#34: The Case of Mary Reeser
Sometimes in life, things happen that truly test our ability to comprehend certain situations. Mary Reeser was an elderly resident of Saint Petersburg, Florida, who enjoyed her downtime and being at home like most people her age. On July 2nd of, 1951, Mary was visited by her son Dr. Richard Reeser who told her she had taken several sedatives to help her sleep. As planned, the sedatives allowed Mary to fall into a deep sleep in her upholstered chair. However, Mary didn’t know that she would not wake. Mary had fallen victim to a house fire, but when authorities came to understand what happened, they were in shock.
Mary’s landlord was the first person to find Mary after she had smelt smoke coming from Mary’s apartment, and what she found there was truly shocking. Mary’s body was completely cremated, and all that remained was her shriveled skull, parts of her spine, and left foot, which was still in its shoe, completely unburned. The circumstances of this death were very odd, considering that in order for a body to be cremated, it needs to burn at a temperature higher than 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit for at least 3-4 hours. But this seemed like a case of spontaneous human combustion. There were no burn marks on the wall, and the neighbors were unaware of the fire. The authorities claimed that she had fallen asleep whilst smoking and engulfed herself in flames through the wick effect… But there are still many people to this day that do not believe that.