The Body on the Moors

[caz]

Caz, how would someone with such a plate get through the airport machines? Would they bleep, or what?

I don't know, Robert. My ex had his pin removed once the break had healed. But I imagine airports must have had to deal with passengers who have metal pins or plates fitted.

Yes I did wonder if the man drank strychnine having brought the wrong box, and thought he was drinking painkiller or morphine or something. But we still have the problem of why he appeared to be lying so peaceful.

I don't have the necessary medical knowledge, but I wondered if numbness due to hypothermia, and the system slowing right down, might stop the body contorting from the strychnine. Also, if someone knew they were dying slowly from exposure, would they suffer so badly that they would take anything just to end it quickly?

Love,

Caz
X

[Ginger]

It does a bit. (Taman shud, I thought) also a rock band here in Newie, later to become The Sunsets, knew a couple of them. Nothing to do with the case, but first time the names jelled, Taman Shud means Ended or similar in some language, Egyptian maybe?

It's the final line of Omar Khayyam's "Rubaiyat", and means "It is ended" or "The end" in Persian. The dead man had the last page of a rather uncommon small-press edition of the Rubaiyat hidden in his clothing.

[GUT]

I don't know. A few years ago a pair of sisters traveled from Australia to a particular city in Colorado so they could attempt a suicide pact at a place called the "Family Shooting Range"-- only one woman died, I think.

Okay, so maybe Neil has an assignment or an appointment which he decides not to carry out or keep. He eventually takes off for the forest, figuring to lose himself in the (semi-)wilderness, but someone trailed him, caught up with him while he was sleeping, and somehow got the poison into him. (Yes, I do like spy stories-- why do you ask?! )
Plenty of questions, still, but we might as well consider all options.

I recall that one, I think the 2nd sister was charged with something.

But don't recall ever hearing an outcome.

[Pcdunn]

I'm assuming the autopsy would have found any traces of Alzheimer's.

Suicides are strange fish, I know, but I find the idea of a man who wants to kill himself buying a sandwich somewhat odd.

I don't know. A few years ago a pair of sisters traveled from Australia to a particular city in Colorado so they could attempt a suicide pact at a place called the "Family Shooting Range"-- only one woman died, I think.

Okay, so maybe Neil has an assignment or an appointment which he decides not to carry out or keep. He eventually takes off for the forest, figuring to lose himself in the (semi-)wilderness, but someone trailed him, caught up with him while he was sleeping, and somehow got the poison into him. (Yes, I do like spy stories-- why do you ask?! )
Plenty of questions, still, but we might as well consider all options.

[Robert]

I'm assuming the autopsy would have found any traces of Alzheimer's.

Suicides are strange fish, I know, but I find the idea of a man who wants to kill himself buying a sandwich somewhat odd.

[Pcdunn]

It reminds me of the scene in the film "Little Big Man" in which an elderly Native American is lying on his burial platform, just waiting to die.

I wonder if all the wandering around at the train terminal was because "Neil Dovestones" was not yet decided about what he was doing, or was trying to see if anyone was following him, or was passing time aimlessly. He walks into shops and right out again, which seems to me to discount the last one.
But, you never know...

[Robert]

Caz, how would someone with such a plate get through the airport machines? Would they bleep, or what?

Yes I did wonder if the man drank strychnine having brought the wrong box, and thought he was drinking painkiller or morphine or something. But we still have the problem of why he appeared to be lying so peaceful.

[caz]

My ex husband broke his femur in a motorbike accident before we met, when he was a teenager, and had a pin fitted, which was later removed. I know the leg has given him considerable pain over the years, particularly in damp weather, so I could imagine someone with a worse injury having had enough of it in old age and wanting to end it all without any fuss. If he obtained the strychnine while in Pakistan he must have had his reasons for coming back to England to die alone. I do feel suicide is the most likely explanation. It looks like a lonely and voluntary journey up to the moors on that December day.

Love,

Caz
X

[Robert]

Indeed. I suppose one theory would be that he had arranged to meet someone, who then forced him to drink the poison and straightened out his body while leaving the empty bottle on his person. But that's just bizarre.

[Joshua Rogan]

I didn't think so, Robert, but what are the alternatives? The autopsy was wrong? His body was arranged after death? It's most perplexing....and also, as Caz says, very sad.

[Robert]

I doubt it, Joshua, unless he was a Vulcan.

[Joshua Rogan]

Yes, that was the first case that came to mind for me too; I wonder if they checked his coat for secret pockets? (If I recall correctly, the Persian words Tamam Shud were found on a piece of paper sewn into the coat lining of that body).

With regard to strychnine poisoning. I understand that it can cause severe muscle spasms and contractions before death, and the more the victim convulses, the more spasms are triggered. But, presumably, it's usually taken inadvertently or unknowingly. So I wonder if, having taken it on purpose and embraced death, it would be possible - using meditation, Jedi mind powers, etc - to remain calm and overcome the pain and the urge to writhe and twitch until the respiratory system shut down completely?

[GUT]

Very odd. It reminds me a bit of the Talman Shud case, doesn't it, Gut, in which a man, never identified, was found lying on a beach as if asleep, in 1948. He was believed to have died from some form of poisoning, like this man, and like him, there were no identification pointers on the body, at all, no wallet, papers, clothing labels, nothing.

Sometimes people just want to go somewhere peaceful to die, though I have to say that strychnine poisoning, though speedy, would be quite unpleasant, and you'd think the body would be twisted and the facial expression tortured.

It does a bit. (Taman shud, I thought) also a rock band here in Newie, later to become The Sunsets, knew a couple of them. Nothing to do with the case, but first time the names jelled, Taman Shud means Ended or similar in some language, Egyptian maybe?

[caz]

If not for the strychnine mystery I'd have guessed the man's aim was to lie down and let exposure to the elements do for him, given his unsuitable clothing and the unheeded warning about not getting back from the mountain in daylight. Could he have taken the poison when his body was already too cold and weak to respond to it in a way one might expect?

The return train ticket reminds me of poor Monty Druitt. Was it in case he couldn't go through with it? And was the strychnine for when he couldn't bear the cold any longer? Did the old leg injury give him intolerable pain?

What a sad story.

Love,

Caz
X

[Rosella]

Very odd. It reminds me a bit of the Talman Shud case, doesn't it, Gut, in which a man, never identified, was found lying on a beach as if asleep, in 1948. He was believed to have died from some form of poisoning, like this man, and like him, there were no identification pointers on the body, at all, no wallet, papers, clothing labels, nothing.

Sometimes people just want to go somewhere peaceful to die, though I have to say that strychnine poisoning, though speedy, would be quite unpleasant, and you'd think the body would be twisted and the facial expression tortured.