The skeleton of a German retiree who tied himself to the top of a tree and shot himself to death nearly 30 years ago has been found by a hiker.
German police in the southern town of Landshut said on Monday the 69-year-old man disappeared in 1980 and had been classified as missing.
An 18-year-old hiker discovered a bone in the forest last week and brought it to police. They searched the area and spotted the skeleton hanging about 11 meters up, near the top of the spruce tree.
“After searching the area we found the skeleton up in the tree with the pistol hanging on a rope next to it,” police spokesman Leonard Mayer said. Police were able to identify the man through DNA testing and an artificial hip.
Kind of gives new meaning to “hanging out in the woods”, eh?
If a guy shoots himself in the woods and no one hears it, is he really dead?
#1 – good one, but that’s why he was declared missing 🙂
That is as unique a suicide that I have ever read about. Very creative. I give him a A for effort and execution (no pun intended).
It was nice of this man to feed the animals, for awhile.
Hey, is that bird mocking me??
He thought nobody cared and he might have been right.
Red-winged Blackbird
#2 – Carcarius – I give him a A for effort and execution (no pun intended).
I give him an A for originality.
Must of been someone’s boss who was sorely missed
That’s pretty disgusting if you ask me. I can only imagine what it felt like to find a dead guy in a tree. I’d probably shit my pants finding something or someone like that!
Why do they assume it was suicide?
Someone could have shot him, then winched the body up the tree and tied it there.
#10. Yes, that makes sense.
#10, chuck,
Why do they assume it was suicide?
Someone could have shot him, then winched the body up the tree and tied it there.
No skid marks in his undies?
Wondering if this was an insurance scam. Most policies don’t pay for suicides due to the scams from the First Great Depression.
Commit suicide where no one will find you until well after the policy pays the benefactors.
Well if they find he shot himself in the head twice then it may not be a suicide.
As an avid hiker, I can totally believe this story. Most people don’t look up!
>> It was nice of this man to feed the animals, for awhile.
I used to live near a Zoroastrian temple where they did “sky burials” (or so I was told. I never actually saw it.)
Most of my neighbors thought it was disgusting but I always like the symbolism of it.
But, I always feared that one of the kites would bring a body part into my backyard to finish it off there!
Most policies don’t pay for suicides
A common misconception.
There is a waiting period (a year or two) but most life insurance policies WILL pay off on a suicide.
Mine does. I sleep with a gun under my pillow in case I wake up in the middle of the night and need to kill myself.
Inefficiency of resources. He has rope and is at the top of a tree. What did he need the gun for again?
And what was the point of going to the trouble of tying the pistol to a rope?
#16 – Can I have your stereo?
Those red wing blackbirds are obnoxious, territorial little barstards. In the warmer months they harass me as I jog up and down my country road, like they own the place.
The poor fella had to attach the gun to a rope because, it probaly took all day to climb the tree (with his dodgy hip too) and bind himself to the tree. It would have seriously narked him, if after all that he’d dropped the gun before he had a chance to shoot himself. He would have been hanging up there for days before he died.