Contents
All that remained of Mary was ash, and a black slipper foot nearly untouched by fire. It burned down, although there was no fire in her house. The mystery of her death kept the American investigators of the 50s awake at night.
- Right next to a woman’s ashes, FBI investigators found a pile of newspapers untouched by the fire
- Since it was difficult to find the source of the fire that consumed Mary’s body, theories about self-ignition immediately appeared in the media describing her case.
- And although the whole story, although it really happened, may raise many suspicions, the serious British daily “Independent” counts the case of Mary among the “mysteries of the universe that have not yet been solved by modern science”
- More similar information can be found on the TvoiLokony home page
It was July 2, 1951, when St. Petersburg, Florida, a housewife wanted to visit her neighbor. It worried her, however, that, in spite of her hard knocking on the apartment door, Mery did not open it. The impatient neighbor grabbed the door handle and was scared. The hot metal of the knob burned her hand.
The woman immediately called the services. The officers rammed the door and, terrified, burst inside. In the middle of the living room, they saw a pile of ash and it was almost sticking out of it completely undigested by fire, a leg shod in a shiny black slipper.
A lonely widow could not sleep
Mary Reeser was 67 years old the day it burned down. She was a widow and ran her own little farm in Florida alone. She liked to smoke a cigarette sometimes while sitting in her favorite chair in the living room.
- Don’t miss: Change to soap, squeaks and excretions. This is how our body behaves after death
She also had trouble falling asleep. After years of arduous and mysterious investigation, Mary’s daughter revealed that her mother, having problems falling asleep, has abused sleeping pills.
For those who investigated the causes of Mary’s death, both cases: cigarettes and drugs came together in a puzzle. Especially for the tabloid press of that time, which wrote about the case of a burning woman for the next few weeks. It has been suggested that perhaps the old lady just fell asleep with a cigarette in her mouth, the heat fell on her clothes, it began to burn and interacted with drugs, which the woman was holding in her hands.
Still an unexplained case
During the course of their investigation, detectives found that the temperature of the body was almost 2000 degrees Celsiusyet almost everything (except the chair) in the room where Reeser was found remained intact.
- Check it out: What happens to the human body after death? [INFOGRAPHICS]
Detective Cass Burgess of the St.Petersburg police, a year after the events at Mrs. Reeser’s house, was forced to issue a statement. – Our investigation did not reveal anything that could be described as undoubtedly proving what actually happened – the detective then said, and now his words are quoted by the British “Independent”.
Burgess’s chief added: «This is one of those things that just couldn’t happen, but did. The case is not closed and may never satisfy all concerned ».
Self-ignition: pseudoscience
Reporting the case of Mary Reesel, the British “Independent” about what could have happened in Florida in the 50s asked Swedish rheumatologist Jan Bondeson.
The scientist looked at other similar cases, of which – as it turns out – there were more in history. Bondeson noted that at the turn of the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries it was believed that the main cause of death by burning is alcohol consumption. “For a time, it was believed that drunkards were mainly inflamed by the high levels of alcohol in their blood,” Dr. Bondeson says in the Independent. And adds: «Self-ignition has become an argument in the fight against alcoholism. A warning that if you drink, you may be a victim of self-immolation ”. It has not been proved, however, whether Mrs. Reeser was drunk at the time of her death.
- Read also: He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for turning people into zombies. The story of Egas Moniz, the founder of the lobotomy
Bondeson argues that in the event of the death of a Florida widow, indeed, her body could take care of, for example, cigarette heat.
The mystery of the universe
The case of Mary Reesel remains unsolved. Why did the woman’s body burn even though there was no fire? And how did the fire burn her body but not touch the newspapers around her? The case was closed as suggested by Dr. Bondeson: after all, there had to be a source of fire somewhere that kept the women alive.
“Or is it just one of those things that will remain unexplained forever?” – wonders a British journalist in the «Independent». And adds that the case of Mary Reeser, it is perhaps “one of the mysteries of the universe not yet resolved by modern science”.
You may be interested in:
- «I’ve been living in a pandemic for nine years. Cystic fibrosis is a terrible torment ». Marta’s story
- The most common genetic diseases. How are they made?
- I asked: should I be happy or cry? “Rather rejoice in this misfortune”
- «This drug is a miracle for me. I dreamed about him all these years »
The content of the medTvoiLokony website is intended to improve, not replace, the contact between the Website User and their doctor. The website is intended for informational and educational purposes only. Before following the specialist knowledge, in particular medical advice, contained on our Website, you must consult a doctor. The Administrator does not bear any consequences resulting from the use of information contained on the Website.
Do you need a medical consultation or an e-prescription? Go to halodoctor.pl, where you will get online help – quickly, safely and without leaving your home.