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After his death it became clear that there was no such person as Peter Bergmann who fit his description or age anywhere in Europe, America or South America. It just shows the level of planning, the level of detail he had gone into to ensure that he was never identified,”, “We were obviously getting a picture at that stage that this man had meticulously planned his final days, his final act. I stood for a few minutes and felt my thoughts drift, staring at the whiteness of the water as it bled out into the Atlantic Ocean. There will be someone there to carry the heartbreak long after police resources and media interest have run dry. Have you taken a DNA test? In June 2009, a man with grey hair and a leather jacket arrived in County Sligo by bus with the intention of disappearing without a single trace. One June afternoon in 2009, a thin man dressed in black boarded a bus to Sligo, a small coastal town not far from the Irish border. Though he hadn’t spoken to anyone on the beach, a couple of people he’d crossed paths with have spoken in the documentary about their impressions of Peter Bergmann – that he definitely stood out in his black, professional clothing, and that he was pacing around, seemingly in another world. "We don't get fascinated in cases," he said. He told me how he much he hates the word "closure," which crops up so often in any conversation involving the missing, Bergmann included. If not, see our friends at Ancestry DNA. It is now a waiting game may go on forever. "There seems to have been a purpose to it," he said. The bus departed at 2:20 p.m. to Rosses Point. That said, he did also have two bags to carry, and his graying hair and slight frame suggested he could have used the help. No money, no wallet, no forms of ID. In September 2019 I met Treasa Nealon, writer of A Dream of Dying—a play telling the Bergmann story in reverse, which kickstarted my fascination with the case over three years ago. In my last few hours in Sligo, I did what I told myself I had to do, as I arrived at Rosses Point. And what was it that I even hoped to find? They all remember a jovial, if formally-dressed, figure greeting the strangers who crossed his path. One even suggests that the whole thing was an elaborate hoax, cooked up by Irish filmmaker Ciaran Cassidy—whose 2013 documentary The Last Days of Peter Bergmann was until recently some of the only media coverage of the case—as some kind of avant-garde comment on our macabre fascination with true crime. With the same pen he gave his name as Peter Bergmann. Instead of deep memory and grief, we have snatched recollections gleaned from a cluster of chance encounters. The toxicology report showed no evidence of painkillers either, not even aspirin. But they can often speak to nothing else than the missing person's own private mysteries. Investigators think Bergmann may have believed that his body would be washed out to sea and never found. We talked over what we knew of the case. The story seemed to stir something in her, empathy and creativity in equal measure. The shuffling, scrupulously-careful figure had left the hotel each day armed with his purple plastic bag, full, and returned with it empty. Perhaps his story was an extreme manifestation of taking back control. indeed. He left one of his original bags—a purple plastic "bag for life"—and what appeared to be a new black luggage case.
I visited Sligo for the first time on a Friday in May 2019. We identified them eight years later with assistance from the Welsh police, through fingerprint technology. But despite the ongoing interest—buoyed by a recent Irish Times podcast about the case—Ray Mulderrig told me that no one has ever come forward with anything truly convincing.
Just after 1 p.m. on Monday, June 15, Peter Bergmann checked out of the hotel and deposited his key at reception. "Everything he did seemed to have had a purpose, from cutting the labels of his clothes and all the rest of it. Genealogy for Peter Bergmann (1887 - 1887) family tree on Geni, with over 190 million profiles of ancestors and living relatives. He had suffered previous heart attacks and was missing a kidney. Peter Bergmann's body had been taken to post mortem.
And the lengths that he went to were just unbelievable.”. Almost everything in their power has been attempted. WIKITREE HOME | ABOUT | G2G FORUM | HELP | SEARCH.
I made my way straight to the Sligo City Hotel. And got back into the taxi and returned back into Sligo itself. It was quickly established that he'd drowned, though there wasn't any hint of foul play. Basics. There are all sorts of ways we deal with the dead. Leave a message for others who see this profile. Others, that he was trying to claim a life insurance policy for his loved ones. He was at the end of illness and wanted to die, so he did it, with a rare kind of premeditated thoroughness. Investigators believe that his scant appearances on CCTV cameras indicate he had carefully planned out his daily routes to avoid detection. There he bought a cappuccino and a sandwich. Missing people were one thing; this was becoming something else entirely, almost supernatural in its intrigue. Everything he left us with is just so sad. The pockets were empty. Solving the case is a moral issue, just as all missing persons cases are to Tosh. The family appealed for privacy and the specifics have never been released, at their request. His body was discovered several days later, with an immediate verdict of suicide. They had thought him alive, and that he had simply cut ties with them and left for a life far away from his beginnings. The award-winning documentary, directed by Ciaran Cassidy, produced by Morgan Bushe and edited by John Murphy, tracks Bergmann’s first known appearance in Ireland as the moment he boarded a bus in Derry's bus terminal, where he was quite explicit about the fact that he wanted to go to Sligo.
Become a Friend of IrishCentral - help us to continue bringing Ireland to you, Coronavirus live updates: Ten deaths reported between NI and RoI today, Making the dead welcome - All Souls’ Day in Ireland, Bobby Kennedy killed Marilyn Monroe claims ex-boyfriend, Godfather actor, A Mammy’s recipe for traditional Irish egg salad sandwiches, On This Day: Pro-slavery advocate John Mitchel is born in Derry, Derry woman who battled coronavirus shares heartfelt plea, Eve Hewson reaches a career best in 'The True Adventures Of Wolfboy'. He ran some errands around town and arrived back at the hotel to eat and take an occasional cigarette outside, keeping himself politely but firmly to himself. We go, we search, we look. "When something new comes up, or someone credible comes forward, then we will move the mouse and it will spring back into action.". For every Peter Bergmann who grabs attention and headlines, there is a case like that of the male skull that was recovered at sea in February of 2006. He had been found naked, his clothes scattered across the shore.
The Last Days of Peter Bergmann Trailer from Fastnet Films on Vimeo. I suppose I was trying to wonder what it must have felt like for the man who had called himself Peter Bergmann as he stood here, full of resolution and God knows what else, all those years ago. The question you have to ask is: Why Sligo? Sign up for our newsletter to get the best of VICE delivered to your inbox daily. With Peter Bergmann, there are no loved ones that we know of, and only professionally concerned advocates pressing for answers. Login to find your connection. Ten years later, police, journalists, and internet sleuths are still trying to work out what happened.