The Case of Peter Bergmann
In June 2009, a man with graying hair and a leather jacket arrived in Sligo, Ireland, on a bus. His intention, it seems, was to disappear without a trace.
His whereabouts and real name remain a mystery; the only thing that is certain is that he traveled extensively to erase all evidence of his existence before dying on a beach at Rosses Point.
When his body was found, he had no documents with him, nor anything that could give any clue to his identity. Even the labels on his clothes had been removed.
The man arrived at the Sligo bus station on June 12, 2009 at 6:28 p.m. He was carrying a shoulder bag and a larger duffel bag. He took a taxi to the Sligo City Hotel, paid for his room in cash, and gave the name Peter Bergmann and an address in Austria. The man had a strong German accent, but investigations after his death revealed that there is no Peter Bergmann in Europe, America or South America who fits the description of the mystery man and that the address given was that of an abandoned field.
Every morning for three days the man leaves the hotel with a purple plastic bag and returns without it. We now know that he was gradually disappearing his clothes and belongings, in fact no personal effects were found during the investigation after his death.
CCTV footage of him is scarce, indicating that Peter had planned the whole thing very carefully to leave as few traces as possible. There are many CCTV cameras in Sligo and they are all clearly visible. The man must have avoided them as much as possible, disposing of his belongings far from the town.
The police said they searched everywhere for clues that could lead to his identification: rubbish bins, public parks, private gardens, car parks and even the local landfill. Unfortunately, to no avail.
On his second day in Sligo, Peter buys an 82-cent stamp at the post office. It was never discovered who he was sending the letters to or where.
The day before his body was found, Peter asks a taxi driver to take him to the quietest beach in Sligo for a swim. The taxi driver takes him to Rosses Point. Once there, he gets out of the taxi, looks around smugly, and then returns to the taxi to be taken back to Sligo. He has found the place he wants to die.
The next day he will buy a one-way ticket to Rosses Point after checking out.
Peter leaves the hotel with three bags, including a plastic violet, but arrives at the bus station with only two bags. There he stops for a sandwich and a cappuccino.
Although he did not speak to anyone, many people remember seeing him at the beach. One couple remember seeing him and saying hello at 10:30 p.m. on June 15. At dawn on June 16, his body was found by a man who had gone to the beach for a run.
There were also some oddities: the man had removed all the labels from his clothes, even those from his underwear, which indicates how carefully he had taken care not to leave any traces.
The autopsy revealed that he had died by drowning, but also that the man suffered from prostate cancer with bone tumors and that he had suffered from heart attacks in the past. However, there was no medicine in his body, not even traces of a common aspirin.
The police tried in vain to solve the mystery of his identity, showing Peter's photo not only in Ireland but throughout Europe. They took his DNA and fingerprints and sent them to all the police forces. Once again, no results. Continue reading
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