and the rest were
madman’ theory in the media, knowing full well working within the distribution and repackaging destroyed. The only response Johnson & Johnson
that the real Tylenol killer most likely came from supply chain would have been able to lace the have ever given in relation to Bartz’s expose has
within the ranks of the giant pharmaceutical Extra-Strength Tylenol that killed Mary ‘Lynn’ been a blanket ‘no comment’.

WHO ARE THE JOHNSON & JOHNSON

In his 2011 book, Scott Bartz,

PRIME SUSPECTS? a former Johnson & Johnson

employee, points the finger of
blame at the manufacturers. This
is a claim Johnson & Johnson have
The case remains unsolved, but systematically denied ever since
the evidence points to a few the murders first happened and the
potential suspects recall of the prodcut was effective.

TED KACZYNSKI
A convicted serial killer known as JAMES WILLIAM LEWIS
The Unabomber, the imprisoned Investigators traced a threatening
Theodore Kaczynksi volunteered letter back to a troubled con man
a DNA sample to the FBI in with a shady past. Lewis had written
2011, after he was linked to the a letter to Johnson & Johnson
Tylenol poisonings due to his demanding $1 million in order to No-one would have
connections to Chicago. Results stop the murders. He denied that questioned someone
proved that he was not the replacing bottles of
he was behind the crime and that
Tylenol on the shelves
Getty Images

culprit. Kazcynksi had denied the letter was a hoax, but was later
ever being in possession of convicted of extortion. Police could
potassium cyanide. not link him to the poisonings.

54
 THE CHICAGO TYLENOL MURDERS

THE AFTERMATH
Almost 40 years later, what
hope is there of finally catching
the Tylenol murderer?
At the time of writing, no one has been
charged and convicted with the Chicago
Tylenol Murders, and there’s no imminent
chance of that changing. Johnson & Johnson’s
$100,000 reward remains unclaimed and
in 2013, the FBI formally stood down from
leading the investigation. These ‘perfect’
murders occurred at a time when drug
packaging was rudimentary, financial
transactions were largely cash based and
surveillance technology was only just
becoming a regular sight in our shops. None
of the stores that did have security cameras in
operation at the time turned up any footage of
a ‘lone madman’ acting suspiciously around
the shelves where pharmaceuticals were
stocked. No physical evidence linking anyone
to the murders has ever been uncovered, and
Bartz’s distribution line theory, covered in his
book The Tylenol Mafia: Marketing, Murder and
Johnson & Johnson, has yet to be followed up
on by either Johnson & Johnson, or the FBI.
While Ed Reiner and Roger Arnold are
names no longer mentioned by investigators
when discussing the possible identity of the
Tylenol murderer, James William Lewis and
Unabomber Ted Kaczynski have both come
back into the frame in recent years. In 2009,
A laboratory at Chicago’s Board
of Health went into overdrive, the home of Lewis and his wife was searched
testing batches of Tylenol and boxes, files and a computer were seized.
Lewis and his wife provided DNA samples
to authorities and the convicted extortionist
repeated his denial of being the Tylenol
murderer. Similarly, Kaczynski voluntarily
submitted a DNA sample in 2011 after the
FBI once again raised the possibility that
the Unabomber may have been behind the
killings. No charges have been forthcoming

Image Credits: © REX Features; Corbis; Press Association; Rebekka Hearl

and the FBI stated they simply wanted
to rule him out once and for all. Whether
both were targeted again as a diversionary
tactic to deflect attention away from Bartz’s
distribution line theory remains to be seen.
With the case now jointly headed by
the local police departments where the
killings occurred, Arlington Heights Police
Commander, Mike Hernandez, stated in 2013
that “the investigation is on-going, and it
continues to be active”. With the possibility
that the tampering may well have taken
On the morning of 29 place somewhere in the distribution and
September, Mary Kellerman repackaging line it will be interesting to see if
went into her bathroom, but
never left alive the authorities ever follow this line of enquiry.

55
 UNRESOLVED MYSTERIES

MYSTERIOUS
DISAPPEARANCES
64 THE DISAPPEARING
SKYJACKER
96 THE DISAPPEARANCE
OF ANDREW GOSDEN

Alamy
88 RUN FOR
YOUR LIFE

56
 MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCES

72 THE DISAPPEARANCE
OF PHILIP CAIRNS

80 SNATCHED FROM

Getty Images
THE SUPERMARKET

58 VANISHED INTO
THIN AIR

“NOT EVEN THE

GREATEST OF MAGICIANS
CAN VANISH INTO THIN
AIR, SO WHERE DID
THESE POOR SOULS GO?”
Getty Images

57
 MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCES

VANISHED
INTO THIN AIR
The bizarre disappearances of various famous individuals
have instigated numerous conspiracy theories, but will we
ever find out what really happened to these lost souls?
WRITTEN BY JOANNA ELPHICK

DISAPPEARANCE 01

L
osing a loved one is always a painful Club, an exclusive, members-only gambling club in
experience, but after the funeral grieving Mayfair, owned by his friend John Aspinall.
friends and family can slowly begin to
rebuild their lives and move on. Sadly, when
someone simply disappears never to be seen
RICHARD BINGHAM Veronica had continued to live at the family
home in Lower Belgrave Street with her children
and the nanny, Sandra Rivett. On the night of 7
again, the desperate spark of hope that they will 7TH EARL OF LUCAN November, Sandra shouldn’t have been there since
someday return stunts the healing process, denying it was usually her night off but, unfortunately for
that all-important sense of closure. Not even the Date went missing her, she’d swapped it that week in order to help out.
greatest of magicians can really vanish into thin air, 8 November 1974 At 8.40pm, Sandra offered to make some tea
so where did these poor souls go? A lack of concrete and bring it up. When she didn’t return, Lady
answers inevitably leads to half-truths, hearsay and Lucan decided to investigate the holdup, venturing
supposition, all wrapped up in a tantalising shroud The Earl of Lucan, known to his aristocratic down to the kitchens, only
of mystery… and none more so than the suspicious chums as ‘Lucky Lucan’, had been rather less
case of Lord Lucan. fortunate than usual in the months leading
up to his mysterious disappearance. An
obsessive gambler, he had recently lost his
Image Source  Getty Images.

winning streak and was now living off his

overdraft. His family life had also unravelled.
His wife, Veronica, had forced him out of
the family home two years earlier, claiming
domestic abuse. Such allegations were almost
certainly true since the former member of
the Coldstream Guards had a reputation for
violence and an explosive temper.
es.

Veronica had recently won a battle against

Imag

her estranged husband, who had been

Getty

fighting to retain control of their three

rce 
e Sou

children. Lucan had been devastated as

Imag

the judge handed sole custody to the

woman he had grown to hate. Lord
Vero Lucan a
Despite the legal bills and mounting n n
they ica Dun d his fu
tu
THE DASHING YOUNG ARISTOCRAT household expenses, Lucan chose anno ca
unce n, shor re wife,
d th tl
eir e y after
to forget his sorrows at the Clermont
AND ALLEGED MURDERER ng agem
ent

58
 y.
Image Source  Alam
VANISHED INTO THIN AIR

to be jumped upon and beaten repeatedly with

a lead pipe. She recognised the assailant’s voice
as that of her husband. Fighting for her life, Lady
Lucan grabbed his testicles and squeezed. Lord
Lucan seemed to calm down and went to get
a cloth to clean his wife’s face, leaving Veronica
a window of opportunity to escape.
At 9.45pm she burst into the nearby Plumbers
Arms pub, screaming for help. When the police
arrived, Sandra Rivett’s body was discovered in
rst aboard
the basement, wrapped in a canvas mail bag. Donald Crowhu
Electron
Lucan had almost certainly mistaken Sandra the Teignmouth
for his wife and bludgeoned her to death.
Lucan was seen one last time, having
shown up at his friends’ house 42 miles away to cheat, shutting down his radio and planning to
in Uckfield. Susan Maxwell-Scott listened to DISAPPEARANCE 02 wait in the South Atlantic until the other sailors
his fanciful story of an unknown assailant began the final leg. He would simply falsify the
attacking his wife and the nanny, which he’d
witnessed through the window. He claimed DONALD CHARLES navigation logbook and join them on the return
journey to England.
he’d gone in to help and interrupted the attack,
but Veronica had screamed that Lucan had paid
someone to kill her, so he fled. He telephoned
ALFRED CROWHURST Back at home, his vague, sporadic radio reports
led people to believe that he was winning,
particularly since some other competitors had
his mother just after midnight, asking her to Date went missing dropped out, but Crowhurst was, in fact, confused,
collect the children, and left, promising to “sort lost and panicking.
29 June 1969
things out”. He was never seen again. The last radio contact was made on 29 June
So where did he go? Some claim he drowned and the final entry in the log book was dated 1
himself in the Newhaven Harbour through sheer Donald Crowhurst was little more than a weekend July. Nine days later, the Teignmouth Electron was
guilt at killing Rivett. His car had been found sailor whose reckless decision to compete in the discovered drifting in the Atlantic Ocean. Donald
abandoned nearby. In 2012, Shirley Robey, who Sunday Times Golden Globe Race – a non-stop, Crowhurst had simply disappeared.
worked for Lucan’s close friend John Aspinall, single-handed, round-the-world yacht race – was The log books depicted a man in absolute
claimed to have overheard a conversation destined to end in tragedy. Sadly, the £5,000 cash torment, wracked with guilt from his own
between his friends, stating that he had escaped prize was too great a temptation for a man facing subterfuge and terrified of discovery. If he had
to Africa. Veronica was extremely sceptical of this financial ruin and so, with little regard for the won the race, experts would have spotted his
suggestion, since he liked his creature comforts devastating impact it would have on his wife and false entries and the cash prize would have been
and had a dislike for foreign places. Aspinall children, he set off on 31 October 1968. withdrawn, leaving him humiliated and his family
owned a zoo, which many believe was Lucan’s Things began to go wrong almost immediately in financial distress. Philosophical ramblings
final resting place. Lucan knew that, without since the 40-foot trimaran, the Teignmouth and bizarre poems show his steady descent into
proof of death, probate could not be granted for Electron, was an inappropriate choice for such madness. Whether he jumped into the icy waters
a minimum of seven years, meaning his children a dangerous voyage. Lack of time and a general of his own volition or was knocked overboard
would be old enough to deal with their own slapdash approach meant that he had set off by a rogue wave can never be established. The
estate affairs and his wife would lose all without completing any of his safety devices and state of the boat suggests he took his own life in
control. Clermont Club had been too busy giving interviews to the press a desperate attempt to avoid facing what awaited
regulars believe that to pack many of his supplies. him on dry land.
he shot himself at the By December, he had realised that he was The winning sailor, Robin Knox-Johnston,
zoo and had his body way out of his depth but dared not quit the donated his prize money to Crowhurst’s widow,
fed to the tigers. It is a race, knowing that this would lead to enormous Clare, and his four children, who were left to face
gruesome tale but one humiliation and financial ruin. He chose instead the press and deal with the financial burden alone.
that might just be true.
Aspinall’s mother
apparently told The trimaran is hoisted
police at the time, aboard the Picardy after
“Last I heard of it was discovered drifting,
th
unmanned, in the Atlantic s wi fe
him, he was being ly pose ind; wi
r d h
ou eft be hel,
fed to the tigers ald p
el ac
Don amily h ldren R es
at my son’s zoo.” f i m
the and ch and Ja
e r
Either way, ‘Lucky Clar n, Roge
o
Sim
Lucan’ hasn’t been
es.

seen for 45 years.

Imag
Getty
rce 
e Sou
Image Source  Getty Images.

Imag

59
 MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCES

DISAPPEARANCE 03

.
Images
MAJOR

 Getty
urce
GLENN MILLER

Image So
Date went missing
15 December 1944

Towards the end of World War II, a single-engine

Noorduyn Norseman aircraft left England, bound
for Paris. Onboard were two Air Force officers and
the bandleader Glenn Miller, who was heading to
France to organise a concert for the troops. But,
somewhere over the Channel, the plane vanished.
There had been no distress signal and no
wreckage recovered, so a satisfactory conclusion
to the mystery seemed highly unlikely. However,
two theories have claimed to hold the answer.
On that fateful day, a formation of Lancaster
bombers returning from an aborted raid on
Germany had been ordered to jettison their
bombs over the Channel before landing. One
navigator claimed that a Noorduyn Norseman
plane had been accidentally hit during the
procedure. Was this the aircraft carrying Miller?
This seemed to be the likely explanation, until
the notebooks of a plane spotter appeared on TV
show The Antiques Roadshow. Richard Anderton
was 17 when he spotted Miller’s plane overhead
in Reading, proving it took a major diversion on Bandle
Mille ader G
its way to Paris, and making it impossible for the le
Force r in his US nn
unifor A
plane to have been in the bomb jettison zone. It’s m in 1 ir
94 2
now believed the plane was flying low due to poor

Image Source  Getty Images.

visibility, and crashed when its fuel lines froze.

A Noorduyn Norseman, similar

to the plane transporting
ent
. Miller on his last flight
rnm
ove
eral G
d
. Fe
U.S
ain;
om
blic D

60
u
ce P
our
ge S
Ima
 VANISHED INTO THIN AIR

disguises
use a series of ic gaze?
Did Christie m th e publ
r fro
to disappea thought so
ws certainly
The Daily Ne

A young an
highly succes d
sful
Agatha Chris
tie Image Source
 Public Doma
in; Daily Herald
(London) 15 De

.
cember

 Getty Images
1926, p. 1.

DISAPPEARANCE 04

Image Source
AGATHA CHRISTIE
Date went missing
3–14 December 1926

On a cold evening in early December, during

the height of her fame, writer Agatha Christie
kissed her daughter goodnight, walked out of her
Berkshire home and drove off into the night, only
to disappear in a puff of exhaust smoke. For 11
days, the police and public searched in vain until,
just as suddenly, she reappeared.
The disappearance instigated one of the largest
manhunts ever, involving more than 1,000 police
officers, bloodhounds, aeroplanes and hundreds
of volunteers. Her car was found partly covered
in bushes near Guildford, abandoned by a spring.
The car offered up little information except that
she had left her fur coat and driver’s licence
behind, and the headlights were still on.
Home Secretary William Joynson-Hicks called
upon Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and fellow crime
writer Dorothy L Sayers to help who, in turn,
brought in mediums, but to no avail. However,
on 14 December, a musician working in the Old
Swan Hotel, Harrogate, called the police, claiming
to have spotted Agatha dancing in the ballroom.
The lady of mystery had been found. “A FEW CYNICS
BELIEVED AT THE
But why did she do it? Although a few cynics
believed at the time that this was a wild publicity
stunt for her latest book, it is most commonly
thought that she was suffering from psychogenic
amnesia following the recent death of her
TIME THAT THIS WAS
beloved mother and the discovery that her
husband, Archie, had been having an affair with
A WILD PUBLICITY
a secretary, Nancy Neele. Her overwhelming grief
had inadvertently placed her at the centre of her
STUNT FOR HER
very own mystery.
LATEST BOOK” urce  Public
Domain.
Image So

61
 MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCES
Image Source  Getty Images.

FBI agents search for the

remains of Hoffa in Michigan
after receiving a tip from former
mobster Tony Zerilli in 2003

“IT WAS THOUGHT DISAPPEARANCE 05

Was
Fran Hoffa gu
in th k ‘The Ir nned do
HOFFA’S CORPSE is D e is w
troit hman’ S n by

HAD BEEN GROUND JAMES RIDDLE HOFFA hous h

e? eeran

Date went missing

UP AND THROWN 30 July 1975
INTO THE FLORIDA
SWAMPS” Jimmy Hoffa was barely out of his teens when he
led his first strike, and from this point on he shared
On 30 July 1975, Hoffa arranged to have lunch
with a group of syndicate thugs, but when they
his life with mobsters, racketeers, the Mafia and failed to show he phoned his wife at approximately
gambling moguls. Through threats of violence, 2.15pm, then waited in his car outside the
dubious payoffs, kickbacks and sweetheart deals, restaurant. When he didn’t come home that night,
y Images.

he rose up through the ranks of America’s largest she called the police. The following day, the car
Image Source  Gett

union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, was discovered, unlocked, but Hoffa had vanished.
ultimately becoming its president in the 1950s. The FBI were quickly called in and, over the
President Kennedy’s brother, Robert, loathed the next ten years, 200 G-Men (slang for ‘government
union leader, a hatred that led to the formation of men’) were assigned to Hoffa’s disappearance.
the Justice Department’s ‘Get Hoffa Squad’, which Everyone was of the opinion that he’d been
attempted to charge him with everything from murdered but no-one could fathom out who had
extortion to jury tampering, resulting in an eight- done the deed or where the body had been hidden.
year sentence. Later that year, he was also convicted Theories were raised and duly filed. At one point it
of fraud and received a further five years. After was thought that contract killer Charles Allen had
endless appeals, he was eventually locked up in ground up his corpse into little pieces and had it
1967. Hoffa intended to run the union from prison thrown in the Florida swamps. Others claimed he’d
through its acting president, Frank Fitzsimmons, been killed by hitman Donald ‘Tony The Greek’
but Fitzsimmons solidified his hold on the role. Frankos and his body buried under the Giants
When Hoffa’s sentence was commuted and he Stadium. In 2004, Hoffa’s one-time friend, Frank
was released in 1971, he attempted to claw back ‘the Irishman’ Sheeran, gave a deathbed confession,
some of his power, but this proved to be difficult. pointing to a home in the suburbs of Detroit as the
Despite support from President Nixon, who’d since murder scene. More than 16,000 pages of reports
come into power, Hoffa struggled to regain his were written up but whittling down the never-
JAMES R HOFFA IN 1957, TESTIFYING BEFORE THE former position due to a term of his release from ending list of suspects proved impossible – after all,
prison, which barred him from holding any union he’d been an incredibly unpopular individual on
SENATE RACKETS COMMITTEE IN WASHINGTON, DC office for ten years. Furious and humiliated, he both sides of the law.
began conducting business with some dangerous In 1982, Jimmy Hoffa was declared legally dead
individuals, making numerous enemies as he went. but, without a body, we’ll never know if he really is.

62
 Image Source  Getty Images.

VANISHED INTO THIN AIR

DISAPPEARANCE 06 ‘Protective passports’ (Schutz-Pass) were secretly

developed and issued to those Jews most at risk,

RAOUL GUSTAF declaring them to be Swedish, thereby avoiding

deportation and the wearing of yellow stars.
Safe houses were rented throughout Budapest.

WALLENBERG Wallenberg had organised and executed an

audacious plan that saved up to 100,000 Jewish
lives, but it also painted a target on his back.
Date went missing Wallenberg continually changed locations to
avoid apprehension but eventually he was tracked
17 January 1945
down. On 17 January 1945, he was called to the
RAOUL GUSTAF WALLENBERG, THE SWEDISH Soviet’s Deputy Commissar for Defence. He was
ARCHITECT, BUSINESSMAN, DIPLOMAT never officially seen again, although it’s known that
AND BRAVE HUMANITARIAN Raoul Wallenberg’s youth set him up for the he was transferred to Lubyanka Prison, cell 123.
adventures and high drama he was to face in Various people claimed to have seen him or
later life and gave him the skills that he needed heard his voice from behind closed doors, but the
to accomplish the outstanding feats of bravery evidence is little more than hearsay. The Soviet-
that he would ultimately be remembered for. controlled Hungarian radio declared that he had
Born in Sweden in 1912 into a wealthy academic been murdered in 1945, while, in 1957, the Soviet
family, young Wallenberg was given an excellent government claimed that he had died of natural
education. He travelled extensively, before causes in his cell back in 1947. An investigation
returning to Stockholm where he began working carried out in 1991 concluded that Wallenberg had
for the Central European Trading Company. By been poisoned while under lock and key in the
1942, he was its International Director, undertaking infamous Lubyanka. Contradictory testimony said
frequent trips to Germany, France and Hungary. he had been shot.
During this time, Wallenberg witnessed first- Following Stalin’s death in 1953, thousands
hand the behaviour of the Nazi regime and the of prisoners-of-war were released, and witness
atrocities befalling the Hungarian Jews, painfully accounts surfaced, describing encounters with
aware of his own 1/16th Jewish ancestry. Wallenberg in Moscow prisons; a number of
When US President Franklin D Roosevelt former prisoners have claimed to have seen him
created the War Refuge Board to deal with the long after his supposed death. Talk of a Swedish
humanitarian crisis, they began searching for diplomat living within the walls of a Soviet prison
someone who could oversee a rescue mission for still persist. Two independent witnesses reported
Did Wallenberg end his days the trapped Jews. By June 1944, they had chosen seeing him behind bars as recently as 1987.
locked away behind one Wallenberg to organise the program – with his In October 2016, Raoul Wallenberg was finally
of these steel cell doors at
Lubyanka Prison? intimate knowledge of the area, business contacts declared dead. The Swedish tax agency recorded
and excellent language skills, he was the perfect the date of his passing as 31 July 1952. It’s as good a
man for the job. date as any, but whether it’s correct… who knows?
s.
Image Source  Getty Image

Wallenberg’s half-sister,
Lagergren, holds a pho
Nina
tograph
of her beloved brother
“WALLENBERG’S PLAN
HAD SAVED UP TO
100,000 JEWISH LIVES…
BUT IT ALSO PAINTED A
TARGET ON HIS BACK”

Image Source  Getty Images.

63
 MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCES

THE
DISAPPEARING
SKYJACKER
Has ‘DB Cooper’ eluded the might
and manpower of the FBI for more
than 40 years, or did he die from a
failed parachute jump one night in
November 1971?
WRITTEN BY PAUL DONNELLEY

64
 THE DISAPPEARING SKYJACKER

T
he FBI is justifiably proud of its ability to into seat 18C, for which he had paid $18.52 Schaffner unfurled the note, which had the
solve crimes. Founded on 26 July 1908, plus tax. He was inconspicuous, if slightly following information written in felt-tip pen in
the United States of America’s Federal overdressed in a dark suit, a white collared capital letters: “I have a bomb in my briefcase. I
Bureau of Investigation has failed to shirt, a black necktie with a mother of pearl will use it if necessary. I want you to sit next to
solve just one case of air piracy – or tie pin and loafers. He was also carrying a me. You are being hijacked.”
skyjacking – in its 100 years-plus of history: briefcase. Once comfy, he ordered a bourbon Miss Schaffner sat next to Cooper and asked
the infamous case of DB Cooper. On the day and soda and lit a cigarette. Shortly after take to see the device. Cooper opened his case
before Thanksgiving in 1971, a man calling off, Cooper motioned to air hostess Florence slightly and she saw wires, a battery and eight
himself Dan Cooper boarded a Boeing 727-100, Schaffner, who was sitting on a jump seat, red cylinders. She was given his demands.
Northwest Orient (now Northwest Airlines) and, as she approached, he passed her a piece Cooper wanted $200,000 in “negotiable
Flight 305, at Portland International Airport of paper. Assuming that he was trying to slip American currency,” four parachutes and for
in Oregon, on the 30-minute trip bound for her his telephone number, she put it into her the plane to be refuelled in Seattle. The air
Seattle, Washington. The flight took off as pocket without looking at it. Cooper then said hostess took the note to the pilot, William A
scheduled at 2.50pm and was about a third full. to her: “Miss, you’d better look at that note. Scott, with the instructions. When she came
The man calling himself Dan Cooper settled I have a bomb.” With trembling hands, Miss back, Cooper was sporting a pair of sunglasses.

The parachuting skyjacker entered popular

culture ten years after his disappearance
with the 1981 film The Pursuit of DB Cooper

65
 MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCES

PASSENGER SAFETY
Captain Scott immediately radioed the control
tower at Seattle-Tacoma Airport who, in turn,
contacted the airline as well as the FBI to inform
them of the unfolding situation on board Flight
305. The Bureau asked Northwest Orient what
they wanted to do about the situation that was
unfolding on one of their planes thousands of
feet in the air, and airline president Donald Nyrop
told them that keeping their passengers safe was
his priority. He agreed to pay the ransom and
provide the parachutes and made it clear that
all employees were to co-operate fully with the
$200,000 JUMP
Investigators weren’t short
hijacker. In the meantime, Captain Scott made an
announcement over the loudspeaker to the effect of evidence for his crime but
that there would be a short delay before reaching exactly where DB Cooper
their destination, because of a minor mechanical landed is still a mystery
fault. The plane circled for two hours over Puget
Sound to allow the ransom demands to be met
and emergency personnel to be assembled.
The FBI carefully recorded all the notes that
came from the Federal Reserve Bank of San CLUE
Francisco onto microfilm – 10,000 unmarked BANK NOTES
$20 bills – before passing them on. While the While on holiday on 10 February 1980,
authorities were busy on the ground, Cooper eight-year-old Brian Ingram found a
relaxed and drank a second bourbon and soda, bundle of 299 identifiable $20 notes. He
which he paid for. Another hostess, Tina said: “I hit this sort of lump and dug it out. I
wasn’t excited at all at first, then I brushed
Mucklow, later commented that the hijacker
the sand off, and it was money.” It took six
“seemed rather nice”. Florence Schaffner noted
years before he was allowed to keep some
that he seemed familiar with the area, pointing of his loot. The federal government kept 14
out landmarks. (some sources say 13) of the tattered bank
At 5.24pm, Cooper’s demands were finally notes as evidence, and the remaining
met and 15 minutes later, the plane landed $5,700 was split equally between Brian
at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. and Northwest’s insurance company.
Under Cooper’s instructions, Captain
Scott taxied the plane to a remote
but well-lit area of the runway and all
the lights in the cabin were switched
off. Al Lee, Northwest Orient’s Seattle
operations manager, delivered the four
parachutes and the money in a rucksack,
handing them to Tina Mucklow onboard
Flight 305.

DEATH DIVE
Retired FBI Agent Ralph Himmelsbach claims that Cooper could
not have survived the jump with almost ten kilograms of money
strapped to his waist. He is wrong. In the USA, 727s are used by
private individuals for commercial skydiving. Indeed, people pay
extra to do the Cooper jump.
On 7 April 1972, Richard Floyd McCoy Jr, a Vietnam veteran,
skyjacked a United Airlines 727, demanding $500,000. He
“I HAVE A BOMB IN MY
jumped from the plane over Provo, Utah at 16,000 feet and
travelling at 320 kilometres per hour. He survived, so it seems
BRIEFCASE. I WILL USE IT IF
entirely possible that Cooper – jumping at 6,000 feet below
McCoy – could have lived to tell his tale. Unlike Cooper, McCoy NECESSARY. SIT NEXT TO ME.
was tracked down and brought to justice. He was arrested two
days later and sent to prison for 45 years. YOU ARE BEING HIJACKED”
66
 THE DISAPPEARING SKYJACKER

WITNESS
CHAT-UP NOTE
Air hostess Florence
Schaffner was passed
a note by Dan Cooper
but she thought he was
trying to chat her up and
initially ignored it, until
he told her that it was
a ransom demand and
that he had a bomb in his
hand luggage.

CLUE
FINGERPRINTS
Dan Cooper sat here when he hijacked
the plane. Later, FBI agents discovered 66
unidentified latent fingerprints. However,
none matched any on FBI databases and the
case remains unsolved although the Bureau is
convinced that Cooper perished on his descent.
2 EVENT
STAIRS LOWERED
The aft stairs from where Dan Cooper jumped into the
1 EVENT unknown were lowered mid-flight for Cooper to jump.
After the hijacking, the Federal Aviation Authority
LOCAL KNOWLEDGE ordered that all Boeing 727s be fitted with an apparatus
This was the route the aircraft was to take. After he had that prevented the aft door being opened while in flight.
taken control, DB Cooper pointed out landmarks to the
air hostess, Florence Schaffner, which led the FBI to
believe that he was a local.

CLUE
DROP ZONE
This is where the FBI assumed Dan Cooper would have
landed and his descent was placed at Lake Merwin,
a few miles southeast of Ariel, Washington. Local
police carried out door-to-door enquiries, air searches
3 EVENT as well as some on foot, and motorboats took to the
lake. Nothing emerged. The FBI says wild animals ate
FLIGHT PLAN his remains and the weather erased all traces of his
clothes, rucksack and parachute.
The journey aboard Northwest Flight 305 from Portland
International Airport in Oregon to Seattle, Washington,
on 24 November 1971 was due to take 30 minutes. It took
several hours longer when it became the only unsolved
hijacking in American aviation history.

67
 MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCES

Once he was satisfied, Cooper released all 36

passengers and the air hostess Florence Schaffner FBI agents dig the sandy
as he had promised. The plane was refuelled and, beach where a portion of
the hijack money given to
having checked the parachutes and money that DB Cooper was found
he had been given, Cooper told the remaining
crew (pilot William Scott, co-pilot William John
Rataczak, air hostess Tina Mucklow and flight
engineer HE Anderson) to take off at precisely
7.40pm and head in the direction of Mexico City.
Cooper gave the pilots instructions on how he
wanted the plane flown but First Officer Rataczak
told the hijacker that they would need to refuel
before entering Mexican airspace. The destination
was altered to Reno, Nevada.
Unknown to Cooper, two F-106 fighters
from the local McChord Air Force Base followed
behind the airliner, one above and one below.
Once the plane was in the air, Cooper told the air
hostess to join her colleagues in the cockpit and
close the door. At about 8pm, a warning light told
the pilot that the aft staircase door was open,
a fact verified by the air pressure on board. At
8.13pm, during a heavy rainstorm, Cooper lowered
the aft stairs and jumped from the plane over
south-western Washington. He would never be
seen again. At 10.15pm, the Boeing 727 landed at
Reno Airport, and after a search, the FBI recovered
two of the four parachutes, plus the black clip- Mr and Mrs Ingram held a
press conference after their
on tie and mother of pearl tie clip that had been son discovered some of the
worn by the hijacker. They also recovered 66 money given to DB Cooper
unidentified fingerprints.
FBI Agent Ralph Himmelsbach was in charge
of the investigation into the skyjacking from 1971
to 1980. He has said that he believes that Cooper
died during the jump. “I can’t say that it wasn’t
survivable, but it’s unlikely,” he said. “That airliner
was going 170 knots at 10,000 feet. Outside air
temperature was seven degrees below zero, with a
chill factor of about 69 degrees below zero.”

EATEN BY WILD ANIMALS

He is further of the opinion that Cooper died
during the jump and was then eaten by wild
animals. His clothes, parachute and the money
were all destroyed by the elements. That is
the Bureau’s explanation as to why no trace of
Cooper’s body was ever found.
Eight-year-old Brian Ingram
However, Cooper had made sure that the odds shows where he found three
were in his favour. He told the pilot to stay below bundles of decomposed $20
dollar bills that were taken by
10,000 feet. If the plane had gone any higher, DB Cooper during the hijacking
the cabin would have had to be pressurised,
which would have made it extremely difficult if
not impossible for Cooper to open the door. He
also demanded that the flaps be set at exactly 15
degrees, which would have prevented the aircraft
travelling at more than 320 kilometres per hour.

“WHILE THE AUTHORITIES WERE BUSY

ON THE GROUND, COOPER RELAXED AND
DRANK A SECOND BOURBON AND SODA”
68
 THE DISAPPEARING SKYJACKER

Dan Cooper was dressed The skyjacker showed air hostess Florence
smartly as he boarded the plane Schaffner the bomb in his briefcase

“A WARNING LIGHT TOLD THE PILOT THAT

THE AFT STAIRCASE DOOR WAS OPEN, THE REAL DAN COOPER
A FACT VERIFIED BY THE AIR PRESSURE It was a few days later in the press that “Dan Cooper” was accidentally
transformed into “DB Cooper”, after a local man with the same name and a

ON BOARD. AT 8.13PM, DURING A HEAVY criminal record was interviewed by Portland police. A wire reporter wrote
a story identifying him as a suspect, and that is the way it has stayed. There

RAINSTORM, COOPER LOWERED THE AFT are several theories as to where the name Dan Cooper came from, but one
of the most popular is that it originated in a Franco-Belgian comic, where

STAIRS AND JUMPED FROM THE PLANE”

Dan Cooper was a Canadian flying ace and rocket ship pilot.

69
 MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCES

THE INVESTIGATION
With so few clues left by the skyjacker, the FBI struggled to generate any leads
What the FBI knew was that the man calling murderer, a criminal and a university professor. however, smoke, drink bourbon and was, as
himself Dan Cooper walked through an airport All were ruled out but one recent name in the was believed Cooper, left-handed. Florence
lounge and boarded a plane with almost 40 other frame is Kenneth Peter Christiansen, a former Schaffner told a reporter she thought pictures of
passengers. Witnesses described him as being Northwest Airlines employee. Christiansen looked like Cooper. Tina Mucklow
in his mid-40s, about six foot tall, and wearing a Born on 17 October 1926, Christiansen has never spoken to the press. The FBI also
black raincoat, loafers, a dark suit, a white shirt, joined the army in 1944 and was trained as a discounted Christiansen because, as a former
a black tie, black sunglasses and a mother of paratrooper. He joined Northwest Orient in 1954 employee, he would almost certainly have been
pearl tie pin. When trying to discover where he and worked as a mechanic, an air steward and recognised by the staff. However, the hijacked
landed, the FBI was hampered by the fact that then a purser (responsible for handling money). flight was an internal one and Christiansen
even minor variations in wind speed could alter a He never earned more than $512 a month working worked the international route. In that period,
possible landing ground by some miles. at the airline before the hijacking. Afterwards, he there was little or no mingling between staff.
The Bureau used modelling to “suggest” where loaned a friend’s sister, Dawn Androsko of Fox Christiansen died of cancer on 30 July 1994 but
Cooper may have landed, and at first his descent Island, Washington, $5,000 cash and then spent as he lay dying, he told his brother, Lyle: “There
was placed at Lake Merwin, a few miles south east $16,000, paid at least partially in cash, for a house is something you should know, but I cannot tell
of Ariel, Washington. Police carried out door-to- in Bonney Lake, Washington. This was all within you.” Lyle remembered that although his brother
door enquiries, air searches as well as on foot and eight months of the crime. Where did the money wore a toupee before the hijacking, he never wore
motorboats took to the lake. Nothing emerged. come from? it afterwards. He also learned that his brother had
The FBI ruled out Christiansen as a suspect $186,276.14 in a savings account and $20,541.92 in
SERIAL SEARCHES because he did not match the description his current account – amazing figures considering
Towards the end of 1971, the FBI released the provided by witnesses and had no criminal Christiansen had often resorted to doing odd
serial numbers of all the ransom bills to banks, record. He was 45 in November 1971 but bald, jobs to make ends meet. The FBI refuses to
casinos, race tracks and anywhere else large sums shorter, thinner, and paler than Cooper. He did, countenance Christiansen as a suspect.
of money might change hands. Northwest Orient
offered a reward of 15 per cent of any recovered
money, to a maximum of $25,000. However, again Seven years after the
hijacking, a plastic placard
there were no leads. Then, in early 1972, Attorney that was identified as
General John Mitchell decided to release all the being from a Boeing 727
serial numbers to the public. Still nothing concrete was found and believed to
be a new clue in the case
emerged. In March of that year, once the weather
had improved, the FBI and 200 local soldiers from
Fort Lewis plus assorted National Guardsmen and
civilian volunteers began another search for the
elusive Mr Cooper – or what was left of him. They
spent 18 fruitless days searching and even took a
similar amount of time the following month, with
the same result. There had also been a false alarm
when two women chanced upon a skeleton, but a
post-mortem examination showed the body was a
teenage female.
As time passed, it seemed less than likely
that any money would be found, and so in 1973,
The Oregon Journal republished all the serial
numbers and offered a reward of $1,000. Another
local newspaper, the Post-Intelligencer in Seattle,
offered $5,000 as a reward to the first person who
handed in just one of the notes. Nothing emerged.
Finally in 1975, Global Indemnity, Northwest
Orient’s insurance company, paid the airline’s
$180,000 claim.

HUNDREDS OF SUSPECTS
In the year after Cooper’s jump, 15 people
attempted to hijack planes, all unsuccessfully.
None of them were Cooper. There have been
more than 1,000 suspects investigated by the
FBI including a World War II veteran, a mass

70
 THE DISAPPEARING SKYJACKER

When suspect
The badly decomposed bills were found Christiansen died,
to have the same serial numbers as the he had a large
ones from the hijacking amount of savings

THE AFTERMATH
Nearly 50 years after the event, the police are no nearer to identifying the hijacker
or explaining what happened to the bulk of the money
The mysterious Dan Cooper hijacking led to a a silk parachute found by children on a road in Cooper was a metallurgist or chemist, or possibly
series of security changes but this was not before southwest Washington. “Every time they find the manager of a chemical plant.
a spate of copycat crimes that shortly followed. squat, they bring it out and open their trunk and After their initial investigations, the FBI
The Federal Aviation Authority ordered that all say, ‘Is that it?’ and I say, ‘Nope, go away.’ Then a originally thought that Cooper was a former
Boeing 727s be fitted with an apparatus that few years later they come back.” On 10 February member of the United States Army Air Forces
prevented the aft door being opened while in 1980, eight-year-old Brian Ingram found $5,880 in and probably a Seattle native. His knowledge of
flight. A number of airlines went further and had decaying $20 notes on the banks of the Columbia the plane, especially the placing of the exit from
the door welded shut. There was also a peephole River, five miles north west of Vancouver, which he jumped, confirmed in their minds his
fitted to all cockpit doors to allow the crew to Washington, while on holiday with his family. It military background. However, Special Agent
observe passengers while the door was closed. turned out to be part of Cooper’s hoard, and 15 of Larry Carr said: “We originally thought Cooper
Seven years after Dan Cooper hijacked Northwest the notes were later auctioned in Texas, raising was an experienced jumper, perhaps even a
Orient Flight 305, the company sold the aircraft to more than $37,000 for Ingram. None of the other paratrooper. We concluded after a few years this
Piedmont Airlines, which kept it in service until 9,710 bank notes have been found. was simply not true. No experienced parachutist
1984 when it was sold on to charter company Key Dead women seemed to follow in the wake would have jumped in the pitch-black night, in
Airlines. In 1996, it was broken up as scrap. of the investigation. In 1981, while searching the rain, with a 200-mile-per-hour wind in his
41 years after the hijacking, on 23 April 2013, for more evidence, a human skull was found. face, wearing loafers and a trench coat. It was
Earl Cossey, a 71-year-old divorced man who had Excitement that it might belong to Cooper was simply too risky.” Special Agent Carr continued
supplied the original four parachutes for Cooper, soon discounted when it was found to be that of with no small note of incredulity: “Diving into
was found murdered in the garage of his home, on a female. Seven years later, a piece of parachute the wilderness without a plan, without the
North-East 192nd Street in Woodinville, a suburb material was found in the same location but it was right equipment, in such terrible conditions, he
of Seattle. Like the mysterious hijacking case, the soon discounted as being part of Cooper’s. probably never even got his chute open.”
© REX Features; Alamy; Corbis

murder of Mr Cossey is an unsolved crime. Some In March 2009, the FBI revealed that a team In 2016 the FBI redirected all resources
tie it to the DB Cooper case. of experts from the Burke Museum of Natural allocated to the case to focus on other
Each time the FBI found a piece of parachute History and Culture in Seattle had been hired to investigations. However, if someone believes that
in the vicinity, they took it to Mr Cossey. “They investigate the Cooper case. They used modern they have information – particularly pertaining
keep bringing me garbage,” he told the Associated techniques that had been unavailable in 1971. In to the parachutes or ransom money – they can
Press in March 2008, after the FBI brought him November 2011, they reported that they believed contact their local FBI branch.

71
 MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCES

72
 THE DISAPPEARANCE OF PHILIP CAIRNS

THIRTY YEARS GONE:

THE DISAPPEARANCE
OF PHILIP CAIRNS
Almost 35 years ago, Philip Cairns disappeared without
a trace walking from home to school. Was he snatched
by a predatory paedophile or an obscure satanic cult?
WRITTEN BY JOANNA ELPHICK

73
 MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCES

The laneway close to Ballyroan

A lone Garda officer keeps Road where Philip’s satchel
watch over the laneway after was discovered had previously
the mysterious appearance been searched and found
of Philip’s school satchel lacking in clues

Y
oung Philip Cairns, born on the 1 Alice usually got home by tea time, but was Siochana officers flooded the streets, including
September 1973, was a typical bright, somewhat later that day as she had taken one of the lanes and alleyways close to the Cairn’s house.
friendly 13-year-old lad. One of six her daughters to the dentist in Dublin city centre. They, like all police officers, knew that the first
children born to Alice and Philip Cairns By the time she walked through the door she 24 hours were the most important, since the
Senior, Philip was a popular boy and an expected to see both her sons, but Eoin and his likelihood of finding the child alive decreases
adored big brother who loved to play football with father were the only ones home. Philip had not rapidly after that. Specialist divers searched
little Eoin, his younger sibling. He was a keen sea returned. Her husband was initially unperturbed. the nearby rivers, lakes and local estate ponds
angler who regularly went fishing with his father Since the boy had recently started at the school he and when this failed to bring about any clues, a
and was often spotted accompanying his dad at was most likely hanging out with his new friends. massive wide-scale search began, covering the
the Dublin Sea Anglers Club where his father was Alice accepted the notion for a while but after a surrounding mountains and forests.
a member. The boy was an integral part of the short time her instincts told her something was The half-term holiday began a week after
Catholic home where family meant everything. wrong. She decided to ring around his friends’ Philip’s disappearance. The Gardai used this
houses to see if he had forgotten the time and time to interview each student, particularly
THE DISAPPEARANCE was playing football in someone’s back garden. questioning his friends, but none of the children
23 October 1986, started out like any other day for Nobody seemed to know anything until one lad had anything to say that would be of any help.
the Cairn family. Philip left his house in Ballyroan told his mum that Philip had not come back to Of course rumours quickly sprung up and were
and made his way to secondary school, Colaiste school after lunch. The friend’s mother tried to regurgitated by the frightened pupils. Philip had
Eanna in Rathfarnham, south Dublin. He had reassure Alice. He must have just bunked off and been kidnapped by a terrifying ‘bad man’ who
not been attending the school all that long but was worried about coming home and facing a
had already made plenty of new friends and had good telling off, but Alice knew better. Philip liked
impressed his teachers with his good manners
and mature attitude. At 12.45pm, after a busy
school and had never missed a lesson. It was
utterly out of character for him to behave so badly
“WORD QUICKLY
morning with his friends, Philip decided to go
home for lunch to spend time with his family as
and he certainly wouldn’t let his family worry
unnecessarily. No, something was very wrong.
SPREAD THAT YOUNG
he often did. However, this time they would never
see him again.
Philip was missing.
Word quickly spread that young Philip Cairns PHILIP CAIRNS HAD
Having eaten his lunch, Philip gathered up
his school bag, said goodbye to his grandmother
and left the house to return to Colaiste Eanna at
had gone missing and the close-knit community
soon put together a search party. Family, friends
and neighbours, including Brendan Vaughn, the
GONE MISSING AND THE
1.30pm. He had promised to meet up with friends
that afternoon when school had finished. She
Principal of Colaiste Eanna at the time, began by
scouring the school grounds, closely followed by
CLOSE-KNIT COMMUNITY
would be the last known person to see him before
he disappeared without a trace. He headed off up
the local football fields but to no avail. Philip was
nowhere to be seen. SOON PUT TOGETHER A
the Ballyroan Road but never made it as far as the
school gates.
It was at this point they called Rathfarnham
Garda Station for help. Hundreds of Garda SEARCH PARTY”
74
 THE DISAPPEARANCE OF PHILIP CAIRNS

Tales of a ‘bogeyman’
circulated among the
children in the community,
as they speculated Philip
had spirited him away in his mysterious van. No was kidnapped by a stranger
such story could be corroborated and was recorded
as a typical ‘bogeyman’ story. This phenomenon
often occurs when children are involved in a
frightening ordeal. Their minds simply cannot
accept the situation and in order to make sense After the satchel mysteriously reappeared,
it was discovered that several of Philip’s
of it they create a story that they can all relate belongings were missing, including a
to. Such hyperreality quickly becomes truth and geography book and several religious books
cannot be untangled from the genuine facts of
the case. All such claims were carefully recorded
but were of little use. Meanwhile, Alice and Philip

THE MURPHY
REPORT
Although Alice Cairns is adamant that Philip never
fell prey to a paedophile ring, it cannot be overlooked
that her son’s disappearance occurred during the
prevalence of sexual abuse claims raised against
the priests of Dublin. These shocking accusations
ranging from 1975 to 2004 were investigated and
the findings released under the Murphy Report. It
was found by Judge Yvonne Murphy, that suspected
priests were quickly moved to other parishes
where they could continue their criminal activities
undetected. Meanwhile Gardai assigned to deal
with such claims, known as ‘The God Squad’, simply
failed to gather any evidence. Is it so farfetched that
Philip Cairns, a religious boy, fascinated with the
church, was sexually abused by such a Priest and
murdered to keep a dirty secret hidden?

75
 MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCES

VICTIM
58 INCHICORE ROAD TEN MINUTE WALK
TO NOWHERE
A witness claimed to have seen
Philip’s unconscious body lying on
the floor of Radio Dublin Studios
after hearing an argument between
Philip and DJ Eamon Cooke.
The area of investigation was
initially very small, dealing with a
few roads between Philip’s school
and home, but it quickly expanded

CLUE
LANSDOWNE VALLEY ESTATE
Brian Ruth called the Gardai claiming WITNESS
that Philip’s remains had been buried BUSHY PARK BRIDGE
somewhere on the Lansdowne Valley A witness claimed to
Estate. The call turned out to be a hoax have seen a boy fitting
and Ruth was charged with wasting Philip’s description
police time. being bullied by a group
of older boys on a bridge
crossing the river at
Bushy Park alongside
Dodder Road.
CLUE
LANEWAY BETWEEN ANNE DEVLIN ROAD & ANNE DEVLIN DRIVE
It was here that Philip’s school satchel was discovered at 8pm, six
days after the initial sweep of the area.

WITNESS
CORNER OF BALLYROAN CRESCENT &
EVENT BALLYROAN ROAD
A number of witnesses claim to have seen
COLAISTE EANNA Philip either talking or approaching a car
The local community searched the grounds parked on the corner of the two roads at
of Philip’s secondary school, including the approximately 1.30pm.
football fields and recreational areas the
night he went missing.

THE IRISH
SATANISTS
After 24 hours with no sign of Philip,
the Gardai began searching further
afield along the riverbanks whilst
divers looked under the water
The Satanic angle began in 2001 when rumours
of a cult masquerading as born-again Christians
had abducted and killed Philip. Jim Cairns (no
relation) claimed the sinister group thrived in
nearby Kilkenny, where Alice Cairns had previously
lived and other children had gone missing. It was
suggested the secret organisation had come across
the boy through his religious Bible meetings.
The notion carried some weight since Philip was
abducted just after his 13th birthday and a few
days before Halloween – important dates in any
Satanist’s diary. Is this why the religious textbooks
were missing from Philip’s school bag? The media
latched onto this theory as it sold copies but no
evidence could be brought forward to confirm any
such claims.

76
 THE DISAPPEARANCE OF PHILIP CAIRNS

Senior were utterly convinced their son had

been abducted by someone who was known to
Philip. There was no way he would have willingly
climbed into a stranger’s vehicle or walked away
with them without some prior knowledge of who
they were. Unfortunately, they had no idea who
that might be. They could not imagine anybody
the family knew that was capable of such cruelty.
The investigators desperately needed a break in
the case and it was to come six days later.

EATEN BY WILD ANIMALS

A week after the initial search of the nearby
alleyways surrounding Philip’s house, two 18-year-
old girls, Orla O’Carroll and Catherine Hassett,
frightened to walk home alone, stumbled across
a school bag at about 8pm. They discovered the
satchel in a laneway just off Anne Devlin Road,
close to the Cairn property. Everyone was on high
alert for anything unusual and the girls sensibly
realised that this might be an important clue as
to the whereabouts of the missing boy. They ran
to the nearest phone box and called Rathfarnham
station. Was this the break that officers had been
hoping for?
When they arrived at the laneway, the first
thing the officers noticed was the condition of
the bag. The days following the disappearance
of Philip Cairns had been cold and wet. In fact,
it had rained almost every day since then and
yet the bag itself was bone-dry. The alley had
been carefully searched by both the Gardai and
the neighbourhood watch team, but nobody had
spotted the bag. Clearly, it had been placed there
since the initial search and after the last spate
of showers. This narrowed the timeframe of its
placement significantly. Several witnesses claimed to
have seen Philip approaching or
However, before the officers got too hopeful, talking to a strange man in a van
they needed to get a positive identification on the
bag. It was immediately taken to the Cairns back
at home. Alice recognised the bag straightaway. could be analysed to produce reliable results. of Philip dressed in his smart, blue Confirmation
It belonged to her missing son. The family were Certainly at this stage, uncontaminated samples clothes was introduced to the public by Alice
reassured that this was excellent news and it in any useful amounts could not be gathered from and Philip Senior. Information poured in from
could mean Philip was in the immediate vicinity. the bag. It appeared to be yet another dead end. all over the country and indeed as far away as
They believed that they could now find him in The Cairns family waited at home, hoping that Manchester, England. 400 reported sightings
‘maybe a matter of hours’. Alice, Philip Senior and this new clue would bring them closer to finding were followed but without any concrete evidence
the children were ecstatic. They were closer than Philip but it was not to be and they were once each line of enquiry soon dried up. Local milk
ever to getting their beloved Philip back home again left with crushing disappointment. companies printed the now-famous photograph
safely. Unfortunately, everybody was rather more on the side of their cartons in a bid to widen the
confident than they should have been. HELP FROM THE MEDIA search but to no avail. Hundreds of people came
Back at Dublin’s Forensic Laboratory, Philip Although initially wary of too much publicity, Mr forward offering rumours, vague recollections
Cairn’s school bag was carefully examined. Each and Mrs Cairns decided to appeal to the public for and bizarre suggestions as to the whereabouts of
item was removed and recorded: pens pencils, help. Someone out there knew where their son young Philip, including a number of clairvoyants
pencil case, maths textbook, copybook and school was or had at least spotted him. Philip couldn’t and psychic investigators, all of whom appeared
journal. Interestingly, other items had been taken, have simply vanished into thin air. The first step desperate to help. Despite their efforts, nearly 35
including his geography book and two religious was to release a photograph. A smiling picture years on the case remains unsolved.
studies textbooks. Killers often keep mementoes
of their conquests. The Gardai decided to keep
this worrying thought to themselves.
Next, Philip’s belongings were forensically
“SOMEONE OUT THERE KNEW WHERE THEIR SON WAS
examined. At the time, 1986, DNA testing was a
relatively new science and techniques were still OR HAD AT LEAST SPOTTED HIM. PHILIP COULDN’T HAVE
being trialled. Trace evidence was impossible to
profile at this point. Only large quantities of DNA SIMPLY VANISHED INTO THIN AIR”
77
 MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCES

THE INVESTIGATION
The investigation panned out like a dog chasing its
tail, bringing clues and suspects but no answers
Many parents initially came forward claiming and his body hidden in one of the local ponds. A Philip and had promised to take him to the station
that their children had been approached by slightly different version was also offered up by as a treat. The woman, who had been a child at
‘strange men enticing them into cars’. There pupils at Colaiste Eanna also claiming that he had the time, had tagged along and, whilst she was in
were no reports of such incidents before Philip’s been bullied but had fallen into the river whilst another room, a fight broke out between Cooke
disappearance and this was quickly put down to escaping over a crumbling bridge. Either way, no and Philip. When she went back in the room she
hysteria, a modern-day bogeyman. However, in one seemed to know who the bullies were and it found Philip unconscious and bleeding on the
1989 The Sunday Independent newspaper released is extremely unlikely that such students would floor. She fainted, only to wake up in the back of
an article claiming that Philip had indeed been have actively hidden the body rather than run Cooke’s car. She had no idea what had happened
spotted around lunchtime on the day of his away, leaving him in plain sight. to Philip from that point on. The Garda detectives
disappearance, talking to a man at the junction of In 2015, a former gardener, Richard Kavanagh, appeared to have taken the story very seriously.
Ballyroan Road and Ballyroan Crescent. Another came forward claiming to know who had taken Much of her statement has subsequently been
anonymous caller told the Garda officers that Philip. He stated that he had been working for a corroborated. Later, on his deathbed in June of
he had witnessed Philip talking to a man at the deeply unpleasant man during the time of Philip’s the same year, Cooke was said to have confirmed
same time, driving a red Mazda or Toyota type abduction. His employer had confessed ‘I have some details but it is unknown which aspects he
car. The caller rang back a further four times done terrible things’. Kavanagh claimed that a was referring to. The Gardai later re-examined
offering up information on the identity of the strange, out of place flower bed appeared in the DNA evidence retrieved from Philip’s school
abductor but although he agreed to meet up with garden shortly afterwards. He begged the Gardai bag in the hopes that a link could be found. It
the Gardai, he never showed. It is far more likely to search the property, which happened to be was announced in August 2016 that no forensic
that this seemingly helpful member of the public close to the laneway where the bag had previously evidence could be used to confirm Cooke’s
was actually the abductor himself rather than been discovered. Once again, nothing came of the involvement, however he has not been officially
an informant and the enquiry ended abruptly. enquiry, but as this occured recently, this avenue eliminated from Garda inquiries.
There was no way of hunting down the caller has not quite closed yet. Fellow DJ Gareth O’Callaghan disputed the
in question. Ironically, this may have been the The only named suspect in the case was claim in one of his many Facebook posts on
closest the Gardai ever got to finding their man. local celebrity DJ Eamonn Cooke, ominously the case. He preferred the suspect raised by
Some school children suggested that Philip nicknamed ‘The Cookie Monster’. The former Richard Kavanagh in 2015, stating that others
had been the victim of bullying and that one owner of pirate radio station, Radio Dublin, and had approached the DJ with similar information,
particular bout of menacing antics had gone known sex offender was named in 2016 by a citing the same garden as Philip’s final resting
horribly wrong. Philip had been accidentally killed woman who claimed that Cooke had known of place. In 2006, on the 20th anniversary of his

In 2015, a gardener came Gardai officers checked the golf course, fields
forward about a suspicious and recreation area searching for any clues or
flower bed appearing in his signs that Philip had been there
employer’s garden

78
 THE DISAPPEARANCE OF PHILIP CAIRNS

disappearance, the family stepped back into the In 2016, a massive social media campaign
limelight, issuing an appeal for any information. began to build momentum, spearheaded by
They had not given up hope and begged the broadcaster, psychotherapist and author Gareth
public to help them in the ongoing search. O’Callaghan. Through his widely read Facebook
A church Mass was held in Philip’s honour, page, O’Callaghan has posted many recent articles
reminding the community not to forget. suggesting that a terrifying paedophile ring
In 2007 the media televised a reconstruction of may well be the abductors of Philip Cairns. The
Philip’s last known journey back towards school notion has once again opened a brand new line
using one of Philip’s old friends. At the same of enquiry, although this idea has been strongly
time, a book was published, entitled When Heaven criticised by Mrs Cairns who refuses to believe her
Waits, containing a heart-breaking interview son was taken for such purposes.
with Alice Cairns. The media attention stirred up So who spirited young Philip Cairns away
interest and brought about a flurry of new leads in broad daylight, over 30 years ago, on 23
but, once again, they petered out into dead ends. October 1986? The suggestions have ranged from
In the same month the Irish Crime-stoppers Trust the pitifully sad to outlandish conspiracies –
offered a reward of €10,000 for any information. childhood bullying, lone child molesters, satanic
Many individuals came forward but the Gardai cults, a paedophile priest ring, a group of deviant
seemed no closer to finding him. businessmen and a malignant local celebrity.
A heartbroken Alice Cairns,
mother of Philip, waits at
home for any news of her
lost son after the discovery
of his school bag

“IT WAS ANNOUNCED IN

AUGUST 2016 THAT NO
FORENSIC EVIDENCE COULD
BE USED TO CONFIRM
The school friends of Philip
turned to the church and a
special mass was held at the local

COOKE’S INVOLVEMENT”
Catholic church in his honour, to
pray for his safe return

THE AFTERMATH
Over 30 years have passed since Philip disappeared, so what happens now?
On 6 July 2014, Philip Cairns Senior passed away is slim. Time is not on their side. Many suspects is definite: the three strands of DNA are in the
at Tallaght Hospital. He departed this world and supposed witnesses have passed away, taking hands of forensic scientists and are probably
without any closure regarding his beloved son. He with them secrets that would have undoubtedly the most useful piece of evidence they have to
left behind Philip’s mother Alice who still lights a shed light on that ghastly day. Eamonn Cooke’s date. Although tests could not establish a link
solitary candle every evening in memory of her old pirate radio station at Inchicore Road, where between Philip and Cooke, there is nothing to
missing boy. Philip had four sisters, two of which, Philip was supposedly seen lying unconscious on stop comparisons with future suspects or known
Sandra and Suzanne, are active participants in an the floor, has now been demolished, along with criminals. The Gardai have made it perfectly
organisation working to find missing children. any useful trace evidence. clear that they are keeping an open mind and
The entire family – Alice, Sandra, Suzanne, However, though Cooke remains a suspect with welcome any new claims. Detective Sergeant Tom
Helen, Mary and younger brother Eoin – have all the people of Dublin, it cannot be overlooked Doyle has been in charge of the case for over
suffered a devastating blow, not only to have lost that the disgraced paedophile DJ had a distinct 20 years. In an interview with The Journal he
a dear family member, but also to live without preference for young girls from vulnerable emphasised his continuing commitment to the
knowing just what happened all those years ago. backgrounds. Philip never fit his choice of victim. case stating, “We don’t know what happened, it’s
Should Alice and her children go on hoping for Possibly a better hope could be pinned on the a total mystery but I’m satisfied people still have
© Getty Images; Kym Winters

good news or should they quietly accept that school satchel that mysteriously appeared in information.” Somebody knows what happened
Philip is gone? As Eoin stated several years ago, the laneway after the area had been searched. and when they feel able to share, there are
“You have to hope for the best and prepare for the Whether Cooke had ordered one of his young plenty of people ready to listen. Anyone with any
worst. More than likely there won’t be a happy female victims to dispose of the evidence as information relating to Philip’s disappearance is
ending. After 29 years we just want an ending.” has previously been suggested, or the Kilkenny encouraged to contact the Garda Confidential Line
But as the years crawl by, the likelihood of closure Satanist ring left it there as a decoy, one thing on 1800 666 111, Interpol, or any police station.

79
 MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCES

SNATCHE
SNATCHED
FROM THE SUPERMARKET
Katrice disappeared on her second birthday while shopping with
her mother. Four decades later, her desperate family are no closer
to finding out what happened to their beloved little girl
WRITTEN BY ABBY BENTHAM

80
SNATCHED FROM THE SUPERMARKET

The River Alme at Paderborn in

Germany, where the Royal Military
Police recently conducted a forensic
excavation of the riverbank

81
 MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCES

S
aturday 28 November 1981 should have been such
a happy day: a beautiful little girl, excited about her
birthday, was surrounded by the doting family that “I CAN’T BELIEVE A TWO-YEAR-OLD WALKED
loved her. There were no warnings or omens of
the tragedy that would unfold. No one could have
guessed that the day would mark the start of almost four
OUT AND DISAPPEARED OFF THE FACE OF THE
decades of anguish for Sharon Lee, her husband Richie Lee,
serving as a sergeant major with 15th/19th The King’s Royal
EARTH AND NO ONE SAW WHAT HAPPENED”
Hussars, and their oldest daughter Natasha. was crammed with people happily shopping for festive
The family, from Hartlepool, in northeast England, lived provisions. Sharon Lee was also stocking up, but she wasn’t
in an army barracks in what was then West Germany. The looking quite so far ahead. Her focus that day was her
barracks were well equipped and, alongside the official daughter, Katrice, who was celebrating her second birthday
buildings and parade ground, there was housing, a school, a with a party for friends and family later that day. Sharon’s
playground and a NAAFI (Navy, Army, Air Force Institutes) sister Wendy and her husband Cliff, who was also a soldier,
supermarket where British soldiers and their families could had driven over from neighbouring barracks to be part of the
buy the products they missed from home. It was at the fun. While Richie sat outside with the car, Sharon and Wendy
supermarket, the most banal of settings, that the Lees’ lives scoured the aisles for Katrice’s favourite foods and drinks.
would be changed forever. Katrice refused to sit in the trolley, opting instead to sit
The supermarket was particularly busy that day: it contentedly in her mother’s arms as they did the shopping.
was the last payday before Christmas and the NAAFI Natasha, then five, stayed at home to play with her uncle.

“WHERE’S KATRICE?”
as
Katrice chased after her mother As the women queued at the busy checkout, Sharon realised
she went to get crisps and became that she had forgotten to get crisps, so, leaving Katrice with
ided
separated from her aunt. It prov
a window of opportunity for Wendy, she made her way back to the aisle. In a recent
someone in the busy supermarket interview with The Sun newspaper, Sharon recalled the
to snatch the little girl
heart-stopping moment she realised her precious daughter
was missing: “I put Katrice down and said to my sister
Wendy, ‘Just keep an eye on her while I go back to the crisps
stand.’ It wasn’t far away. It took me about 40 seconds, a
minute at most. When I got back I asked, ‘Where’s Katrice?’
[…] My sister said, ‘I thought she was with you. She ran and
followed you.’ I went back down the aisle and she wasn’t
there. Panic started to set in. I couldn’t see her anywhere.
There was so many people. I was calling her name. Katrice
couldn’t be found – she wasn’t there.”
Most parents will have experienced that terrifying
moment when a child disappears from sight, only to be

A photofit of a man
seen at the NAAFI
supermarket on
the day Katrice
disappeared. He
was witnessed Katrice pictured as a baby with her
holding a child big sister Natasha and her mum
similar to Katrice Sharon. Natasha has said, “I kiss her
and getting into a picture every night before I go to bed”
green saloon car

82
 SNATCHED FROM THE SUPERMARKET

found moments later and hugged and scolded in equal

measure. But for Sharon the dread and panic only deepened
as the minutes ticked by. When it became clear that Katrice
wasn’t in the store, she sought help from staff. Richie realised
that his wife had been gone for much longer than expected
and went into the NAAFI to find her. He saw Sharon, clearly
distressed, standing with Wendy in the manager’s office.
Rushing in, he received the terrible news that his daughter
was missing. In an interview with Mark Stone for Sky News,
he recalled, “That’s when my world fell apart.”

DID SHE DROWN? Katrice Lee, who

The jurisdictional position of the incident meant that both went missing on her
the German Federal Police, known as the Bundespolizei, second birthday. She
disappeared while
and the Royal Military Police were called on to carry out shopping for birthday
an extensive search of the area. The initial assumption – party supplies with
which Richie and Sharon believe was fatally flawed – was her mother and aunt
that Katrice had toddled out of the supermarket unseen
and fallen into the fast-flowing River Lippe. This theory has
been angrily refuted by Sharon as “ludicrous” given that it
would have meant Katrice walking out of the supermarket
alone without being seen or stopped by any of the shoppers,
before making her way down a ramp, across a busy car park,
through a hedge and along to the river. Furthermore, Sharon
and Richie believe that their little girl, who was dressed
distinctively in a tartan dress, a turquoise duffle coat and red
wellies, would never have gone near the water.
With Katrice still missing, Richie and Sharon were forced
to return home without her and explain to five-year-old
WITNESS
MYSTERY MALE
An eyewitness described seeing a man putting

WHERE THE LEES’ a girl resembling Katrice into a green saloon car
in the car park of the NAAFI supermarket. Police

WORLD IMPLODED
paid little attention, focusing instead on the
theory that Katrice had fallen into the river.

The area around Paderborn has

seen sporadic investigations

VICTIM
WITNESS GONE IN A SPLIT-SECOND
On her second birthday, Katrice visited the
THE GREEN SALOON NAAFI supermarket with her mother and aunt
The day after Katrice vanished, eyewitnesses to buy supplies for a party the family planned
saw a green saloon parked in a siding by a bridge to hold later that day. She wandered away from
across the River Alme. Investigators involved the checkout and was never seen again.
in the cold case review feared her abductor had
parked there while disposing of Katrice’s body.

CLUE
THE RIVER LIPPE
EVENT The Bundespolizei and the Royal Military
5-WEEK EXCAVATION Police feared that Katrice had toddled out
of the supermarket and made
A five-week forensic excavation of the
riverbank failed to yield any clues. her way to the River Lippe.
Bone fragments found at the site are When the two-year-old
not believed to belong to Katrice. could not be found, it
Royal Military Police investigators was assumed that she
said “nothing else significant” was had fallen into the
uncovered during the dig. fast-flowing river
and drowned.

83
 MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCES

HAVE YOU
SEEN KATRICE?
Age-progression images
showing how Katrice may
look now could lead to her
being found alive
What are the key things to take into
consideration when producing age-
progression images? 1981
Key considerations to follow are getting
input and reference photos from the
AGED 2 AGED 6 AGED 11
searching family. Ideally you want to get
photos of parents or siblings at or around the age of the missing party. She points to the fact that the NAAFI was very busy
person. It’s very helpful to see family resemblances in the photos. that day: with so many people around it seems improbable
that an unaccompanied infant would go unnoticed. “I can’t
How accurate are age-progression images? believe… that a two-year-old walked out and disappeared
Through this process the images created are meant to spark off the face of the Earth and no one saw what happened,”
recognition. The age progression is created to be a tool for the she said. She feels it is much more likely that Katrice was
investigation. The forensic artist hopefully has maintained unique abducted, and Ritchie agrees, describing the feeling as “a
facial characteristics and applied features from the family reference parent’s intuition”. He told The Hartlepool Mail, “I have my
photos to present a prediction, not a portrait, of the missing person. belief that she didn’t leave the NAAFI on her own. I have
always said someone picked her up and walked off with her.
How often do images like this yield results? We have always believed that it was as a surrogate child.”
Thousands of cases involving missing persons have been resolved The idea that Katrice is safe and well and living with a
where an age progression was produced. Millions of people can see loving family somewhere is certainly more appealing than
these images but it only takes one person to make the call to help the grim alternatives. But while it’s possible that Richie
the family find answers. and Sharon’s belief is nothing more than a psychological
defence mechanism that allows them to carry on living with
the terrible burden of their grief, it’s also true that there is a
BIO thriving and lucrative worldwide trade in child trafficking
JOE MULLINS Forensic Artist that involves the theft of children for adoption. Infamous
Mullins is a forensic imaging specialist who and well-documented cases in places such as Spain, the
assists law enforcement by age-progressing United States and India have revealed a ruthless industry
missing children, facial and soft tissue that is active even today. Could this have been a profitable
reconstructions of skeletal remains and fugitive updates. He’s line of inquiry for the investigating officers?
trained at the FBI Academy and universities of Oklahoma
and Dundee.

Katrice was wearing a

turquoise duffel coat
and red wellies when
Natasha that her sister had vanished. In a 2007 interview she disappeared from
with The Guardian, Natasha explained that “I didn’t really the supermarket in 1981
understand what that meant. I associated losing something
with losing a toy – you found it after a bit.” Her main memory
of that time is of her mother’s anguished screams: “It was
really horrible. Mums don’t cry, kids cry. I also remember
running round a car park looking for Katrice. I told my dad,
‘She’s not there,’ and he replied, ‘She’s not going to be there,
Tash.’” Disturbed by her sister’s disappearance, Natasha
began to suffer horrifying night terrors in which she’d dream
about finding a pram in a nearby wood and pulling back the
hood to reveal her sister’s severed head.

STOLEN TO ORDER?
Unable to buy into the official theory that Katrice had
drowned, the Lees were convinced from the outset that
Katrice was either taken to order for a childless couple or
stolen by a childless couple themselves. Sharon is certain
that the family was watched or followed, with the abductor
seizing their moment when she went to get crisps for the

84
 SNATCHED FROM THE SUPERMARKET

AGED 16 AGED 21 AGED 28 AGED 33

THE INVESTIGATION
Described by Richie as ‘a sham’, the MONEY MATTERS
investigation failed to uncover any In interviews, Sharon has described how the loss of a child
meaningful leads made them “members of an exclusive club we didn’t ask
for membership of” and Richie and Natasha have both
The Bundespolizei and the Royal Military Police rejected
explained the frustration they feel at the lack of exposure
the theory that Katrice had been abducted, dismissing it
Katrice’s case has had over the years. Compared to high-
as highly unlikely. Sadly, their refusal to explore this angle
profile cases such as Madeleine McCann and Ben Needham,
is just one missed opportunity in a wholly inadequate
public awareness of Katrice is very low – something the
investigation. Richie has been vocal in his criticism of the
family has fought tirelessly to remedy. Media exposure is a
search, saying that there was little coordination by the two
problem, but it is not the only issue: funding is also a key
investigating forces and that the family was “ping-ponged”
concern. To date, the search for Madeleine McCann has cost
between them.
more than £11 million: in contrast, the Royal Military Police
Although an initial search of the river was carried out on
has no dedicated budget. It is thought that the recent search
the day of Katrice’s disappearance, it was 24 hours before
in Germany cost around £100,000.
sniffer dogs were brought to the scene to search for Katrice’s
scent. Officers’ refusal to entertain the notion that Katrice
may have been abducted meant that border police were not
notified of her disappearance until a full 48 hours after the
little girl vanished. Speaking in 2012, Sharon slammed the
failure of the investigators to even carry out basic procedures
such as interviewing NAAFI staff: “It took six weeks for the
girls working on the checkout on the day that my daughter
disappeared to be interviewed, and in one case it took 20
years for one of those members of staff to be interviewed.”
Given that there were only three members of staff on duty

A green saloon, similar to the one seen

in the NAAFI car park, was spotted by
the River Alme. It could have been the
perpetrator disposing of Katrice’s body

85
 MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCES
on the tills that day, this seems like an incredible oversight.
Details of Katrice’s genetic eye condition were also not made
public. The condition would have needed two corrective
surgeries later on as Katrice got older – information the Lees
believe should have been shared with doctors and hospitals,
and something they hope may resonate with Katrice if she is
now living elsewhere, unaware of her true identity.

THE ‘GOLDEN HOUR’

Failings such as these are at odds with current best-practice
in the search for missing children. 21st-century methods are
far more sophisticated and protocols more firmly embedded
than they were in 1981. Police – aware that from the moment
a child goes missing, the chances of them being found
alive grow increasingly slim – institute an integrated critical
situation protocol. This allows them to draw on multiple
resources and response teams, with significant manpower
and technological assistance including CCTV.
A great deal of importance is placed on what police refer
to as the ‘golden hour’ – the critical window in any major
criminal investigation, as it is the key time in which officers
are trained to secure evidence, lock-down crime scenes,
locate witnesses, find missing people and track down
Katrice’s mother, Sharon Lee, who has never given up hope of
suspects before they have a chance to get too far away. finding her daughter alive. She has described her ordeal as “a
With every minute that elapses following a crime it gets nightmare you never wake up from”
harder to do these things, as crime scenes can be unwittingly
contaminated, suspects and witnesses can drift away and
forced the RMP to admit that the photofit was produced
the perpetrators can make their escape. In abduction cases,
in 1981 but never released, as the investigating team clung
the golden hour is even more critical, as with every passing
doggedly to its assumption that Katrice had drowned.
minute comes an increased risk to life.
News of this latest blunder devastated the Lee family, and
The seriousness of this risk was highlighted in 2004
Natasha has spoken of how she was left “struggling to
by Captain Fanie van Deventer, commander of the South
process” why investigators decided to ignore a potentially
African Missing Persons Bureau. He said, “International
vital lead. Richie has also found it hard to come to terms
statistics show that if a child is kidnapped for sexual
with, saying “I feel very, very embittered and I feel very
pleasure, police have only three hours to find it before it is
angry and I think any parent out there would understand
killed or disappears forever. When it comes to abduction
why I feel that way.”
for pornographic reasons, the window period is 48 hours.
The absolute deadline for finding a missing child alive
is 72 hours, because after this period, we begin looking
DEAD ENDS
With few leads, no body and little appetite for alternative
for a body.” Similar statistics were quoted following the
theories, the search for Katrice ground to a halt. Although
2007 abduction of Madeleine McCann. Tragically, the
the case remained open, without fresh evidence it stayed
Bundespolizei and the Royal Military Police appear to have
dormant until high-profile campaigning by the family
shown little of the urgency and thoroughness of modern
led to it being re-investigated in 2000. A woman had
investigating teams.
contacted the family, making a deathbed confession that
a former boyfriend, himself a soldier, had confessed to her
GREEN SALOON CAR about abducting and murdering a toddler from a German
Crucially, eyewitness reports of a man seen putting a child
supermarket in 1981. The man was arrested but released
resembling Katrice into a green saloon car in the NAAFI car
without charge due to lack of evidence, and the case was
park also do not appear to have been taken seriously at the
closed three years later.
time. The day after Katrice disappeared, a green saloon was
seen parked close to a bridge over the River Alme, but again
little was made of this by officers in the 1981 investigation.
A photofit of the man with the green saloon was
released by the Royal Military Police last year, as part of
a segment aired on the BBC programme Crimewatch. An
RMP spokesman said at the time, “This is a newly identified
CRUEL HOAXER
In 2011, the Lees’ hopes were raised only to be cruelly dashed by a hoaxer who
line of inquiry as a result of analysing approximately 11,000
claimed to be Katrice. Over a six-week period, Donna Wright sent a series of
documents including eye witness statements… this piece
messages to them, with one reading: “I was brought over from Germany. Will you
of evidence was deemed useful to the investigation, so
please help me look into this. It’s a cover-up.” DNA tests revealed that the woman was
the RMP are duly appealing for fresh information from it.”
not Katrice, but it didn’t end there. Wright became abusive, bombarding the family
Questions were immediately raised about whether the
with spiteful messages and phone calls. The worst of the abuse was aimed at Sharon,
photofit was produced in 1981 or 2017 and the spokesman,
who was told, “You lost your kid over a bag of crisps” and was called a “silly old bitch”.
speaking after the broadcast, initially refused to be drawn.
When asked to stop, Wright, who has mental health problems, threatened, “You have
However, pressure from Katrice’s family and from the media
not seen harassment yet.” She was jailed for her actions.

86
 SNATCHED FROM THE SUPERMARKET

THE AFTERMATH
Could the Lees get the closure they are looking for?
Although sustained by hope and their love for Katrice, the Lees have long been
aware that their darling daughter may no longer be alive. This horrible possibility
was brought home to them again recently, when the Royal Military Police – working
not only with evidence gathered during the initial investigation but also on new
evidence – decided to begin excavating the banks of the River Alme close to where
Katrice disappeared.
The dig was linked to the report of the man seen putting a child resembling
Katrice into a green saloon in the car park of the NAAFI. The fact that the car was
later seen parked by the River Alme had raised suspicions that he may have been
disposing of the toddler’s corpse. This latest search was being led by Warrant Officer
Richard O’Leary of the Royal Military Police, and although Richie and Sharon still
bear the scars of their previous experiences with the RMP, O’Leary was slowly
100 British soldiers spent
gaining their trust. He insisted that his team was well-resourced, highly committed,
five weeks excavating the
banks of the River Alme in had the expertise, and had sought advice from specialists, including the FBI.
Paderborn, where Katrice Lee In a statement, Officer O’Leary said, “36 years have passed and allegiances
disappeared after wandering
off in a NAAFI supermarket may have changed. We are appealing to members of the public and the military
community, including veterans and retired civil servants in both Germany and the
UK – do you know what happened to Katrice?’
Age-progression photographs suggesting how Katrice Richie Lee welcomed the new investigation, explaining that he felt “vindicated”,
may have looked at key ages were released in 2008, but but he admitted to the BBC, “I’m a little bit upset that it has taken this length of time.”
they failed to garner results. In 2012 the case was again Although he and Sharon have been forced to face the fact that Katrice may have
reopened, following pressure from the Lees’ MP Iain Wright been murdered, investigators were treating this as only one possibility. O’Leary
and Gosport MP Caroline Dinenage. Dinenage raised the stressed that the man with the green car may prove to have been completely
matter during Prime Minister’s Questions in Parliament, innocent and he has asked anybody who had a green saloon in the area at the time
leading then-PM David Cameron to agree to look into what of Katrice’s disappearance to come forward so that they can be ruled out of the
Dinenage described as the “chronic mishandling” of the inquiry. He also confirmed that the search of the banks of the River Alme was “just
case by the Royal Military Police. When Cameron informed one line of inquiry,” adding that “Another possibility is that Katrice was abducted and
the Lees that he had decided not to order an inquiry into is living another life not knowing who she is.”
the handling of the initial investigation, they requested Unfortunately, the riverbank search yielded no new clues, bringing no end to the
access to the case files on Katrice’s disappearance to assess uncertainty and pain for the Lee family, who are torn between a desire for closure –
the evidence themselves, but this was denied. Despite the however that may come – and their enduring belief that Katrice is alive somewhere
RMP admitting that mistakes were made during the first in the world. The devastating impact of the 36-year battle to keep the investigation
investigation, a Ministry of Defence spokesman said, “The moving is visible on their faces, but, as Natasha has previously said, “We have a gut
RMP does not routinely disclose information in relation feeling that Katrice is still alive and we will see her again. Until we have proof that is
to ongoing investigations. Should a new line of inquiry not the truth, we will always believe it.”
develop, disclosure of the case files could have a prejudicial Anyone who may have information regarding Katrice should contact
effect on the investigation and potentially prejudice the right Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
to a fair trial.”

A GRISLY END?
The Lees’ search for Katrice has been fraught with
disappointment, torment and anguish. Several years ago, a
retired detective who specialised in child abduction cases
announced that he believed child killer Robert Black had
abducted and murdered Katrice. Chris Clark said that the
paedophile was working in Germany delivering posters at
the time Katrice disappeared. Speaking to The Mirror, he
said, “This was a child abduction by a paedophile, and the
© Ed Crooks; Shutterstock; Teri Blythe

manner in which she disappeared was exactly the way

Black had been able to make children vanish… He’d have
been visiting British Army camps along the Rhine, including
Paderborn. I’m quite convinced Black quietly befriended
Katrice Lee, took her to his van outside the NAAFI and
took her away.” However, Katrice’s father confirmed that Could Katrice be alive and
detectives had already considered that line of enquiry and well somewhere, completely
oblivious to who she really is?
ruled it out. He blasted Clark for “using my family’s tragedy”
to promote and publicise his forthcoming book.

87
 MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCES

RUN FOR
YOUR LIFE
Picked up on a long walk back home by ‘a person or persons
unknown’, teenagers Vanessa Conlan and Jessica Small thought their
prayers had been answered. Instead a nightmare had just begun…
WRITTEN BY TANITA MATTHEWS

88
RUN FOR YOUR LIFE

89
 MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCES

Thanks largely to the police’s prejudiced

view of Jessica, they believed she had
falsified her abduction to flee her home.
But the young girl had fallen foul of
something much worse than a strained
relationship with her mother

M
ore than two decades have passed SMALL GIRL, SMALL TOWN father. Jessica had just entered Year 10 at Kelso
since 15-year-old Jessica Small was Fay Connors was woken just after midnight on 26 High School in Bathurst, while on the opposite
abducted from the rural town of October 1997 by frantic hammering on her front side of the Macquarie River, Vanessa was a
Bathurst in New South Wales, Australia. door. She found a terrified young girl “shaken, student in the year below at Bathurst High School.
A fun night out with her friend white and scared” on her doorstep, incoherently Despite the fact that they spent the majority of
Vanessa Conlan ended with a terrifying dash for babbling and telling her, “You’ve got to help me their days in the company of other teenagers, the
their lives. Only Vanessa escaped, and Jessica has find my friend.” The terrified teenager could pair formed a close bond, meeting up after school
not been seen since. A prejudiced and inadequate barely catch her breath to gasp out the horrifying at each other’s houses, listening to music and
police force was reluctant to look for the tearaway ordeal she had just escaped from, to relay the watching TV. According to Vanessa, Jessica had
teen, convinced she had simply run away from details of the stranger who had tried to kill her opened up to her about her strained relationship
her troubled home life. just minutes ago – who was now driving into the with her mother Ricki.
Despite Vanessa repeating the shocking story night with her best friend trapped inside his car. Vanessa later said that the mother and daughter
of Jessica’s final moments time and time again, Once the panicked girl had finally been able to would often fight because Ricki spent her time
police told her she was “downright lying”. Vital form the terrifying story of the sickening predator and their grocery money on booze in the local
witnesses went unheard and multiple pleas for she had fled from with her friend, Connors pub. Jessica was left to fend for herself most of
help from Jessica’s mother fell on deaf ears. It phoned the police to report Jessica missing. the time, and there was friction between mother
took almost a decade for police to take the Thanks to her lucky escape, Vanessa was able to and daughter when Ricki would suddenly insist
missing person report seriously, but by then it recount the events that had unfolded that night. the youngster stay at home instead of going
was far too late. It was a story she would retell to police and out with her friends. According to the coroner’s
In 2014 a coroner ruled that the teenage girl had the media for years to come. Unfortunately not report that was drawn up more than a decade
been killed by “a person or persons unknown”. So everyone would believe her. after Jessica was abducted, Jessica’s life “had little
far the New South Wales Police Force has failed Prior to that fateful night both girls had been structure or stability” in the months leading up to
to solve the case. With the 20th anniversary of normal, healthy teenagers. Born and raised in her disappearance. The young girl was living with
her abduction having been and gone, it is more Australia, they had become close friends in 1997. her extended family and friends, and by the end
than likely that we will never discover Jessica’s Both lived on Fish Parade with their parents – of autumn that year Jessica had dropped out of
ultimate fate. Jessica with her mother and Vanessa with her school completely.

90
 RUN FOR YOUR LIFE

“RACING TOWARDS A NEARBY HOUSE, VANESSA

of the winter night, the teenagers decided to
approach the vehicle. In the past they had
frequently hitchhiked around town, and this

REALISED JESSICA WAS GONE. SHE WOULD NEVER SEE time it was Vanessa’s turn to approach the driver,
who casually asked them, “How were your

HER BEST FRIEND AGAIN” videogames… and your games of pool?” He offered
the girls a lift, which they happily accepted,
and they pointed out that they needed to go
BACK TO BATHURST with some other friends, they split their time to Hereford Street just over a kilometre away.
Faced with the difficulties Jessica was having between Amuse Me and King’s Parade park. Vanessa sat in the passenger’s seat while Jessica
with her mother, she decided to leave town Later that evening the girls decided to head to opted for the back.
for a short while. After spending some time in their friend’s home on Hereford Street, getting a When speaking to Australian journalist Allison
Sydney, Jessica stopped off in Orange, more than lift from another friend. It was to be a fruitless Langdon during an episode of 60 Minutes in 2014,
50 kilometres outside Bathurst. When Jessica journey when both girls discovered their friend Vanessa recalled how the driver’s demeanour
returned to her hometown on 14 October, she and had already left. changed, and she began to feel wary of the
Vanessa met up. Vanessa noted that her friend’s In an attempt to join back up with their group, stranger beside her. Oddly the man was driving
appearance had changed – she had cut off her Vanessa and Jessica made their way back into very slowly down the dark country lanes that led
long locks and was not wearing any make up. She town. Traipsing back and forth to the places out onto Hereford Street, looking left and right as
was still sofa-surfing between her older sister’s they had visited that evening, the girls were the vehicle crept along the road. However, on the
home in Kelso and her friend’s home in O’Connell. disappointed to find that everyone else had approach to their final stop of the night Vanessa
On what was to be the last day anyone saw left. Their final destination was the Amuse Me saw the lights of the house up ahead and asked
Jessica alive, she and Vanessa walked into arcade, but they discovered it was closed. Tired of the driver, “See where that light is? Can you drop
Bathurst in the early evening from Fish Parade. walking the streets of Bathurst but not quite ready us off there?” to which he replied, “Yeah, that I
They met up with Jessica’s mother so that Jess to return home, the girls decided to go to Hereford can do.”
could get some money for the evening. This Street for the night and began to walk the short
would be the last time Ricki would ever see her distance back across the town. LAST GLANCE, LAST CHANCE
daughter. The duo then headed to the Amuse Me The girls were so close to safety. But before
arcade on the main street of Bathurst, stopping off A STREETCAR NAMED DISASTER reaching the front of the house, he pulled down
at Mick’s Takeaway for some food. At the arcade The girls had not been walking long before they a darkened side road and turned off the car’s
both girls were enjoying their evening, playing noticed a four-door white sedan, which Vanessa engine and lights. Although there were numerous
videogames and occupying a pool table for a identified as “like a Holden Commodore”, drive houses just out of sight occupied by sleeping
game or two. Vanessa recalls how Jessica had slowly past them before turning around and residents, the two girls were thrust out into the
consumed a few alcoholic drinks but according parking on the opposite side of the street. Hoping darkness where no one was able to see or hear
to her, Jessica was only tipsy. After meeting up to hitchhike the rest of the way in the middle them no matter how loud they screamed.

Enjoying the arcade, Jess and

Vanessa were unaware that
they were being observed

91
 MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCES

Unfastening his seatbelt, he turned to Jessica.

“Come here,” he demanded, reaching for the
young girl in the back seat. “I don’t think so,”
Vanessa called out to him, prompting him to turn
WITNESS
his attention back to the girl in his passenger’s
ROBERT FITZPATRICK
Fitzpatrick, who lived on Turondale Road in
seat. He reached out and put his hands around Eglington, was likely the last person to see
Vanessa’s throat, tightening his grip in an attempt Jessica alive. He described how the driver got
to silence her, perhaps once and for all. Jessica out of the car and struggled with something
made a run for it, launching herself out of the car. in the back seat before driving off.
The attacker reached back to try and grab
Jessica, but she was already out of the vehicle,
and Vanessa too now lurched from the car. But
before she could get away the man grabbed a
fistful of Vanessa’s hair and attempted to drag her
back inside. Scared, the young girl fought back
and ripped herself from his clutches, leaving him
holding clumps of her hair. With both girls out of
the car they ran for their lives, screaming for help.
Running ahead of Jessica, Vanessa will forever
remember the sound of her best friend’s pounding
footsteps behind her and her frantic screaming
as their attacker gave chase, closing in on them. WITNESS
Racing towards a nearby house, Vanessa realised VANESSA CONLAN
Jessica was gone. She would never see her best Living with her father in Fish Parade, Vanessa
friend again. was the victim’s best friend and the only
living witness besides the attacker to know
what happened the night Jessica was taken.

EVENT
26 OCTOBER 1997
Teenage girls Vanessa and Jessica leave the Amuse Me
arcade a little after midnight and begin to make their
way home. They approach a vehicle to ask a stranger
for a lift to a friend’s house. He agrees to take them.

EVENT
A BATHURST PREDATOR
On 25 October 1997 11-year-old Kayla Brein was
approached by a man on the main street of Bathurst.
Scared, she told her mother, who reported the incident to
the police when she heard Jessica had been snatched.

92
 RUN FOR YOUR LIFE

WITNESS
FAY CONNORS
Mrs Connors, who lived on Hereford Road, opened
her door to a frantic Vanessa, who was crying out
that her best friend had been abducted.

WITNESS
WILLIAM ROSS
The employee at the Amuse Me arcade
told police that a man who claimed to be
working at Oberon Timber Mill was eyeing
up Jessica while she was in the arcade and
asking questions about her.

WITNESS
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE
A woman reported seeing a car similar to
the one described by Vanessa. She had seen
it driving to a secluded area of Beaconsfield
Road, near the Fish River. The car remained
there for a considerable period of time.

CLUE
WHITE SEDAN
The vehicle in question was described as
a white four-door Holden Commodore or a
Holden Circa. Vanessa also described how there
were holes in the passenger’s seat footwell.

CLUE 3
BLOOD AND BLEACH
Eight months after Jessica went missing,
a bloody cloth, a bottle of bleach and some
underwear were found in an isolated spot in
the Jenolan State Forest only 75 kilometres
from Bathurst, roughly an hour’s drive away.

93
 MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCES

THE INVESTIGATION
A seriously inadequate police investigation let
Jessica’s abductor and killer avoid detection A few suspicious
items including a
With investigators gathered in Connors’ home, up in a wooded area outside of Bathurst. A blanket bloody blanket were
discovered in the forest
Vanessa told the Bathurst Police what had covered in blood, a bottle of bleach and some an hour’s drive away
happened that night. Almost immediately underwear were discovered in an isolated spot
Sergeant McFarland and Constable Rooney drove by a forestry worker, who took them to police.
Vanessa around Bathurst in an attempt to look Bathurst Police took the evidence but never
for a car matching the description she had given. tested it for DNA. It was eventually destroyed.
The search for the car was unsuccessful. Vanessa Jessica’s family were not even made aware of the
says police told her she was “downright lying”. discovered items until they had been destroyed
Police figured that a girl like Jessica, who had had and lost forever.
run-ins with the police before, dabbled in drugs In 2007, ten years after Jessica’s disappearance,
and hung around with a range of troubled youths, Strike Force Carica II was created, headed by
was likely to have just run away. It would take Detective Sergeant Peter Smith from the NSW
police several years before they changed their Homicide Squad. With a decade having passed
mind, despite Vanessa’s version of events never and still no word on the girl police had presumed
wavering or changing. was a runaway, Detective Sergeant Smith was
Within hours of learning of Jessica’s abduction, tasked with solving the cold case and finally
the owner of the Amuse Me arcade came forward interviewed dozens of witnesses. With the
to police. An employee, William Ross, had told passage of time, memories were hazy and details
her of a man at the arcade who had eyed up were inevitably forgotten.
the young girl before she disappeared. He had William Ross’s statement about the strange
described the man, who said he was working at figure who had been hanging around the
the Oberon Timber Mill, as being about 34 years arcade the night of the girls’ abduction seemed
old. He estimated that the Australian male was an important lead, and in 2011 investigators
roughly 1.7 metres tall, of medium build with a interviewed 400 men who worked at the mill the
beer belly and dark hair and was wearing jeans, stranger had described to Ross. The investigation

THE SUSPECTS
trainers and a long-sleeved buttoned flannelette singled out two particular men, Andrew McBride
shirt, with a set of keys hanging from his jeans. and Craig Robertson, as suspects. Both men had
Ross said that the man had asked him, “Who’s worked at Oberon Timber Mill at the time of
that? She looks like she’s out for a good time,” the abduction. McBride had worked there for 12 Why had police settled on
after he spotted the young girl dancing and months, but the day after Jessica was abducted McBride and Robertson as
having fun at the arcade. “That’s Jess,” Ross had he left town for no apparent reason. Roberston,
“persons of interest”?
replied. However, Ross’s statement was not taken who witnesses identified as having a white
until 2008. Holden Commodore fitting the description given According to the findings of Magistrate
Robert Fitzpatrick had returned from his by Vanessa, had rid himself of the potentially Sharon Freund, NSW’s deputy state coroner,
cousin’s wedding to his home in Eglinton the incriminating vehicle by the end of October 1997, Strike Force Carica II had identified that
night Jessica disappeared. He recalled hearing a citing mechanical problems. both suspects:
blood-curdling scream outside, where he spotted Both men had a history of predatory behaviour. 1. Were possibly in the Oberon/Bathurst
a white sedan car matching Vanessa’s description. The year of Jessica’s abduction, McBride struck region around the time of Jessica’s
Fitzpatrick told investigators that he had seen a up a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old girl, disappearance and had worked at the
man driving and a woman’s arm reach up from whose mother he had previously dated. McBride Oberon Timber Mill
behind his seat before being pushed down by was 11 years her senior. Smith said that during 2. Fit the general description given by the
the driver. Suspecting it to be a domestic dispute an interview with McBride he originally told various witnesses who described an
between two lovers, he kept his distance but them he had never been to Bathurst, but police ‘older man’ at Amuse Me arcade on 26
managed to move within 20 metres of the vehicle, obtained banking records that placed him in October 1997
which had stopped, before it drove off. Fitzpatrick the city a number of times in 1997. In 2014 3. Possibly left the Oberon region just after
told 60 Minutes that the road was the last one Detective Smith said McBride was the most likely Jessica’s disappearance
out of the town and led only to “darkness”. When person of interest. But according to the coroner’s 4. Possibly had access to a white Holden
he heard of the girl’s disappearance, he took report, which drew attention to the serious Commodore vehicle
the information he had to the police but was police inadequacies that had complicated the 5. Had a predilection for younger-looking
dismissed. Undeterred, he went back for a second investigation, “There is no direct evidence linking women (in the case of Mr Robertson) or
time, and police reluctantly took his statement. It either Mr McBride or Mr Robertson to Jessica’s teenage girls (in the case of Mr McBride)
was filed away for another nine years. disappearance. The converse is also true, there 6. Had a history of violence towards women
Witnesses were not the only thing police is also no evidence to eliminate them as persons 7. Cannot provide any clear evidence or
ignored after Jessica went missing. Eight months of interest.” The suspects deny the allegations alibi as to where they were the night that
later a potentially crucial piece of evidence turned against them or that they even knew Jessica. Jessica disappeared

94
 RUN FOR YOUR LIFE

In 2015 Detective Superintendent Michael

Willing of the State Command Homicide
Squad announced his belief that the young
victim had been murdered and that a large
sum should be offered for information
bringing Jessica’s attacker to justice

THE AFTERMATH
It has been two decades since Jessica vanished and the police still have no answers

“SO FAR THE REWARD MONEY HASN’T TEMPTED OUT

To this day the whereabouts of Jessica are still
unknown. It has been almost 25 long years since
Jessica went missing, and the person or people
responsible remain at large. If she were alive today
she would be a 38-year-old woman with a life
ANY ANSWERS, LEADING TO CALLS FOR THE REWARD TO
and potentially a family of her own. Instead the
hopes of a happy future for Jessica and her family BE MORE THAN QUADRUPLED TO AUS $500,000”
have been dashed. Despite an appearance on 60
Minutes in 2014, Vanessa has kept out of the media year later, NSW Government upped the reward to “will never give up that hope,” adding that she
and is still haunted by that night two decades ago. $1,000,000, with Detective Superintendent Scott would like to see “Jessica brought home so she
To this day she questions why Jessica was taken Cook stating: “We hope by refreshing the case can be buried with dignity and as a family we can
but she got away. in people’s memories – and with this significant get some type of closure.”
Does someone out there know what happened increase in the reward – we get that missing Whether Ricki will ever get to bury her child
to the sweet young girl snatched from the streets piece of the puzzle; the information that leads to or will spend the rest of her life wondering
of Bathurst? Police believe it more than likely, an arrest.” So far the reward hasn’t tempted out where Jessica’s final resting place is remains to
and in late 2014 – six months after the coroner’s any answers. Police are silent about what their be seen. Recently the police have made some
court passed its report on the missing teenage next steps are. Jessica’s mother, who commented vital steps in trying to rectify their mistakes, in
© Adam Markiewicz; Alamy; Thinkstock

girl – New South Wales Police offered a reward of to the media that she felt let down, hurt and light of what they have learnt from the previous
$100,000, believing it may flush the perpetrator angry because of the police’s initial investigation, decades, it seems the case is steadily gaining more
out of the shadows and into the limelight. It was remains an avid commentator to the press on her recognition. For now the perpetrator is still out
a bitter pill for Jessica’s family to swallow, who daughter’s disappearance. Speaking on the 20th there – potentially someone else still knows what
felt that while the reward was generous, it should anniversary of her daughter’s abduction, Ricki told happened to Jessica.
have been a larger sum, as was suggested by the Western Advocate newspaper, “We, as Jessica’s Anyone with information that may help
coroner Sharon Freund in the 2014 report. Freund family, really need people to come forward and investigators is encouraged to contact Crime
also advised that the case be sent back to the help the police with their investigations, because Stoppers by calling 1800 333 000, or via the
NSW Homicide Squad for further investigation. A that’s all we have.” But for now Ricki says that she website at nsw.crimestoppers.com.au.

95
 MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCES

THE DISAPPEARANCE OF
ANDREW GOSDEN
Over a decade ago a 14-year-old Doncaster boy skipped school and
bought a one-way ticket to London. What happened next remains a
mystery that has haunted his family and police ever since
WRITTEN BY JAMES MCMAHON

96
THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ANDREW GOSDEN

97
 MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCES

At Doncaster station, Andrew was

ted
offered a return ticket, but he insis
he only needed it one-way

T
hough the cases of Madeleine McCann record. Andrew was also part
and Ben Needham are significantly higher of a government programme
profile, few missing children cases have entitled ‘Young, Gifted and
perplexed and frustrated quite like that of Talented’, designed to stretch
Andrew Gosden. On the morning of Friday the top five per cent of pupils. Andrew appeared to have a normal, happy
childhood and had a good relationship with
14 September 2007, just eight days into the new Big things were projected for his family, especially his sister, which makes
school term, Andrew, an academically gifted boy Andrew in his coming GCSEs, his disappearance even more perplexing
from Doncaster, South Yorkshire, got up, put on his with As across the board
school uniform, walked to his local park, waited expected. In mathematics he was especially talented Andrew loved reading, his favourites including
for his family to leave the house, then returned to – some described him as “brilliant”, though he The Lord Of The Rings and The Hitchhiker’s Guide
their terraced home. There he got changed out of enjoyed sciences, history and philosophy too. To The Galaxy. Upon his vanishing, the Gosdens
his school clothes, then went and bought a one-way He appeared to have a happy home life in Balby, described their son as a “home bird”. He wasn’t the
ticket to London, never to be seen again. a suburb of Doncaster that was once used as the type to leave without saying where he was going.
“The one thing none of us can imagine is that he locale for the outdoor scenes in the BBC comedy “He’d leave a note if he went to the corner shop,” his
would be cruel enough to put us through this for so Open All Hours. Andrew was reportedly close to dad said. Andrew collected rocks and gems, which
long”, said his father, Kevin Gosden, speaking to Real older sister Charlotte, and they shared a similar taste he displayed in his bedroom. He wore prescription
Crime. “We can imagine that he is dead, somehow in music and fashion, while he’d sometimes attend glasses. And – a detail that torments anyone looking
restricted or that the time elapsed simply makes it gigs with father Kevin and mother Glenys. A year for answers as to where Andrew went to – one of
too hard to get in touch. But all we want to know is before his disappearance, he’d attended a Muse his favourite TV shows was The Fall And Rise Of
he is alive and well. Where to go from there would concert at Sheffield Arena with his dad. It was his Reginald Perrin, in which the titular character, played
be his choice, but he didn’t grow up thinking he was first big concert. Andrew loved music, especially of by the late Leonard Rossiter, fakes his death and
unloved or uncared for, and he should remember the heavier variety. Photos of him wearing T-shirts starts a new life.
that always. by the Finnish band HIM and the UK’s Funeral For A “The speculation drives us mad,” continues
“I remember the evening before he vanished, Friend circulated in the wake of his disappearance. Kevin. “However, if anyone out there has a theory
we were doing the dishes and I gave him a quick When he left that fateful day, he did so wearing a that has not been through our heads in the last
hug and said, ‘Love you’. That is one of the last Slipknot T-shirt. decade, feel free to share it. Yes, we have considered
memories he will have as part of our family, and we There were no reports of bullying or depression, mental illness, joining a cult, teenage confusion
would love to be able to repeat that simple everyday no known digital communication with anyone about sexual identity, bullying at school, wanting to
hug more than anything.” untoward – his games consoles had no internet get to a gig, being groomed, kidnapped, trafficked
connectivity, while any computers he used at and murdered. At the end of the day, we have not
BRILLIANT STUDENT school or at the local library were taken away and one piece of evidence for any possible theory. This
Born on 10 July 1993, Andrew was a student at examined by police. The family had only owned a is profoundly frustrating as it means we have no
the McAuley Catholic High School. Prior to his computer for a matter of weeks, his sister getting clues we can follow. What made him go to London
disappearance, he had a 100 per cent attendance one for the first time. that day is completely beyond any of us.”

98
 THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ANDREW GOSDEN

The Gosdens together on holiday. Kevin

and Glenys continue to live in their Balby
home. “He would know where to find us if
he wanted to,” said Kevin

THE MORNING OF
The Gosdens remember their son being grumpy “WE HAVE NO CLUES WE CAN FOLLOW. WHAT
and slow to rise on the morning of 14 September:
nothing unusual there, Andrew was, after all, a MADE HIM GO TO LONDON THAT DAY IS
teenage boy. But what was to follow was completely
out of character. Andrew left the house at 8.05am,
presumably to catch his bus to school, though
COMPLETELY BEYOND ANY OF US”
upon leaving he took a diversion to the local park.
There he waited until the rest of the household had
left for the day. Then he came home for the very
last time, an act captured on a neighbour’s CCTV
system. He got changed, draped his tie and blazer
over the back of his bedroom chair. He put his shirt
and trousers in the washing machine. Then he
changed into his Slipknot T-shirt, his black jeans,
trainers, picked up his PSP handheld console (but
no charger for it, strangely), his wallet and keys,
slung his canvas satchel over his shoulder – made
by his sister and adorned with sew-on patches of all
his favourite bands – and then walked to Doncaster
railway station, stopping only to draw £200 out of
his savings along the way. Confusingly, he had left
his £100 birthday money in his bedroom. He took
no sweatshirt or coat. He didn’t leave a note or any
details as to his plans for the day.
At the station, Andrew bought a one-way train
ticket to London. The teller suggested he buy a
return for a marginally more expensive fee. Andrew
didn’t take her up on the offer. “She remembered
him because he seemed too tiny to be travelling to
London on his own,” Andrew’s mother Glenys told There were several reported
The Guardian a year after his disappearance. Her sightings of Andrew in
son was an especially young-looking 1.6 metres at London, most notably at a
Pizza Hut in Oxford Street
and sleeping rough
in a park near Southwark

99
 MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCES

the time. “She told him it only cost 50p or £1 more

for a return,” said Glenys, “but he said he wanted a
one-way ticket.” Then Andrew boarded the 9.35am
train to King’s Cross station. On the train another
passenger, who sat across from Andrew until
departing at Peterborough, recalled the boy alone,
sitting quietly, engrossed in the game he was playing
on his PSP.
Back in Doncaster’s McAuley Catholic High
School, staff, concerned by the esteemed pupil’s
absence, tried to contact Andrew’s parents, though a
misdial meant they left a message on an answering
machine that didn’t belong to the Gosdens. By
11.20am Andrew had arrived in London, and by
11.25am he was spotted leaving the station on CCTV,
stills of which would later be released by the police.
It remains the last confirmed sighting of him.

PANIC STATIONS
The Gosdens sat down for dinner on the evening of
14 September, thinking their son was in the house,
either in the converted cellar playing videogames
or doing homework in his bedroom. Upon realising
he wasn’t, at around 7pm, they began calling friends Andrew’s bedroom, two years after his
disappearance. Previously the walls were
and neighbours, thinking perhaps Andrew had lost
covered in band posters, but they were
track of time. They then discovered his absence taken by the police to look for fingerprints
from school and called the police. Kevin and
Charlotte decided to retrace Andrew’s usual journey Yet it took a few days for the investigation to There was a later sighting that day that the
to his place of study, hoping to find some evidence confirm Andrew had travelled to London, and Gosdens believe might be credible, in the Oxford
of where Andrew had gone. They then thought searches then began to be conducted in the Street branch of Pizza Hut. There was another
that if Andrew had travelled anywhere, it would be Chislehurst and Sidcup areas; the former was home in Covent Garden. Someone said they had seen
London, since the family had roots in the capital to his aunt, the latter his uncle and grandparents. Andrew sleeping in a park in Southwark, while
and Andrew had particularly enjoyed visits there. Clutching at straws as to where their son had another said they’d seen him getting off a train in
Maybe he’d taken off to do something he’d apologise disappeared to, the Gosdens began flyering Waterloo five days after his disappearance, on 19
for later, thought Kevin. Maybe he’d just arrive on a museums and exhibitions they thought might be of September. None have been confirmed. It was as
relative’s doorstep. interest to Andrew. though he’d vanished into thin air.

to London
One theory of why Andrew went
playing
was to attend a concert. SikTh were

ALIVE AND LIVING IN

went
in the O2 Arena the day Andrew
nation?
missing. Was that his intended desti

SHREWBURY?
One of the strangest details regarding the case was that in
November 2008, just over a year after Andrew had gone
missing, an unknown man visited Leominster police station in
Herefordshire, West Midlands, and asked to speak to a police
officer, using the intercom to do so. It was the evening and the
reception wasn’t staffed at that time. The man, who refused to
share his identity, said he had information about Andrew. By the
time an officer had arrived to take details, the man had departed.
Leominster police station is located on a business park, it isn’t
a location you pass by without intending to visit it. West Mercia
Police appealed for the man to come forward again, but there
was no further contact. That is, until Andrew’s case was featured
on the BBC’s The One Show in December, when a man purporting
to be the person who’d approached the police in Leominster the
previous month got in touch with police. In doing so, he gave
details concerning a possible sighting on Andrew in Shrewsbury,
in November 2008.

100
 THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ANDREW GOSDEN

TRACING ANDREW’S
LAST STEPS
Everywhere we know the schoolboy
trod before the trail went cold
EVENT
PURCHASING A TICKET
Andrew buys a single train ticket to
London King’s Cross. The clerk

EVENT offers him the choice of buying a

return ticket, but he sticks with
THE PARK the single ticket and boards
Shortly after leaving his house at the 9.35am train.
8.05am, Andrew takes the short
walk to Westfield Park in Balby, not
far from his house. There he waits
until the rest of his family have left
for the day, before returning home.

WITNESS
ANDREW GOSDEN
Andrew went missing on 14 September.
He was wearing a T-shirt sporting
the name of the metal band
Slipknot on it, black jeans,
trainers, and had a
homemade canvas
bag covered in band
patches slung over
his shoulder.
WITNESS
THE LAST IMAGE
At 11.25am Andrew is caught on CCTV leaving
King’s Cross station. This is the last confirmed
sighting of Andrew. Where did he go next?

WITNESS
CCTV EVENT
A neighbour’s CCTV camera
captures footage of Andrew LONDON ARRIVAL
coming back home. He gets Andrew arrives in London at
changed out of his school clothes 11.20am. During the
and sets off to the train station, a subsequent investigation,
distance of four kilometres. a witness later reported
him being on his own
and having spent the
journey contentedly
playing on his portable
PlayStation console.

WITNESS
WAS IT ANDREW?
Andrew is reportedly seen in a Pizza Hut on 523 Oxford
Street. This is an unconfirmed sighting, but is said to be the
most credible by the Gosden family.

101
 MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCES

THE INVESTIGATION
Did the police waste valuable time
looking in all the wrong areas?
Andrew’s family have long been critical of how
the investigation played out in the days following
their son’s disappearance. Initially, the police
focused their investigation on Andrew’s family
and the supposed reasons for him leaving, even
before they’d reviewed the CCTV footage at King’s
Cross. This was despite eyewitnesses stating that
they had seen Andrew boarding the train. Kevin
has frequently claimed that CCTV footage from
buses and the adjacent tube station weren’t even
requested by the authorities. Consequently,
there remains a gulf of distrust between the
family and police, with Kevin frequently KEVIN GOSDEN ON Understandably, it’s not easy for the Gosdens to
completely forgive and forget. “It would be fair to

LEAVING HOME
describing the investigation as, “too slow, too say that our relationship with the police will always
chaotic and disorganised”. be an uneasy one involving very negative feelings,
“We have had some excellent police officers but we try to be reasonable our end. Let’s just say
work with us over the years,” said Kevin, “Anyone thinking of disappearing, I would say that that the reputation for endemic problems within
“some of I whom I will always remember with you are not alone: I think perhaps most people at South Yorkshire Police that has bore the likes of
gratitude. However, things went badly wrong some point have just thought to themselves they Hillsborough, the Rotherham Child Abuse scandal,
with some officers in the initial stages, largely could just chuck everything in and disappear Cliff Richard and the like, is slowly changing, but in
as they made assumptions that we had abused to start over. It is a more common thought our experience is well deserved.”
Andrew. This meant vital CCTV footage from the perhaps than we acknowledge. The facts are, if Like any case as puzzling as Andrew’s, an online
day was never requested. We have, over time, you’re under 18 and you go missing, you have community has risen trying to ‘solve’ the mystery.
submitted around 100 complaints to the police. a 45 per cent chance of being abused in some Yet with few facts to draw upon, much is mere
Some have been dealt with, and systems have way, whether verbally, physically, sexually, or via speculation. One idea was that Andrew, the rock
been put into place to prevent others having to means like drugs. A smaller percentage of those music fan, had travelled to London to attend a
face what we have. For example, their computer will also find themselves cold, hungry, lonely, concert that evening. The Gosdens subsequently
system at the time has since been declared unfit without a place to sleep and extremely frightened scanned London gig listings in the back of music
for purpose and has now been replaced with and vulnerable. Another percentage will find magazines, looking for performances that might be
something far more helpful for police officers. themselves forced into prostitution and the like. relevant to Andrew’s interests. 30 Seconds To Mars
“However, some complaints have never been If you are in a tough situation, no one is going to were playing that night, as were the thrash metal
addressed at all,” continued Kevin. “Like the failure judge you for that. We all make bad calls at times. band Send More Paramedics. The strongest theory
to retrieve CCTV. While it is too late to undo it, The number for Missing People is 116000 and is was that maybe Andrew had attended a concert by
some apology would be helpful for us as a family available 24/7, or use the text service or online the band SikTh at the O2 Academy in Islington. On
and again, some assurance that this will be more chat service. They’re free and they can help.” the night Andrew arrived in London, SikTh were
intelligently handled in future cases seems essential. playing what was billed as their last show with
There’s also some complaints that are simply singers Mikee Goodman and Justin Hill – an historic
inconclusive, in the sense that no one can prove crowds. It required a police officer from Doncaster show, and perhaps reason to travel some distance.
either way who said what. But fair enough. I know to travel to London to study the footage before But there’s no evidence that Andrew was even a fan.
what we think.” Andrew was spotted, showing him leaving King’s There was a similar theory that Andrew
It was the Gosdens who discovered the Cross station. Kevin is also critical of the time it took had travelled to London to attend a YouTuber
neighbour’s CCTV footage, which was vital in for police to follow up the alleged sightings in the convention. A man who’d recorded footage of the
helping piece together Andrew’s movements while Oxford Street branch of Pizza Hut, as well as the one event contacted the Gosdens suggesting Andrew
he was still in Balby. It was also they who spoke in Covent Garden. Allegedly it took police six weeks was in the video. Kevin doesn’t believe the boy is his
to the rail employee who sold Andrew the train to speak to the woman who’d reported the latter. son: he has glasses, ‘emo’ hair, but is just not quite a
ticket, as well as the passenger who sat opposite “At the moment we have an excellent officer who fit for Andrew. And again, there’s no firm knowledge
him on the train. The CCTV footage at King’s Cross heads up anything to do with Andrew’s case,” Kevin that Andrew was a fan of any YouTubers.
wasn’t located until 27 days after Andrew had gone told Real Crime in 2018. “He took over a few months Frustrated by the lack of progress, in May 2011
missing, meaning that by the time it was seen, CCTV back and realised when reviewing the records that the Gosdens paid the company Liquavision to
in surrounding transport links like the London no one had communicated with us for a number of conduct a sonar search of the River Thames, using
Underground had already been wiped. years. If I had potential information I did not know similar technology as that used to locate items at
The BBC reported that the problem lay with where to send it, so the Missing People charity did sea. The search took place between the Thames
South Yorkshire Police asking the British Transport it for us and we never heard any outcome. We have Barrier and Tower Bridge, and unveiled a sunken
Police to search the CCTV footage within two days met, been through things, we are all on the same boat, a car, and even an unidentified corpse,
of Andrew going missing, but the British Transport page and he is a really genuine, decent, helpful and rumoured to have its feet encased in concrete, but
Police were unable to pick Andrew out from the efficient guy. We are really grateful to have him.” no sign of Andrew.

102
 THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ANDREW GOSDEN

A search of the Th
ames River
using sonar uncov
ered an
abandoned car and
a corpse with
its feet trapped in
concrete, but
no trace of Andrew

These recent age-processed

images of Andrew give a clear
idea of how he might look toda
y

THE AFTERMATH
How can you grieve without a body? And how
can you ever give up hope without definite answers?

The face of the Missing People charity’s ‘Find Every bin lorries. A family friend offered up their Porsche locks’ so, hey, in the hope that he’s still alive and
Child’ campaign, Andrew’s face could be seen as a reward for information that would relate to well somewhere, we’re still here.” The family have
on billboards across the UK. In this media, much Andrew’s location. The Gosdens appeared on spent the years since Andrew went missing topping
attention is paid to his right ear, which features TV shows Panorama and Lorraine to appeal to up his bank account with regular sums of money.
a unique double ridge on the side. For reasons anyone who might know anything, upping their There have been no withdrawals.
unknown, this was a detail police originally asked efforts in 2017, the tenth anniversary of Andrew’s “If Andrew is alive,” Kevin said, “we want people
the family to withhold from the public. disappearance. Cruelly, they’ve had to endure to be looking for a guy… who speaks quickly and
Without a body, Andrew’s father Kevin still people contacting them pretending to be their quietly, maybe with a trace of a Yorkshire accent
maintains hope he will one day see his son alive, missing son. South Yorkshire Police also made a still. He will need strong prescription glasses or
despite a police forensic psychology report that plea for new information. contacts. He will have an unusual shape to his right
suggests Andrew has long passed. Glenys continues Over the years, the Gosdens have continued ear and he will still be deaf in his left ear, meaning
to work in speech therapy. Charlotte, also a gifted to work the music theory, with friends and family that you could just notice if he does not turn to
student at McAuley, gained 11 GCSEs the year of her handing out in the region of 10,000 flyers at a Muse sound correctly. Andrew can hear a pin drop in his
brother’s disappearance, nine of them A*. Two years gig in October of 2009, at the same Sheffield Arena right ear, but he does not do stereo. It is not likely
later, she got five As at A-Level, winning a place to venue they’d all seen the band together at two years that he would be very tall, five feet eight or nine
read philosophy, politics and economics at Balliol prior. They did the same a few days later, as Muse inches (1.73-1.75 metres)… He probably still walks
© 2018 Google; Ed Crooks; Getty Images; Stephen McKay; Topfoto
College, Oxford. Understandably overwhelmed by performed at London’s O2 Arena. Maybe Andrew quickly with long strides. Those are things someone
the events of the years preceding, she stopped her had gone to check out his old favourites? Muse could pick up on now. He could have altered his
studies after the first week of her second term. She even offered free tickets if Andrew would reveal appearance significantly, for example, his hair, facial
now works in banking and is married. Charlotte told himself. The Gosdens did similarly at the Whitby hair, dress sense, swapping glasses for contacts, but
The Times in 2012 about how, on the morning of Goth Festival that same year. those sorts of details… could give him away.”
Andrew’s disappearance, she’d gone into his room, it It was also in 2009 that the Gosdens made the If anyone has seen Andrew, they can
being the only room in the house with a full-length agonising decision to largely redecorate Andrew’s contact Missing People anonymously by calling
mirror. “He was lying in, as normal, so I woke him,” room, though the gem and rock collection remain. or texting 116 000 or by emailing the charity at
she recalled. “You always wish, when you look “There’s a voice in you that says, ‘Just get out, be [email protected]. The charity’s
back, that you could have done or said something somewhere different, and then it won’t feel so helpline also offers help and support to anyone
different. But you know it’s too late.” imminent’,” Kevin told the BBC when asked if the affected by the issue of missing and is free to
Determined to find answers, the Gosdens family had ever considered leaving the Balby house contact and open 24 hours a day thanks to
have spent year upon year searching the capital. they once shared with their son. “But there’s also a support from players of People’s Postcode Lottery.
Andrew’s face appeared on milk cartons sold by little voice in my head that says, ‘He went off with You can also pass sightings information via the
the supermarket chain Iceland and on the side of your front door key and we haven’t changed the website at www.missingpeople.org.uk/sightings.

103
 UNRESOLVED MYSTERIES

THE WEIRD
& WACKY 112 REALLY
ARE WE
ALONE?
118 THE BIGGEST ART
THEFT IN HISTORY
Getty Images

104
 THE WEIRD & WACKY

106 SOMETHING’S AFOOT

IN THE SALISH SEA “MANY OF THE SALISH SEA FEET
HAVEN’T BEEN CONCLUSIVELY
MATCHED TO ANYONE”

Getty Images
122 SECRET
SIGNALS

Getty Images

105
 THE WEIRD & WACKY

SOMETHING’S AFOOT
IN THE SALISH SEA
Since 2007, 21 individual human feet have washed up along a stretch
of the northwest US and Canadian coasts, prompting rumours of serial
killers, the paranormal, and spooky coincidence
WRITTEN BY BEN BIGGS

T
he first was discovered in summer 2007, sock containing what looked like an innocuous, end. Equally grim discoveries of feet followed and
in similar circumstances to the rest: a wrinkly stump. Once she got past her cognitive seemed to increase in frequency so that three
12-year-old girl from nearby Washington dissonance she might have felt repulsed and years later, rumour and speculation was churning.
State was visiting the marine provincial unnerved, but it would have been hard for anyone People saw a pattern and started to fill in any
park of Jedediah Island, when she found a even of a nervous disposition to muster up horror blanks they saw with their own dubious theories.
size 12 (US) right-footed Adidas Campus trainer. from a nub of bone poking out of sock, found on Foot number ten was discovered on 5
Inside the trainer was a sock bulked out with the beach on a glorious summer’s day. December 2010, on a long, sandy flat in Tacoma,
something, rather like the paper wadding inside The next foot was found just five days after Washington State. It was inside a size 6 boys
a new shoe. She shook it out. Inside the sock was the first, another size 12 inside a white Reebok hiking boot that could have fitted a small adult.
a human foot, thoroughly decomposed and long trainer. This time it was washed up on Gabriola But the possibility that it could have come from
since disarticulated at the ankle. If this was a Island, which is the other side of the strait. Like a child was a more troubling prospect for the
work of fiction then the girl would have gagged the first, it was completely decayed and otherwise local community. Foot number 11 was the most
at the sickly odour and then clasped her hand unremarkable. News of this discovery failed to gruesome in this series: the size 9 running shoe
over her mouth, dropping the shoe in a moment ripple beyond local waters, as did the next, and and foot was still attached to a limb right up
of traumatic realisation. But time and tide had the next after that. Find number five garnered to the knee. Nothing but a blackened tibia and
stripped this appendage of most of its flesh and some international attention, but that was not the fibula stuck out of a dirty grey sock in the mouth
the last vestiges of its humanity. It won’t have
smelled any worse than a dead crab or small
From high above, the twist
sea creature. It was black and shrivelled, scraps of the inlet and dozens of
of what looked like shoe leather clung to it. It islands that make up the
didn’t look very much like anything you’d expect Salish Sea can be seen easily
to see inside a sock, so her first reaction would
as likely have been confusion as anything else.
Discovering a single shoe on a beach is common
enough, and no-one anticipates finding the former
owner’s foot inside. To the girl this shoe had a

“INSIDE THE SOCK WAS A

HUMAN FOOT, THOROUGHLY
DECOMPOSED AND LONG
SINCE DISARTICULATED AT
THE ANKLE”
NASA

106
SOMETHING’S AFOOT IN THE SALISH SEA

The shores of the Salish

Sea aren’t a classic seaside
scene: wild weather can turn
on hikers and explorers

Getty Images

107
 THE WEIRD & WACKY

FOOTLOOSE
How animals and the elements separate a foot
from the body, bringing it to shore

Kym Winters
UNLUCKY FEW
Many of the feet are attributable to victims
of suicide, drowning, or accident. Despite
using DNA samples and other modern
forensic techniques, there are few of these
feet that can’t be accounted for.

JEDEDIAH ISLAND
AUGUST 2007
WEST VANCOUVER
SEPTEMBER 2018

VANCOUVER
JANUARY 2012 SASAMAT LAKE
NOVEMBER 2011
WESTHAM RICHMOND

Kym Winters
GABRIOLA ISLAND ISLAND NOVEMBER 2008,
AUGUST 2007, MAY 2018 OCTOBER 2009
JUNE 2008
VALDES ISLAND KIRKLAND
FEBRUARY 2008 ISLAND
MAY 2008
BREAKING DOWN
The elements and animals in the sea make
short work of the victim’s body, which
PORT RENFREW decomposes rapidly. Crabs and lobsters
FEBRUARY 2016 pick away at the softer parts of the cadaver,
VANCOUVER ISLAND eventually pinching apart the sinew and
FEBRUARY 2016, DECEMBER 2017 dismembering limbs.

WHIDBEY ISLAND
AUGUST 2010
CANADA PYSHT
AUGUST 2008
JETTY ISLAND
JANUARY 2019

SEATTLE
USA
Kym Winters

DECEMBER 2011, MAY 2014

WASHED UP
Feet don’t usually float but some trainers
do. Eventually the Salish Sea feet would
TACOMA have bobbed to the surface of the sea
DECEMBER 2010 inside the trainer and found their way on a
Getty Images current to the shore.

108
 SOMETHING’S AFOOT IN THE SALISH SEA

of the shoe, but that was enough for it to be is disarticulated, then it can be carried by the tide. drug cartel executions and paranormal activity.
recognisable for what it was at first sight. Fished The rest of the body would also be disarticulated Some official statements have appeared to support
out of a marina in False Creek, Vancouver, it set by animal scavenging or water action but would the more outlandish of these theories: after the
the tongues of the city’s maritime community not refloat once skeletonised. Notice that no feet first two finds in 2007, Corporal Garry Cox of the
wagging. This is when the stories and rumours alone have been washed up – it is the running Oceanside Royal Canadian Mounted Police told
of the Salish Sea feet began to pick up serious shoes that are being washed up – some the Vancouver Sun: “Two being found in such a
traction as news outlets across the ocean, just happen to have remains inside
respectable and otherwise, began to report on the them. Running shoes wash up all the
apparently strange frequency with which the feet time. The first foot was found by a
were being found. Strange to almost everyone child in a running shoe on a beach in
except the scientists and investigators who know an area where there were several other A photo of the SS
Valencia taken six years

ns
the area. running shoes as well – just no feet –

via Wiki Commo

before its fatal grounding
Dr Gail Anderson is a forensic entomologist and that probably washed from a beach or that saw over 130 killed
associate director at the School of Criminology fell off a boat.”

Domain
at Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, in British You don’t have to dig very deep
Columbia. Her research includes studying the to find mundane and conclusive

shington, Public
decomposition of pig carcasses, which are reasons for the suspicious quantity
analogous to a human corpse, at various depths of feet that have washed ashore in

University of Wa
in one of the Salish Sea’s many inlets. It gives this area over the years. Police have
her rare expert insight in the feet phenomenon. linked many of the disembodied
She’s dismissive of the many chilling theories feet to suicides or “death by
surrounding the fact the area seems to attract a misadventure”. Forensics have
disproportionate number of disarticulated feet been able to match DNA profiles to other human
to its shores, and gives a simple explanation for
it: “Once the soft tissue is removed, then there is
remains that have a positive identification, or have
narrowed the trainer brand and model down with PARANORMAL
ACTIVITY
very little holding the foot on: think of an X-ray such precision that it unerringly points to one
of an ankle. The running shoe holds all the small particular missing person.
bones in the shoe and is a flotation device. Soft The public didn’t let science and reason get in
tissue is most likely eaten by arthropods – crabs, the way of a good story, however. Many of the Ghost stories surround the
shrimp, amphipods, etc. The Salish Sea is in Salish Sea feet haven’t been conclusively matched Salish Feet, whether they’ve been
between the mainland and a very large island so to anyone, missing or otherwise. So enough doubt identified or not
this no doubt affects tidal patterns. Running shoes has been left in official police reports and expert
have lots of air in them and float. So once the foot opinion to give rise to theories of serial killers, For those more inclined to flight of fancy, the Salish
Sea feet and the places where they’ve been found
come with their own crop of spooky rumours,
A few of the Southern Gulf from unexplained phenomena to full-on ghost
Islands in British Columbia, stories. Reports of eerie mists rising off the beach
wild territory in the region
at night and cold spots on the exact places where
the feet were found have taken root in the public
consciousness. This supposed paranormal activity
has been conflated with native legends and more
recent historical events, such as that of the SS
Valencia, a steam ship that hit rocks three miles
from Pachena Point at the mouth of the Juan de
Fuca Strait, on 22 January 1906. It took two days
for rough seas to rip the stricken ship apart, during
which time dozens of passengers drowned. One
survivor described a horrifying scene in which
bare-footed women in night dresses clung to their
children on the deck. A phantom ship has been seen
by sailors in the area in the century since, and one
of the missing life rafts was supposed to have been
found drifting and unscathed, 26 years after the SS
Valencia sunk, in 1933.

“ENOUGH DOUBT EXISTS

Creative Commons, Wikipedia; Juraj Tatár

TO GIVE RISE TO THEORIES

OF SERIAL KILLERS AND
CARTEL EXECUTIONS”
109
 THE WEIRD & WACKY

short period of time is quite suspicious. Finding

one foot is like a million to one odds, but to find Strong currents and
two is crazy.” cold water can make the
Salish Sea a dangerous
Of the 21 individual feet found on the shore place to swim
or in the water in the last 14 years, less than half
have been identified and none of these came from
people who died in suspicious circumstances.
That still leaves a dozen or so feet that can’t be
traced to an individual, which means murder can’t
be ruled out by the police in any of these cases.
One of the more fanciful theories is of a Zodiac-
style West Coast serial killer, who cuts the feet off
their victims and drops them in the water, leaving
them to be found on beaches as a sickening
calling card.
The geography and history of the region
around the Salish Sea also plays a role in the
generation of the mythos. The indigenous Coast
Salish population have inhabited the area for
thousands of years, long before the Lewis and
Clark Expedition found its way over the Rocky
Mountains to this side of the continent. So the
region is steeped in legends of monsters and the
supernatural. Outside the populous port cities of
Vancouver and Seattle, there are thousands of
miles of temperate coastline that have their own
rugged beauty – but they’re no Californian beach
dream. On a backdrop of breathtaking mountain
ranges, the mainland shores and many islands can
be treacherous to reach by foot, where crumbling
cliffs and wicked rip tides can turn against an
intrepid hiker in an instant. Temperature is mild
in the summer, plunging to a little above freezing
in the winter. This wild country lures you in with
the promise of unparalleled natural beauty, but
can easily take ill-prepared hikers and swimmers
unawares. It’s no wonder that people prefer to
believe that something far more sinister than
nature is at work here.
The fact that more feet have been found in the
last decade than ever before can be explained
in part by the widespread reporting of the
phenomenon. In a vicious cycle, the more feet that
are found, the more media attention it receives,
and the more inclined some beachcombers will
be to seek out old trainers washed ashore. Dr
Anderson says that disarticulated feet in shoes can
be found on shorelines around the world and that
it’s common in New Zealand, for example. “When
it first hit headlines it was something like two or
three feet that had washed up that were all male…
everyone remembers those first media releases
that made it all sound so spooky. People still say
to me, ‘but weren’t they, like, all left feet?’ No – but
that is what sticks in people’s minds.”
Fuelled over the years by further finds and
snowballing fringe theories, the Salish Sea feet
story has taken on a familiar kind of cult status
that could be compared to the UFO conspiracy
theories around Area 51. Maybe the real mystery
in the Salish Sea feet phenomenon isn’t in the
grisly secrets this feral stretch of the northeast
Pacific occasionally deposits on its shores, but why
it’s subject to such mythologising.

110
SOMETHING’S AFOOT IN THE SALISH SEA

Getty Images

111
 THE WEIRD & WACKY

ARE WE REALLY
ALONE? Have governments across the globe covered up proof
of alien life? From ancient carvings to abductions,
the truth really could be out there…
WRITTEN BY CHARLES GINGER

T
he meaning and mystery surrounding first director of the CIA, Vice Admiral Roscoe grounds it had not produced sufficient proof of
the existence of human life has occupied H Hillenkoetter, astronauts Edgar Mitchell and the existence of UFOs.
the greatest minds since the dawning of Gordon Cooper, and Paul Hellyer, the former Project Sign was followed by two further
philosophy in Ancient Greece. Why are Canadian defence minister. The claims of such investigations (Grudge and Blue Book, the latter
we here? What is the point of life? How prestigious figures that both the US and British being the longest-running official UFO inquiry),
did it even come to be? These fundamental authorities have actively sought to suppress which were led by Captain Edward Ruppelt,
questions are difficult enough to grapple with, extraterrestrial information begs the question of who later wrote that Project Sign had produced
but what about when they are applied beyond the what exactly they are trying to hide. an “estimate of the situation” that supported
boundaries of our planet? The answer is a field At the height of the Cold War between 1947 the idea of UFOs being responsible for the
of endless exploration and countless possibilities and 1969 over 12,000 sightings of UFOs were strange apparitions regularly seen soaring
centred around arguably the most important reported to the United States Air Force. These through the skies above America. Interestingly,
quandary of all: are we alone? Your own answer to included strange saucers and mysterious lights. evidence that supports Ruppelt’s argument has
this question may well be changed by what you Coupled with the reports of a civilian pilot by the never been forthcoming.
are about to read. name of Kenneth Arnold, who in 1947 claimed The American government is not the only one
that he had seen nine bluish-white objects to have conducted its own alien investigation. In
TAKE US TO YOUR LEADER moving in a V formation at great speed over the 1950s Britain’s Ministry of Defence undertook
It is no secret that online conspiracy theories Mount Rainier in Washington, this led to the birth a UFO project of its own, a study commissioned
are flourishing like never before, and yet while of Project Sign in 1948, an official government by the Ministry of Defence’s chief scientific
many of them can be dismissed as ridiculous, the investigation into UFO sightings. While those adviser and radar scientist Sir Henry Tizard. He
potential involvement of various governments in tasked with carrying out the inquiry reasoned was insistent that sightings of UFOs should not be
the cover-up of extraterrestrial encounters is not that most of the UFOs were probably Soviet dismissed without proper scientific study. In time
an argument easily waved away. aircraft, they had to concede that the exact origins this gave birth to the aptly nicknamed Flying
Those who argue that numerous governments of the ghostly silhouettes being spotted across Saucer Working Party, a group of intelligence
are guilty of suppressing evidence of alien America remained a mystery. Even so, this was experts charged with delving into the truth
visitations include the former chairman of the apparently enough justification for General Hoyt behind bizarre phenomena in Britain. In June 1951
NATO Military Committee and chief of Britain’s Vandenberg, then chief of staff of the US Air it published a report stating that every incident
Defence Staff Admiral Lord Hill-Norton, the Force, to order the closure of the project on the the group had examined could be explained by
perfectly normal causes ranging from mistaking a
bird for something else or a straight-up hoax.
“DURING THE COLD WAR OVER 12,000 SIGHTINGS OF A HOME FROM HOME?
UFOS WERE REPORTED TO THE US AIR FORCE” Despite the historic efforts of the US government
to uncover the truth about alien life, and its

112
 ARE WE REALLY ALONE?

subsequent assurances that UFOs can be plain 30 miles north of the town. While the US
explained away, the presence of a certain air base Air Force was quick to dispel talk of an alien
in the middle of the Nevada Desert continues to arrival by insisting the tangled metal came from
undermine the official account: Area 51. a downed weather balloon, press interest in the
The name Area 51 is said to come from its recovered debris continued to fuel local interest.
map designation on a grid system once used by However, it wasn’t until the late 1970s that a
Pilots EJ Smith, Kenneth the now-defunct Atomic Energy Commission. group of dedicated UFO researchers interviewed
Arnold, and Ralph E Stevens
Officially known as Homey Airport (or Groom people connected to the crash. Their findings
look at a photo of a UFO
Lake), this highly classified facility is situated were out of this world.
on the Nevada Test and Training Range According to hundreds of documents pertaining
approximately 120 miles northwest of Las Vegas. to the incident, a UFO did indeed smash into the
Stretching over 38,400 acres, the land was Nevada sand on that fateful July day. The bodies
withdrawn from public use in 1958 under Public of its deceased pilots were then whisked away
Land Order 1662. It is also impossible to enter along with the wreckage on the orders of the
its airspace without permission from air traffic authorities, who then concocted a cover story so
control. Heavily armed guards patrol its perimeter as to avoid mass panic.
to discourage anyone from trying to gain access, Efforts to uncover the truth lasted into the
and, if necessary, they are authorised to use 1990s, when the US military finally admitted
lethal force. When a man attempted to breach that the ‘weather balloon’ had in fact been a
Getty Images

the base’s defences in January 2019 he was shot nuclear test surveillance balloon deployed as part
following his refusal to follow the instructions of Project Mogul, an operation that saw the US
of Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) officers. attempting to detect the telltale signals of a Soviet
Incidents such as this, coupled with the high level nuclear weapons test. Yet this belated official
of security surrounding Area 51, has only served explanation did little to deter the conspiracists,
to feed numerous conspiracies as to what lies many of whom remain convinced that the “most
inside those razor-wire fences. Some believe the thoroughly debunked UFO claim” is in fact a
wreckage from the most notorious UFO event in government cover-up and that Area 51 is really
history is still being stored within the base. used to make contact with aliens.
In July 1947 rumours of a UFO crashing in Interest in the mysterious goings on at Area
Roswell, New Mexico, began to circulate after 51 reached its zenith in September 2019 when
strange debris was found scattered across a sandy plans to storm the base began to circulate online.

US Air Force Officer Irving

Newton inspects debris
from the Roswell crash

Despite the US military admitting that

Area 51 is used for researching stealth
aircraft, many conspiracists believe it
Getty Images

is home to evidence of aliens

People gather
at the ‘Storm
Area 51’ event in
Getty Images

Getty Images

Rachel, Nevada

113
 THE WEIRD & WACKY

The mystery of how aliens

might look has continued
to fascinate those who
believe in them
Getty Images

114
 ARE WE REALLY ALONE?

The east gate of the former

BARNEY AND
US Air Force base in
Rendlesham Forest, dubbed
as ‘Britain’s Roswell’

BETTY’S ALIEN
ADVENTURE
The apparent abduction of
a New Hampshire couple in
1966 is still the most famous
case of an alien kidnapping
In September 1961 Barney and Betty
Hill of New Hampshire, US, decided to
embark on a spontaneous three-day
trip to Montreal and Niagara Falls for a
Wikiepdia, Taras Young / CC BY-SA

delayed honeymoon. On the final night

of their vacation, as they drove home in
the dark, the couple noticed a strange
light apparently following them through
the White Mountains of their home state.
Stopping the car, Barney reached for his
Inspired by a Facebook event posted by 21-year-old investigate and, according to the claims of several gun and clambered to confront their
California student Matty Roberts in July calling witnesses, stumbled upon a glowing metallic object skybound stalker. What the couple saw
fellow UFO believers to “storm Area 51, they can’t ringed with coloured lights. next would change their lives forever.
stop all of us”, what was originally a joke gained One Ministry of Defence employee, Nick Pope, A wide, flat, metallic disc landed on
immediate traction. Millions of online users vowed later co-authored a book about the sighting titled the roof of the car and began to emit a
to help in raiding the base to reveal its secrets, Encounter in Rendlesham Forest: The Inside Story of beeping noise that immediately made the
and a date of 20 September was set for this daring the World’s Best Documented UFO Incident, in which couple feel drowsy. They would wake up
undertaking. Such was the level of official concern he stated, “This was not some vague ‘lights in the two hours later 35 miles down the road to
that a spokesperson for the US military warned sky’ sighting – the UFO actually landed.” find their watches had stopped working
people against trying to enter the facility and a Two days later a further investigation of the and their shoes and clothes were scuffed
state of emergency was declared in two counties. supposed landing site revealed unusual levels of and torn in places. Neither of them could
In the end a harmless festival dubbed Alienstock radiation, and as Lieutenant Colonel Charles Halt remember the previous few hours.
was held nearby, and only two Dutch YouTubers and his staff searched for evidence they are said to Later, while under hypnosis, the couple
made it anywhere close to the base. Their reward have noticed three lights in the sky that, according would recall being experimented on by
was to be arrested, fined and returned to the to Halt, seemed to be hovering and ejecting grey beings with wide eyes while a “leader”
Netherlands. Yet the fact that the government took streams of light. watched on from the side of a rounded
the threat of a mass invasion of Area 51 so seriously These incredible sightings have since been room bathed in bright light. Not only did
does beg the question of what they are so desperate explained by astronomers as the light emitted by they remove hair and nail clippings, but
to keep secret. Could it really be proof of alien life? especially bright stars, and a light spotted to the according to Betty the aliens spoke to their
east is believed to have been caused by the nearby captives and showed them a star map,
IF YOU GO DOWN TO THE WOODS Orfordness Lighthouse. But Halt remains convinced which Betty was able to draw.
Roswell and the secrets of Area 51 may occupy he saw a UFO. Speaking in 2015, he claimed to have While not the first claim of an alien
most of the UFO landscape, but America is far fresh evidence to support his argument. abduction, the Hills’ experience that night
from alone when it comes to potential sightings “I have confirmation that [radar operators] saw captured the public imagination and
of alien life. When it comes to instances of the the object go across their 60-mile scope in two or remains the most famous case to date.
unexplained, what unfolded in late December 1980 three seconds, [travelling at] thousands of miles an
within the shadows of Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk, hour. He [the UFO] came back across their scope
takes some beating. again, [and] stopped near the water tower. They
Known as ‘Britain’s Roswell’, the event is still watched it and observed it go into the forest where
keenly debated by UFO enthusiasts and sceptics we were,” said Halt. “At Wattisham [airfield] they
alike, and in the almost 40 years since the incident picked up what they called a ‘bogie’ and lost it near
took place accounts and facts still remain unclear Rendlesham Forest. Whatever was there was clearly
and often contradictory. So just what did happen under intelligent control.”
within this otherwise peaceful wood?
At approximately 3am on the morning of 26 ANCIENT EVIDENCE?
Getty Images

December military personnel patrolling the The idea of UFO sightings is commonly imagined
perimeter of RAF Woodbridge spotted strange as a 20th-century phenomenon, but there is Barney and Betty Hill attempt
to illustrate the UFO that they
lights above the forest. Initially believing an aircraft plenty of evidence to suggest that our ancient claimed abducted them
had crashed, they ventured into the trees to ancestors may well have had alien encounters of

115
 THE WEIRD & WACKY

“THE MAYA PYRAMIDS FOUND IN THE ANCIENT CITY OF

CHICHÉN ITZÁ IN MEXICO ARE BELIEVED TO HAVE BEEN
BUILT WITH THE HELP OF ALIENS”

Wikiepdia, Diego Delso / CC BY-SA

their own. Prehistoric drawings have been found in Mexico are believed to have been built with
on cave walls depicting non-human and non- the help of aliens, who are said to have then used
animal creatures as well as many mysterious the pyramids as markers for landing their vessels.
unexplained symbols. Scribblings unearthed Some theorists even go so far as to claim that the
in Charama, India, that are believed to be pyramids emit powerful energy beams that would
approximately 10,000 years old clearly depict have enabled the ancient Maya to communicate
Are the famous statues of Easter
alien-like beings not too dissimilar from those with these extraterrestrials. Island evidence of aliens?
shown in Hollywood blockbusters. Further south, carved into the sands of the
More recent evidence of potential alien Nazca Desert, are a series of strange lines that
encounters can be found in Domenico some believe to be the work of UFOs. Many of
Ghirlandaio’s 15th-century masterpiece The them are shaped like animals or plants, while
Madonna with Saint Giovannino. While the Virgin others are simply straight lines or more elaborate
Mary prays in the foreground, a man and his dog geometric shapes. Etched across 193 square
can clearly be seen behind her looking skyward at miles, some of the lines stretch to 200 metres in
a hovering disc-like object. length. Historians believe them to be the work
There is even a sighting noted in the Bible in of native people between 500 BCE and 500 CE,
The Book of Ezekiel. It claims that the prophet but others are certain the lines served an other-
had a vision of a spaceship used by an advanced wordly purpose. According to Swiss author Erich

Getty Images
race to travel to Earth. von Däniken, the lines helped to delineate an
UFO researchers have also pointed to extraterrestrial airfield used by aliens thousands
architectural evidence of alien life. The Maya of years ago.
pyramids found in the ancient city of Chichén Itzá The Pyramids of Giza and the Moai statues of
Easter Island are also regularly cited as ancient
evidence of UFOs helping humans to shape
incredible constructions that many believe
would have been beyond the means of mankind
at the time. With such a widespread array of
weird and wonderful creations, it is easy to
determine why many see the hand of
intelligent alien life in what are
most likely ingenious – but
very human – projects.

FRIEND OR FOE?
Regardless of whether or not you

US Dept of Defence
subscribe to the view that the
This UFO was captured
in previously classified
footage recently released
by the Pentagon

THE PENTAGON TAPES

In a rare move, the US government has released
footage of ‘unexplained aerial phenomena’
In April 2020 US authorities unexpectedly granted UFO zipping above a body of water. Initially it evades
the release of three videos that appear to show UFOs the camera, such is its speed. A pilot can clearly be heard
moving at remarkable speed. Previously leaked in asking, “What the f*** is that?!” A second voice then says
2007 and 2017, the footage was taken in 2004 and 2015 “Oh my gosh, what the hell is that man?!” The final clip
during US Air Force training flights. The most convincing shows a bright white light that seems to hover before
video was shot in 2004 and features two fighter pilots darting out of view.
tracing a rotating saucer-like object as it accelerates over The Pentagon has explained that it released the footage
the Pacific Ocean. “Look at that thing, dude!” exclaims in an effort to “clear up any misconceptions by the public
one of the pilots. “It’s rotating!” Another video reveals a on whether or not the footage that has been circulating
pilot’s attempt to lock onto and trace a rapidly moving was real”.

116
 ARE WE REALLY ALONE?

aforementioned events and landmarks are the bring together five galaxies. In order to achieve But if aliens really are kidnapping humans,
workings of aliens, what is beyond doubt is that this aliens were being sent to Earth to intervene what could they hope to gain by doing so? Are
flashing lights and ornate buildings are benign and stop mankind from destroying it. they delivering a message to us? For decades it
evidence of UFOs, if they are in fact evidence at An arguably even more outlandish claim to has been said that warnings have accompanied
all. But not all reports of intergalactic encounters abduction was made in 1994 by Meng Zhaoguo many abductions. Perhaps their intentions are far
are quite so convivial. of China. While walking through Red Flag Forest from peaceful.
Sometimes labelled the ‘abduction in Heilongjiang, China’s most northern province, Professor Stephen Hawking was very clear in
phenomenon’, reports of aliens kidnapping Zhaoguo saw an unusual object drift down his opinion on what the arrival of extraterrestrial
unsuspecting humans have been made since among the trees. Drawn to it out of curiosity, life would mean for mankind. “If aliens ever visit
the 1960s, when Barney and Betty Hill of New Zhaoguo soon regretted his decision to investigate, us, I think the outcome would be much as when
Hampshire, US, claimed to have been spirited for the aliens were equally intrigued by him. Christopher Columbus first landed in America,
away by UFOs (see boxout for more on their According to Zhaoguo the aliens within the which didn’t turn out very well for the Native
experience). Many of the people who have aircraft began to harass him, routinely dragging Americans,” he said in 2010. “A civilisation reading
purported to have been snatched by aliens him back to their mothership to copulate with one of our messages could be billions of years
described being examined or experimented on. them and even whisking him off to Mars. ahead of us. If so, they will be vastly more powerful,
In October 1989, Steve and Dawn Hess travelled Unsurprisingly, many in China were not entirely and may not see us as any more valuable than we
into the Mojave Desert for what they hoped would convinced by Zhaoguo’s account, as is often see bacteria.”
be a few peaceful days in their camper van. But the case with any reports of alien abduction, According to esteemed physicist Brian Cox, it
their escape into the wild apparently turned into something that Harvard psychiatrist John Mack is “inconceivable that there will not be life and I
a nightmare when aliens descended on the couple believes is unfair: “Every other culture in history think civilisations out there among the stars”. If
and began to toy with their minds using telepathy. except this one, in the human race, has believed Professor Hawking was right, perhaps we should all
In later interviews Dawn explained that they were there were other entities, other intelligences in be grateful that super-advanced alien overlords have
hypnotised, and while trapped in their trances the universe… Why do we treat people like they to date refrained from making their presence known
they were told that a supreme galactic leader are crazy, humiliate them, if they’re experiencing to all but a few humans. After all, whether they will
wanted to live in harmony with humans and some other intelligence?” come in peace is far from guaranteed.

Paul Trent, a farmer from

McMinnville, Oregon,
photographed this UFO
flying over his land in 1950

Getty Images

117
 THE WEIRD & WACKY

THE BIGGEST ART

THEFT IN HISTORY
The story of this famous art heist would easily be at home
in a Hollywood spy thriller
WRITTEN BY JACK GRIFFITHS

I
n the early hours of 18 March 1990, the Isabella
Gardner Museum had closed down for the
night. Unbeknownst by the rowdy St Patrick’s
Day parties nearby, a police car pulled into a
side street alongside the museum. Two men
dressed as Boston Police Department officers waited
in the car for around an hour before the clock hit
1.00am. In the building itself, security guard Richard
Abath was on the nightshift. He had just switched
positions with a colleague and was now occupying
the front desk. He had 24 minutes until a robbery
would commence.

GAINING ENTRY
At 1.24am, the sound of “Police! Let us in” rang
through Abath’s eardrums. The security guard
hesitated but seeing police hats, coats and badges,
he let the cops into the museum, going against
protocol. The two men explained to Abath that
they had a warrant for his arrest so the security

The way in which

n the paintings
The choice of paintings stole were ripped from
the frame
as more
still puzzles investigators has lead experts
to believe it
taken
valuable artwork was not was an amateur
heist

118
 THE BIGGEST ART THEFT IN HISTORY

for
The artwork has been lost Also known as Fenway Court, the
e think
such a long time that som museum still boasts a significant
d
it might have been destroye international art collection

guard timidly moved away from his desk. He had motion detectors, which would record their every
The museum is
just made a fatal mistake: the two men were not move and be painful viewing later on. First, they after Isabella Ste
named
wart
from the Boston Police Department. Now out of entered the Dutch Room and the thieves managed Gardner, a renow
ned 19th
hand’s reach of the museum’s panic button, he to set off an alarm, which was instantly smashed century art colle
ctor
would have no answer to the bandits. Abath knew and deactivated. The first artwork to be taken – and
these two men were not all they seemed as soon one of the most expensive – was Rembrandt’s
as they ordered him to stand against the wall and Storm On The Sea Of Galilee, which was hacked
handcuffed him. When Abath noticed they hadn’t from its frame. More of the Dutch painter’s almost
frisked him before putting his hands in cuffs and priceless work was to follow. Moving from room
above all the fake moustache on one of the cops, he to room, it wasn’t to be the only painting that was
knew he was part of a robbery. As the thieves cuffed taken. One of the Johannes Vermeer paintings
Abath’s colleague, the cocky raiders explained, taken was one of only 36 in existence and a
“You’re not being arrested, this is a robbery. Don’t rare Chinese bronze gu dating from the Shang
give us any problems and you won’t get hurt” as Dynasty in 1200BCE was stuffed into a bag, as
they were led to the basement and handcuffed to was an impressive-looking eagle finial from
nearby pipes. Duct tape was put on their hands, feet Napoleonic France.
and over their mouths and they were imprisoned Two trips were made to the getaway car during
40 yards away from each other. There was now no the 81-minute theft. On their way out, the two
escape for Abath. men remarked to the security guards, “You’ll be
The two robbers pressed on with their mission to hearing from us in a year”. Bizarrely, this threat
plunder the museum for everything they could. The never materialised. As the robbers zoomed off,
building housed an art collection of international it wasn’t the end of the ordeal for the security
importance with works worth hundreds of millions guards who remained in their makeshift prison
from the likes of Rembrandt and Vermeer. The only until their discovery at 8.15am the next morning
thing counting against them now were the building’s by the first staff on the morning shift.

119
 THE WEIRD & WACKY

THE MORNING AFTER $500 MILLION LOST Four years later, Hawley received a letter
That day the museum staff, including director Anne Naturally, the museum was dedicated to finding promising to return the artwork for $2.6 million but
Hawley, reconvened to discuss the events of the the culprits but the biggest issue at hand was the it turned out to be a dead end. The first major lead
fateful night. After a thorough observation it was condition of the stolen goods. If the artworks were came in 2013 when authorities were convinced that
found that 13 pieces of artwork had been stolen, housed in a place that had a humidity of over 50 the heist was the brains of a criminal organisation
totalling an eye-watering $500 million. The Isabella per cent or a temperature of above 21ºC (70ºF), in New England and the art was now in either
Stewart Gardner Museum had been the target for they would be ruined forever. In addition, if exposed Connecticut or Philadelphia. They may have even
the largest private property theft in history. The to too much light or wrapped in acidic paper, they been put up for sale in the former US capital. The
subsequent inquiry was led by no less than the FBI. would deteriorate rapidly. With the two culprits same year it was also decreed that both robbers
Believing that the booty could have crossed state now likely dead, the investigation has turned into a were now deceased.
or even international borders, British, French and retrieval operation but there is still a strong desire to
Japanese authorities, amongst others, were put on see who was responsible brought to justice. WILL THE ART EVER BE FOUND?
alert as were museums and art dealers worldwide. Renowned Boston mobster Whitey Bulger was Security tapes are still being examined to this day
The initial reward was $1 million but after no luck, implicated but there was little evidence that he was and continue to puzzle the experts. There is no
the sum was increased to $5 million. Over the years, connected. Second and third on the list were local pattern to what was taken and many of the more
the authorities have made sketches of who they criminals Myles Connor and Bobby Donati. After expensive works were left untouched. These strange
believe to be the culprits from Abath’s observations, questioning, both admitted that they had eyed up motives make it difficult to track down a particular
but finding out who was responsible has been a the museum for a possible heist and Donati had organised crime gang. The fact that the paintings
long and unfruitful process thus far. The primary been spotted with a sack of police uniforms in a were crudely ripped off the walls is also another
theory behind the heist is that the two men were local night club. Donati’s murder in 1991 after a gang bone of contention – if they were looking for resale
part of a larger criminal organisation based in the war all but ended this potential source. Connor value, why would they be so careless?
Mid-Atlantic region of the USA. The FBI also believe resurfaced again in 1997, claiming he could locate In 2015 several new stones were unturned
that the suspects are now long since dead and the the booty in exchange for legal immunity but his in this intriguing – and frustrating – case. After
artwork has been sold on, but still decline to reveal offer was flatly refused. close scrutiny by police, it has been found that
who they believe to be the culprits. Abath, who
openly admitted to turning up to shifts under the
influence of cannabis, was questioned over his role “IT WAS FOUND THAT 13 PIECES OF ARTWORK HAD BEEN
in the heist but after various investigations and two
lie detector tests, he was declared innocent. STOLEN, TOTALLING AN EYE-WATRING $500 MILLION”

The museum remains open

despite some empty frames

120
 THE BIGGEST ART THEFT IN HISTORY

© Corbis
an unauthorised visitor entered the premises
24 hours before the theft, in a car that matches
the description of the later raid. Was this person
in league with the thieves? This incident from
12.49pm on 17 March, showed an unknown man
being allowed into the building by a security guard,
believed to be Abath, against museum policy.
The footage from 1990 is grainy and low resolution
in quality, so it has been tough to identify who the Sketches of the two suspects
made by the Boston police
man could possibly have been. This revelation was
in August and four months later, 20 FBI agents
tracked down what they thought was finally the end
of their search. The agents made their way to Suffolk
Downs horse racing track in East Boston after a
tip-off. Both the stables and the grandstand were
overturned at this secluded location that hadn’t
been open since the early 1990s. Two safes were
drilled open but it turned out to be yet another dead
end as not a trace of the artwork was found.
The web of criminal networking eventually
brought a man called Robert Gentile to the case.
An infamous Connecticut mobster, he failed a lie
detector test when asked if he knew where the
paintings were. The plot thickened when federal
agents searched Gentile’s house and found a
handwritten list of the paintings and their worth.
Gentile was subsequently imprisoned for other
crimes but has never been officially linked to the
Gardner Museum heist. Guilty by association just
wasn’t enough to go on and it is believed that the
handwritten list was given to him to pass on and he
knew nothing of the robbery. These revelations have
brought the crime one step closer to being solved.
The search continues.

The artworks at the museum The unanswered questions

hold incredible value – both and mystery surrounding the
culturally and financially purpose of heist has secured
the museum’s infamy

THE HEIST IN POPULAR CULTURE

The museum is a popular landmark in Boston and underground crime syndicates to Ireland to try
is named after the popular art collector, Isabella and uncover the mystery, dealing with hoax calls
Stewart Gardner. Known as ‘Isabella of Boston’, to effective leads. Part of the film is also given
her status and the importance of the museum to the story of Isabella Stewart Gardner, whose
has left the heist with quite the legacy. Its high passion helped spread artistic culture from
profile has meant that it has been retold and even around the world in the late 19th century. This
parodied in various works including popular US helps the viewer realise just how important the
TV shows such as Drunk History, The Venture Bros, loss of the majority of the museum’s collection
The Blacklist and even The Simpsons. Perhaps the has been to the world of art. The film’s writer,
best reconstruction, though, has been the 2005 Rebecca Dreyfus, was particularly moved by the
documentary, Stolen. incident and the film showcases her dedication to
A feature-length film based on the heist, it tells spread the knowledge on what has happened.
the story of art detective Harold Smith who died Stolen is dedicated to Smith, who cuts an
the year the film was released. While battling interesting figure with his bowler hat, eye patch
skin cancer, Smith made it his mission to help and prosthetic nose, worn as a result of his cancer.
locate the missing paintings. The film centres on Will the artwork ever be found? Either way,
the detective’s quest as he travels from Boston expect more retellings of this fascinating heist.

121
 THE WEIRD & WACKY

122
 SECRET SIGNALS

SECRET
SIGNALS
Hidden inconspicuously amid the static are
some mysterious transmissions – but what are
they for? And who is behind them?
WRITTEN BY JACQUELINE SNOWDEN

T
une a shortwave radio just right and Operatives receiving these messages would
you may be able to pick up some bizarre likely decode them using one-time pads, code
broadcasts. Strings of Morse code, sporadic sheets that only the sender and receiver have.
snippets of music, a lone voice reading a These lists of random digits work with a specific
series of random numbers… these curious key to translate the number sequence into the
communications may not make any sense to intended message (for example, at a very basic
the casual listener, but they are quite possibly level the key could be 1=A). Once that message
delivering important information to someone. was transmitted or deciphered, both the sender
Many of these mysterious and receiver would destroy
frequencies are known as
numbers stations. While they “SOME BELIEVE their key, leaving no trace of the
means to decode the message.
never announce themselves, and
no governments or intelligence THAT ORGANISED Every single message uses a new,
randomly generated key – for all
agencies claim to run them, it
is widely accepted that these
stations are sending coded
CRIME GANGS intents and purposes, the system
is uncrackable. It’s possible that
these secret radio signals aren’t
messages to spies. This is not as
outlandish an explanation as it
MAY USE THE exclusively used by intelligence
agencies. Some believe that
may seem. Shortwave radio may
be comparatively low-tech in the
SAME TECH” organised crime gangs may use
the same technology to coordinate
internet age, but it’s a reliable smuggling operations and other
method of one-way communication over long illegal activities.
Image Source  Getty Images.

distances. Digital activity can be monitored It makes for uneasy eavesdropping to know that
or traced relatively easily, but with numbers you won’t be the only person listening in on a
stations the intended recipient of a transmission numbers station. Here are just some of the spooky
is anonymous. spy signals that have infiltrated the airwaves.

123
 THE WEIRD & WACKY

THE BUZZER
Are the broadcasts of this secretive Russian station just a defunct Cold
War relic, or are they something more sinister?
Somewhere in north-western Russia, transmitters
have been broadcasting a series of repetitive beeps
Years active: 1970s/80s – present
and buzzes almost continuously since at least
the early 1980s. The regularity and reliability
of the unexplained signal fascinated the small
community of shortwave radio enthusiasts who
stumbled across it. With the rise of the internet,
access to the signal via online sources gained
the transmission thousands more captivated
fans. Despite growing interest in the signals, their
origin and true purpose are still a mystery.
The station initially transmitted intermittent
beeps and went by the call sign UVB-76. In 1992,
the beeps inexplicably changed to buzzes, firing
once every two to three seconds, all day and all
night. Through the crackling airwaves, the buzzes
sound almost like a ghostly foghorn.
Occasionally, the buzzing would be interrupted
by a male voice reading out a random series of
numbers, words spelled in the phonetic alphabet,
and sometimes names as well. The Buzzer – as it
unofficially became known – would sometimes
change pitch and frequency, but was seemingly Image Source  Getty Images.

unaffected by whatever upheavals engulfed

Russia. Through the end of the Cold War, the fall
of the Soviet Union, the Chechen wars and all
the political manoeuvring within the Russian

THE CUBAN FIVE

Federation, UVB-76 kept buzzing along. Radio Havana Cuba by mistake; at least one message
Then on 5 June 2010, without warning or opened to the sound of a rooster crowing. For covert
explanation, The Buzzer stopped buzzing. For Cuban field agents trying to listen intently to the
the first time in decades, the station fell silent for The not-so-secret station that all-important announcements, understanding the
approximately 24 hours, but went back to buzzing supplied Communist spies with messages was a challenge.
business as usual the next day. For the next few orders, and gave the FBI the One thing that did make the job easier was
months the otherwise monotonous, metronome- technology. The spies entered the codes into a bespoke
means to catch them
like transmissions were occasionally interrupted computer program that automatically decoded the
by Morse code, distorted voice recordings and In September 1998, five members of Cuba’s La Red messages for them. It was more convenient than
two more brief signal blackouts. Avispa (The Wasp Network) were arrested in Miami manually deciphering the messages with a one-time
On 23 August 2010, UVB-76 got even for conspiracy to commit espionage. During their pad, but it became a key factor in the Five’s downfall.
stranger. The buzzing stopped and a clear voice time in the US, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Unbeknownst to the Cuban spies, in 1995 FBI
announced: “UVB-76, UVB-76 – 93 882 NAIMINA Gerardo Hernández, Fernando González and René agents had managed to secretly gain access to one
74 14 35 74 – 9, 3, 8, 8, 2, Nikolai, Anna, Ivan, González, AKA the ‘Cuban Five’, had been receiving of their computers and make a copy of the decoding
Michail, Ivan, Nikolai, Anna, 7, 4, 1, 4, 3, 5, 7, 4.” orders from Cuba on a numbers station known as program. Armed with this, the Americans had easy
Enthusiasts assumed these were coordinates, Atención or The Spanish Lady. access to every message intended for the Wasp
which translate to the middle The Cuban spy station would Network, including orders to befriend US soldiers at the
of the Barents Sea (between broadcast messages nearby military base and to infiltrate certain groups
Scandinavia, Svalbard and in Spanish, starting with a female of influential anti-communist and anti-Castro Cuban
north-western Russia). And voice announcing “¡Atención!” before exiles living in Florida. The FBI’s numbers station
perhaps their decryptions were reeling off number sets. The execution recordings were used as evidence during the trial of
right – the Russian military of its broadcasts gained a reputation the Cuban Five, who were convicted in 2001. Atención
perform missile tests in those among curious listeners for often being continued to broadcast their signal even after the spies
remote waters. laughably bad: Atención’s signal were arrested. Perhaps the Cuban Five had already
y Images.

The Buzzer resumed, but for would wander; sometimes it would been replaced by other operatives, or maybe it was
the next couple of days those broadcast the audio of the station
Image Source  Gett

another case of the station’s poor production.

If you’re within the signal’s
range, the Buzzer can be picked
124 up on the frequency 4,625kHz
 SECRET SIGNALS
Image Source  Getty Images.

tuning in overheard what sounded like someone A less dramatic hypothesis is that MDZhB is
shuffling around or knocking things. There was an part of a scientific experiment to study parts of the
open microphone in whatever room the signal was Earth’s atmosphere. A paper published in 2008
being broadcast from, and someone or something in the Russian Journal of Earth Sciences (entitled
The similarities between
The Buzzer, was definitely there. But, despite much anticipation ‘Information-measuring complex and database
The Pip and The Squeaky
Wheel have among eavesdroppers, there was no ‘man behind of mid-latitude Borok Geophysical Observatory’)
led to speculation as to whe
ther they are
all individual parts of a sing the curtain’ reveal. describes the use of 4,625kHz – the same frequency
le system
Over the following few weeks there were several as The Buzzer – as a carrier wave to investigate
more interruptions – this time, they were musical the ionosphere with Doppler radio sounding. This
interludes. Listeners overheard short extracts of requires a constant signal to be broadcast into the

THE BUZZER’S
Tchaikovsky’s ‘Danse des Petits Cygnes’ (‘Dance of atmosphere at a specific known frequency. Perhaps
the Little Swans’) from Swan Lake between the this is all an elaborate cover story to conceal The
drones. Then, on 7 September 2010, a male voice Buzzer’s true purpose, or perhaps those running

SISTER STATIONS
MDZhB isn’t the only unsettling
broke The Buzzer’s vocal silence once again. The
mysterious announcer declared the signal’s new
call sign: “Mikhail Dmitri Zhenya Boris” or MDZhB.
the station are killing two birds with one stone; a
scientific application is not necessarily mutually
exclusive from another, more clandestine one.
signal being broadcast from Russia One of the most famous transmissions among The leading theory, however, is that The Buzzer is
Buzzer enthusiasts occurred several years later in a numbers station that is only occasionally activated
Two other shortwave broadcasts have some striking 2013, when a male voice ominously stated “Ob’yavila to transmit secure messages to the Russian military.
similarities to the infamous Buzzer, known as The komanda 135” (‘Command 135 announced/initiated’). In which case, the persistent buzzing between the
Pip and The Squeaky Wheel. Rare interruptions such as these have raised more mysterious coded messages is likely to be a way of
The Pip has been active since at least 1986 and questions than answers, adding to the intrigue keeping the frequency occupied so that it can’t be
broadcasts regular monotonous, electronic beeps surrounding the station’s raison d’être. used by used by other parties for different purposes.
all day, every day. It is occasionally interrupted Radio enthusiasts and conspiracy theorists alike This remains speculation – the Russian government
by coded voice messages before the pips resume. have spent many years pondering the purpose of has never admitted to owning or running the station.
The Squeaky Wheel has been broadcasting since these transmissions. Some think it’s a long-forgotten Besides the enigma of the signal’s perpetual
at least 2000 and its original interval sign was Soviet-era military communication facility, still buzz and intermittent codes, the whereabouts of
repeated ‘squeaks’ of two different tones. However, in functioning but no longer in use. Others wonder if its transmitter has also sparked interest. Numbers
2008 it changed to two tones of electronic beeps, no it could be part of an ominous ‘dead hand’ system station enthusiasts have tried to triangulate its exact
longer sounding particularly like its namesake. – a relic of the Cold War designed to launch an position without success, but attempts to trace the
Both stations differ from The Buzzer in that automatic counter-attack should the US annihilate signal’s source have yielded estimates. Initially, The
they switch between two frequencies, one for the Russian capital with a nuclear bomb. Buzzer seemed to be coming from a now-abandoned
daytime broadcasts and another for nighttime. Some
avid listeners suggest that the three stations are
linked somehow; perhaps part of the same system “INITIALLY, THE BUZZER SEEMED TO BE COMING FROM A NOW-
for domestic military communications. But only its
operators and the signals’ intended recipients know ABANDONED MILITARY BASE NORTH-WEST OF MOSCOW”
for sure.
Despite much speculation, nobody military base in Povarovo, north-west of Moscow.
knows the precise location of
The Buzzer’s current source However, after the strange messages in August
Image Source  Getty Images.
2010, the transmitter’s apparent location changed,
moving away from Moscow and north-west towards
St Petersburg. It migrated to the city of Pskov near
the Estonian border, suggesting that the strange
broadcasts that summer may have been part of the
source switchover. The Russian military underwent
a structural reorganisation around the same time,
with a new command centre being established at
St Petersburg. This provided more evidence – if only
circumstantial – for MDZhB having some form of
military link.
In January 2016, the callsign changed to ZhUOZ,
and in January 2019 it changed yet again. Now,
various ones are used. The most commonly used
sign is ANVF, although 2170, VZhCh, A1JZH and
LNR4 have also been used, amongst others. ZhUOZ
has not been abandoned, though.
The Buzzer has accumulated a cult-like following,
with dedicated listeners tuning in to its almost
hypnotic drones, recording its every announcement
and debating what it could possibly mean. But each
coded transmission or random interruption just
raises more questions; the case of The Buzzer only
gets curiouser and curiouser.

125
 THE WEIRD & WACKY

THE LINCOLNSHIRE POACHER

How a jaunty English folk song became synonymous with British espionage

Years active: 1970s – 2008 One of the most famous numbers stations was
the Lincolnshire Poacher. This strange station
got its name from a traditional English folk song,
the first few bars of which were used to bookend
each broadcast. The melody was eerily played
out several times as the signal’s interval sign,
produced by what sounds like a synthesised
calliope instrument.
In every communication, once the tune ended,
a recording of a woman with an upper-class
British accent repeated a five-number sequence.
It’s thought that this code was to identify the
intended recipient of the subsequent message,
which would follow after three chimes. The
main messages consisted of a long series of
numbers (always 200 groups of five-digit
figures), which took around 45 minutes to deliver
in full.
These communications would take place every
Radio direction detecting equipment day between noon and 10pm (UTC). It’s thought
suggested that the RAF Akrotiri
that the regularity of the broadcasts added an
base was the source of the infamous
Lincolnshire Poacher broadcasts extra layer of secrecy. Transmitting on a regular
schedule and sending messages of the same
Image Source  Getty Images. length each time meant that nothing was given
away. If messages were typically five minutes
long, but out of the blue an hour-long broadcast

THE CONET PROJECT

Discover the greatest hits collection of spy radio in an extensive
was made, it would indicate to anyone listening
in that something was afoot. Consistency
gave the impression that nothing was out of
the ordinary, regardless of whether the coded
archive of cloak-and-dagger broadcasts
content was telling operatives there was
In 1997, a four-CD compilation of the obscure Audio extracts from The Conet Project have nothing to report, or perhaps to prepare for
recordings from numbers stations was released by been used in popular culture, including the 2001 a vital mission.
the record label Irdial Discs. The 150 different station psychological thriller Vanilla Sky With specialised radio direction finding
samples were put together by numbers station equipment, avid Lincolnshire Poacher
aficionado Akin Fernandez, who’d been captivated by eavesdroppers hoping to find its transmission
the bizarre broadcasts since he discovered them while source claimed to have tracked it to the RAF
browsing the airwaves in 1992. The name, ‘The Conet Akrotiri base in Cyprus. It’s believed to have
Project’, came from the frequent use of the word ‘conet’ been used by British Secret Intelligence Service
(Czech for ‘end’) in many of the broadcasts. It was (MI6) to broadcast messages to agents based
rereleased as a five-disc edition in 2013 with one-time across the Middle East, but this theory has
pad samples. never been confirmed (nor denied) by the
At the time, the CDs – and the accompanying intelligence agency.
booklet that speculated about each transmission’s A very similar station known as Cherry Ripe
purpose – were a niche product among shortwave was thought to have been broadcast from Guam,
radio enthusiasts. With the internet age, however, it before being moved to Australia’s Northern
became easier for information about these broadcasts Territory. The only major difference was Cherry
to be shared and their popularity grew to cult status. Ripe’s interval sign – a synthesised version of the
The increased interest in these mystery transmissions English folk song of the same name. Apart from
led to a UK Government spokesperson addressing the that, its transmissions followed the same format,
issue: “People shouldn’t be mystified by them,” she told with announcements made by the same voice,
Image Source  Alamy.

the Daily Telegraph in 2008. “They’re not, shall we say, so presumably it too was run by MI6.
for public consumption.” It’s the closest thing to The Lincolnshire Poacher stopped
an admission from an official source regarding broadcasting in June 2008 and Cherry Ripe
a numbers station that there has ever been. ceased transmissions about 18 months later.

126
 SECRET SIGNALS

OTHER RADIO STATIONS

SWEDISH YOSEMITE SAM THE CUBAN
RHAPSODY Years active: 2004 – present
Suspected source/origin: New
BABBLER
Years active: 1950s – 1998 Mexico, US Years active: Unknown – 2016
Suspected source/origin: Poland Suspected source/origin: Cuba
This baffling signal consists of a short ‘buzz’ of
An ice cream truck melody and the disembodied a compressed data burst lasting 0.8 seconds, This station earned its nickname from its bizarre
voice of a little girl reciting coded messages in followed by a clip of the cartoon character delivery style. The announcers on The Cuban
German made for one of the creepiest numbers Yosemite Sam shouting “Varmint, I’mma gonna Babbler didn’t read strings of code, they sang
stations on the airwaves. It used a tune from blow you to smithereens!” – a quote from an them – fast – to what seemed to be improvised
Swedish Rhapsody No. 1 by Swedish composer episode of Bugs Bunny, Bunker Hill Bunny, that melodies. Have pity on the intended recipient
Hugo Alfvén as an interval sign. was first broadcast in 1949. trying to copy the message down!

Image Source  Getty Images. Image Source  Alamy. Image Source  Getty Images.

THE BORED MAN MOSSAD

Years active: Unknown – 1998
Suspected source/origin: Cuba

The Bored Man sounded as disinterested in his

role as announcer as his nickname suggests.
He would often get things wrong and have to
backtrack or restart transmissions to correct
himself. Sometimes listeners overheard laughter
in the background during his broadcasts.
Years active: 1960s/70s – 2011
Suspected source/origin: Israel

Unlike most other numbers stations, the signal

nicknamed Mossad mostly used NATO phonetic
letters rather than numbers. Samples from this
station’s messages were used by the American
band Wilco on their record ‘Yankee Hotel
Foxtrot’, and also inspired the album title.
H
HOTEL

Image Source  Getty Images.

F
FOXTROT YANKEE
Y
127
Examine world
wars and epic
battles through
maps and rare
documents

Step back in
time and visit the
most fascinating
ancient
civilisations

Explore iconic
fighters, cultural
traditions, top
tactics and
weapons
STEP BACK IN TIME WITH
OUR HISTORY TITLES
Immerse yourself in a world of emperors, pioneers, conquerors
and legends and discover the events that shaped humankind

Discover the
truth behind
history’s most
shameful
chapters

Follow us on Instagram @futurebookazines

www.magazinesdirect.com
 SUBSCRIBE &
SAVE UP TO 61%
Delivered direct to your door
or straight to your device

Choose from over 80 magazines and make great savings off the store price!
Binders, books and back issues also available
Simply visit www.magazinesdirect.com

No hidden costs Shipping included in all prices We deliver to over 100 countries Secure online payment
 U N R E S O LV E D
Unsolved crimes & events that have
baff led the world’s greatest minds

TERRORISING CHICAGO THE HOUSE OF HORRORS

A sick killer who laced painkillers with One father’s familicide sparked one of the
cyanide remains at large to this day… largest international manhunts
9021

FOOTLOOSE THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE

Is there a perfectly normal explanation for Are governments across the world
dismembered human feet washing ashore? covering up the truth about alien life?
9000