| ID | #1718710197 |
| Added | Tue, 18/06/2024 |
| Author | July N. |
| Sources | |
| Phenomena | |
| Status | Research
|
Initial data
When the police found Mary Reeser's body in 1951, it had almost completely turned to ashes. But the rest of her apartment remained almost completely untouched.
He calls the case "the ashen woman," the story of Mary Reeser of St. Louis. In St. Petersburg, Florida, the following: On July 2, 1951, the landlady of the apartment, Pansy Carpenter, came to deliver a telegram. When she arrived, no one answered the door. She put her hand on the door handle, which turned out to be on fire, and called the police.
Authorities arrived at 1200 Cherry Street and discovered that 67-year-old Mary Rieser had burned to death in a mysterious fire. Reports said her body had disintegrated due to a "white, hot and intense fire."
There's not much left of the Rizer. One foot was wearing a slipper, which, oddly enough, showed no signs of charring, as well as part of the spine. A piece of her skull was also found, which was described as wrinkled.
Although the apartment was warm when the police arrived, most of its contents remained untouched. The plastic household items next to the seat where Rizer was sitting had softened and lost their shape. But the rest of the room was not affected by the flames, except for the carpet, which had a burn mark on it.
Cremation of a body takes three or four hours at a temperature of about 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit, so this issue was on the mind of the authorities.
Due to mysterious circumstances, it is believed that Rizer was a victim of spontaneous combustion. This happens when a person catches fire as a result of a chemical reaction occurring in his body, without any external sources of ignition. Although reports of spontaneous combustion were received as early as 1663, not all scientists are convinced of this.
Commander Cass Burgess was the detective on the Rieser case. He told reporters, "This fire is an interesting case."
Burgess and his team sent boxes of materials from the apartment to the FBI laboratory in Washington for chemical analysis. Among other things, there was a piece of carpet, fragments of walls and fragments of the chair in which Rieser was sitting at the time of her death.
The general public was also fascinated by the case. Coroner Ed Silk reported that at least fifteen amateur detectives had called him and told him their theories.
The detective team released a statement saying it was "an accident caused by a fire of unknown origin." Burgess said that this did not mean that the investigation was over: they had made a statement that the funeral could take place.
The FBI determined that Rieser's cause of death was not spontaneous combustion. However, the real reason still remains a mystery.
The FBI believed that Mary Rieser's body fat was the trigger for the fire that engulfed her body, possibly after she shot.
I smoked a cigarette and fell asleep. She began to burn and "when the body was set on fire, it was almost completely destroyed by its own adipose tissue."
It is true that human adipose tissue is highly flammable, especially in heavy people. And Rieser was a sturdy 170-pound woman.
Although the FBI's explanation had some logic, it provided only a partial solution, since not everything had been explained yet. For example, a stack of newspapers lying next to Rizer's chair remained completely untouched by the fire.
Dr. Wilton M. Krogman, a professor of physical anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania and an experienced fire safety investigator, disagreed with the FBI's conclusion. Krogman wrote that of all the fiery deaths he investigated, "I cannot imagine a complete cremation without burning the apartment."
It has been almost 70 years since Mary Reeser's death. Was it spontaneous combustion? Given how much time has passed since her death, it is unlikely that the true cause will ever be determined.
Original news
Kiedy policja odnalazła ciało Mary Reeser w 1951 roku, było prawie całkowicie obrócone w popiół. Ale reszta jej mieszkania pozostała praktycznie całkowicie nietknięta.
Nazywa sprawą ''kobiety z popiołu'', historia Mary Reeser z St. Petersburg na Florydzie prezentuje się następująco: 2 lipca 1951 roku właścicielka mieszkania, Pansy Carpenter, wpadła do jej lokum podrzucić telegram. Kiedy przybyła nikt nie otwierał. Położyła dłoń na klamce, która okazała się niezwykle parząca, więc zadzwoniła na policję.
Służby dotarły na 1200 Cherry Street by odnaleźć 67-letnią Mary Reeser spaloną na śmierć w wyniku tajemniczego ognia. Raporty podawały, że jej ciało rozpadło się na skutek ''białego, gorącego, intensywnego ognia''.
Z Reeser niewiele pozostało. Jedna stopa w kapciu, która co zadziwiające, nie pokazywała żadnych śladów zwęglenia, a także część jej kręgosłupa. Znaleziono też kawałek jej czaszki, który był opisywany jako skurczony.
Chociaż kiedy przybyła policja w mieszkaniu było ciepło, to większość jego zawartości pozostało nienaruszone. Plastikowe sprzęty domowe znajdujące się obok siedzenia, w którym siedziała Reeser zmiękły i straciły kształt. Ale reszta pokoju była nieporuszona przez płomienie, z wyjątkiem dywanu, który miał ślad przypalenia.
Potrzeba trzech lub czterech godzin w temperaturach około 3000 stopni Fahrenheita aby ciało zostało skremowane, dlatego też ta sprawa nie dawała spokoju władzom.
Z powodu tajemniczych okoliczności przypuszcza się, że Reeser była ofiarą spontanicznego samozapłaponu. Dochodzi do niego kiedy ktoś staje w płomieniach w wyniku reakcji chemicznej zachodzącej w jego ciele, bez żadnego zapalenia zewnętrznych źródeł ognia. Pomimo, iż istnieją zgłoszenia przypadków spontanicznego samozapłonu aż od 1663 roku, nie wszyscy naukowcy są przekonani.
Dowodzący Cass Burgess był detektywem w sprawie Reeser. Powiedział reporterom: ''Ten ogień to ciekawa sprawa".
Burgess i jego drużyna wysłali pudełka z materiałami z mieszkania do laboratorium FBI w Waszyngtonie w celu analizy chemicznej. Znajdowały się tam między innymi: kawałek dywanu, gruz ze ścian, a także fragmenty fotela, w którym siedziała Reeser w chwili swojej śmierci.
Szersza publika również była zafascynowana sprawą. Koroner Ed Silk zgłosił, że przynajmniej piętnastu detektywów-amatorów dzwoniło do niego ze swoimi teoriami.
Drużyna detektywów wydała oświadczenie mówiące, że była to ''przypadkowa śmierć spowodowana przez ogień niewiadomego pochodzenia''. Burgess powiedział, że nie oznaczało to, że kończyli śledztwo: wydali oświadczenie, aby mogło dojść do pochówku.
FBI ustaliło, że przyczyną śmierci Reeser nie był spontaniczny samozapłon. Jednak prawdziwa przyczyna wciąż pozostaje tajemnicą.
FBI uważało, że tłuszcz w ciele Mary Reeser zapewnił podpałkę dla ognia, który ogarnął jej ciało, być może po tym, jak odpaliła
papierosa i usnęła. Zaczęła się palić i ''kiedy ciało było podpalone doszło do prawie całkowitej destrukcji przez jej własną tkankę tłuszczową''.
Prawdą jest, że ludzka tkanka tłuszczowa jest łatwopalna, szczególnie u cięższych ludzi. A Reeser była krzepką kobietą o wadze 170 funtów.
Podczas gdy wyjaśnienie FBI miało za sobą pewną logikę, zapewniło jedynie częściowe rozwiązanie, ponieważ wciąż nie wszystko było wyjaśnione. Przykładowo, sterta gazet ułożona obok fotela Reeser pozostała zupełnie nienaruszona przez ogień.
Dr. Wilton M. Krogman, profesor antropologii fizycznej Uniwersytetu Pensylwanii i doświadczony badacz pożarów, nie zgodził się z wnioskiem FBI. Krogman napisał, że ze wszystkich śmierci w płomieniach, które badał ''nie mogę wyobrazić sobie całkowitej kremacji bez spalenia się mieszkania''.
Minęło prawie 70 lat od kiedy zmarła Mary Reeser. Czy był to spontaniczny samozapłon? Biorąc pod uwagę ile czasu minęło od jej zgonu, wydaje się nieprawdopodobne, że prawdziwa przyczyna zostanie kiedykolwiek ustalona.
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In July 1951, Mary Reeser mysteriously burned into a pile of ashes in her Florida home, but the apartment around her suffered almost no damage, leading to theories that she had spontaneously combusted.
The death of Mary Reeser more than 70 years ago continues to baffle people to this day — and for good reason. On the night of July 1, 1951, Reeser was reduced to a pile of ash in her St. Petersburg, Florida apartment.
Wikimedia CommonsMary Reeser, the woman who seemingly spontaneously combusted.
The chair she’d been sitting in at the time of her death burned as well, but aside from a bit of soot and a few melted light switches, the rest of her home was essentially untouched. How had Reeser’s body burned at a high enough temperature to be cremated without destroying the surrounding apartment?
Theories about Reeser’s “spontaneous combustion” soon spread far and wide. Local authorities were so stumped that they enlisted the help of the FBI.
Experts with the agency soon released a report about the death of Mary Reeser, including a simple explanation for the odd circumstances surrounding it. However, many remain skeptical — and the mystery of the “Cinder Woman” lives on.
The Bizarre Death Of Mary Reeser
On the morning of July 2, 1951, Reeser’s landlady Pansy Carpenter dropped by her apartment to deliver a telegram. Carpenter knocked on the door, but nobody answered. According to the Tampa Bay Times, she noticed that the knob was unusually hot, so she called the police.
Officers arrived at the apartment and discovered a pile of ashes where Reeser’s easy chair used to be. Within it, they found the chair’s coil springs, part of Reeser’s spine, her left foot still donning a black silk slipper, and her skull “shrunken to the size of a cup.” Reports at the time noted that the 67-year-old woman had been disintegrated by a blaze of “white-hot intensity.”
Yet for all the damage done to Reeser’s body, the majority of the surrounding apartment remained intact. A nearby candle had melted into a puddle of wax, the plastic light switch covers were warped, and the top half of the room was covered in a thin layer of soot — but everything else was seemingly untouched. Even the sheets on Reeser’s bed just a few feet from the fire were still pure white.
YouTubeMary Reeser’s leg was almost all that was left of her after the fire.
Since it typically requires several hours of steady temperatures over 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit for a body to be cremated, Mary Reeser’s case baffled authorities.
As the St. Petersburg Police began their investigation, they received several strange tips from various sources. One person wrote, “A ball of fire came through the open window and hit her. I seen it happen.” Another claimed someone had murdered Reeser, cremated her off-site, and returned her remains to the apartment to be found.
A month after Reeser’s death, St. Petersburg Police Chief J.R. Reichart released a statement saying the mystery was “the most unusual case I’ve seen during my almost 25 years of police work.” He decided to send a letter to the FBI, writing: “Dear Mr. Hoover, this fire is too puzzling for the small-town force to handle.”
The federal agency soon stepped in to solve the case.
Did Mary Reeser Die From Spontaneous Human Combustion?
One of the most popular theories about Reeser’s death was that she was a victim of spontaneous human combustion. This happens when a person bursts into flames from a chemical reaction in their body, without any apparent ignition of an external heat source. Though there have been accounts of alleged human combustion since 1663, not all scientists are convinced.
The FBI denied that Reeser had died from spontaneous human combustion, reporting instead that her untimely death was caused by something called the “wick effect.” The wick effect occurs when a person’s body fat feeds a fire for an extended period of time.
The official FBI report on Reeser’s case read:
“The body becomes ignited from outside cause… Once the body starts to burn there is enough fat… to permit varying amounts of destruction to take place. Sometimes this destruction by burning will proceed to a degree which results in almost complete combustion of the body.”
YouTubeAside from the spot where Mary Reeser’s chair was sitting, the rest of her apartment was essentially untouched by the flames.
According to Mary Reeser’s son, Dr. Richard Reeser Jr., who had visited her just hours before her death, his mother had planned to change into her nightgown, take two sleeping pills, and smoke a cigarette before bed.
FBI agents on the case believed that Reeser had fallen asleep while smoking, and hot ash from her cigarette had dropped onto her flammable nightgown and caught it on fire. Perhaps because of the sleeping pills, she died from smoke inhalation before she even knew she was burning. Her body fat — Reeser reportedly weighed 170 pounds — then sustained the flames as they essentially cremated her.
Ernestine Reeser, Mary Reeser’s daughter-in-law, agreed with the agency’s findings: “Mary was a great smoker. The cigarette dropped to her lap. Her fat was the fuel that kept her burning. The floor was cement, and the chair was by itself. There was nothing around her to burn.”
However, despite the FBI’s certainty about the events surrounding Reeser’s death, some experts are still skeptical.
Hypotheses
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