Lindow Moss Is A Peat Bog In England That Has Been Plagued With The Mysterious Discoveries Of Hundreds Of Well-Preserved Bodies For Centuries
Around 11,000 years ago, melting ice formed the bog now known as Lindow Moss in northwest England. It stretches across 1,500 acres on the outskirts of Wilmslow, a town in the county of Cheshire.
In the 15th and 16th centuries, it was common practice to cut and dry peat from the bog to sell as fuel for stoves or soil for crops. The tradition continued into the 20th century. By the 1980s, the growth of technology had led this whole process to be performed with the help of machines.
In 1983, workers were digging for peat in the bog when they came across a human skull. The skull was missing its jaw, but some skin, hair, and an eyeball were still intact. The police were contacted immediately, and the remains were identified as belonging to a woman between 30 and 50 years old.
It turned out that a man named Peter Reyn-Bardt had murdered his wife, Malika Maria de Fernandez, after she caught him having an affair with a man. Fernandez demanded money from Reyn-Bardt, threatening to expose the fact that he was gay if he didn’t pay up.
He didn’t have any money to offer her. Terrified, he grabbed her shoulders and shook her, trying to make her see reason. Then, he realized she was dead. He used an axe to chop up her remains and threw her body parts into the bog.
Even with the clear confession, a detective named George Abbott felt that some details were missing. He sent the skull to Oxford University for further analysis.
A professor from the archaeology department at the university found that the skull actually dated to Roman Britain, so there was no way it could be Fernandez. Reyn-Bardt tried to take back his confession, but a jury convicted him of murder. He spent the rest of his life in prison.
In 1984, another gruesome discovery was made in the peat bog: a leg complete with toenails. The next day, a well-preserved body was found at the site.
After scientists studied the remains, they declared that the leg and the skull uncovered the previous year were actually from a man who died sometime around A.D. 60.
Alexandra – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only
He became known as the Lindow Man. He was in his mid to late twenties, stood at five feet and six inches tall, had well-manicured nails, and sported neatly trimmed brown hair and mustache.
His body showed signs of multiple injuries, including blows to his head from a blunt object, a cord wrapped around his neck, a cut from the throat to the neck, and a sharp kick to his back. All these acts of violence led to a broken neck and a fractured skull.
For centuries, hundreds of other similarly preserved bodies have been pulled out of Lindow Moss. And they all showed evidence of deformities of some kind.
There is no clear explanation for how these bodies ended up in the bog, but experts believe that the most likely reason is that they were killed during ritual sacrifices.
As technology improves and new finds are made, perhaps more information can be pieced together. But for now, the mystery of the bodies in the bog goes on unsolved.
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