The Spontaneous Human Combustion Of Mary Reeser

this week on BuzzFeed and saw we discussed the incendiary and baffling death of Mary sir who media later labeled as the sender woman incendiary incendiary going on with a $5 word like that stick around for the last theory because it's something we've never discussed before on this show so let's get into it spoiler alert it's probably aliens on July 2nd 1951 in st. Petersburg Florida Mary Hardy Reiser was visited by her son in the evening at her apartment Mary told her son that she had taken two second 'el tablets a drug commonly used to calm patients before surgery and was possibly planning on taking two more before bed bad idea did she have a prescription for them no she did not however her son was actually a doctor I'm considering him a suspect feeding her sedatives he didn't eat herself go on mother to me this goes so much more dark well I just don't trust this boy yeah have some he'll smoke this cigarette goodnight he visited her she told him these things if it was truly alarming he probably would have said hey maybe don't do that okay or he's just a terrible doctor later that night Mary would fall asleep sitting in her upholstered chair for the last time as Mary would become the victim of an apparent house fire the next morning Mary's landlady would report smelling smoke at 5:00 a.m. but it wasn't until 8 a.m. when the landlady was on her way to deliver a telegram to Mary that she noticed the smell of smoke again she discovered soot in the hallway that led to Mary raisers apartment when she went to touch the door handle it was too hot for her to grab so the landlady enlisted the help of nearby house painters who made their way into the apartment this is a very irresponsible landlady if your tenants apartment smell like smoke I mean okay maybe check in on them this is being a little morbid but who's to say that a burning body doesn't smell like barbecue you know probably does say Oh meats me and maybe they thought oh man someone's making bacon maybe I'll do the same I'm just saying I don't I don't think it's weird that she didn't immediately jump into action at 5e well okay what they discovered was simultaneously horrify and confound the Tampa Bay Area inside the apartment they found the cremated remains of Mary Reiser a skull had reportedly shrunk to the size of a cup no of course it doesn't make sense it's weird has any skull shrunk at any other point in history oh man see now you're asking the right questions now you're acting like a detective and not like a jackass well at least one of us is doing it parts of research spine also remained but perhaps the most gruesome was Reser's left foot still in its black satin slipper the skin unburned the rest of Mary's remains had been completely cremated her legs were the size of little tiny teaspoons you don't think it's weird that all of her was gone except for his school parts of the spine and a foot that is still completely intact like nothing happened maybe she was like you know I always sit up with one of my feet up on the so you're saying that she was like sleeping back in like a like a comfy state like a talk show kind of state talk show like George Clooney on The Tonight Show I bet if you if George Clooney was on The Tonight Show and you set him on fire one of his feet would burn and the other one would probably would still be planted there on the floor and a very nice shoe Clooney's flammable Clooney is probably flammable you're probably right however what makes this case bizarre is the condition of Mary surroundings according to cremation experts from Mary's body to be cremated the body would have to burn at 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit for three to four hours yet somehow other than the chair that Mary sat in the surrounding area as well as the apartment in general seemed relatively unaffected by a fire that was at least 3,000 degrees in the corner where the fire occurred the nearby walls were not damaged showing no signs of scorching or cracked paint the upper walls and ceiling were blackened from soot and smoke but the lower half of the apartment was not light switches were melted but outlets below were intact and functioning candles on a nearby windowsill had melted but their wick stood upright a stack of newspapers in close proximity were undamaged neighbors to Mary's apartment were also somehow unaware of this fire firemen who came on the scene found the heat so intense that they quote couldn't stand it end quote but also found no signs of smoldering a fire that was too hot for firemen did not damage our apartment somehow too much fire here what do I look like a fireman Detective Chief Casper just described the case as perplexing dr. Wilton M Krogman professor of physical anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania was quote amazed and baffled as he cannot quote conceive of such a complete cremation without more burning of the apartment itself dr. Krogman also stated that in his 30-plus fire investigations he had never seen a skull shrink like Mary's head the skulls normally become swollen or explode investigators sent samples of the chair rug debris and smoke to an FBI laboratory for chemical analysis however the investigation did not find traces of combustibles what they did find was melted fat in the rug certain a foot that's all they got slip foot in the cup skull that's a bizarre version of a dr. Seuss book right there all this leads us to perhaps the most mysterious detail of the case the cause of the fire a local mattress company pointed out the regular tear stuffing would not cause such a fire the material would merely small there for a prolonged period lightning or electrical failure was also ruled out on the scene however the night before Mary was reportedly seen smoking his cigarette in that chair with that in mind the FBI and police believe that the fire most likely started because Mary fell asleep while smoking a cigarette which possibly led to her lighting her nightgown on fire this would enact something known as the wick effect where clothes act as a wick setting fire to the body the FBI felt that quote once the body became ignited almost complete destruction occurred from its own fatty tissues end quote at the time Mary weighed about a hundred and seventy pounds well there's no cigarette found that's fine because it'd be a dream yeah would be swift but I mean you would think they would fall on the floor maybe the flip didn't catch on fire the foot did not catch on fire one of them anyway another one oh yeah dead set up like Christmas at a glance that scenario seems plausible but is certainly not definitive here are some alternate theories as to how the fire started the first theory is ridiculous just go right it's ridiculous for me to say it's ridiculous as a first detective Burgess received a letter addressed to the chief of detectives that said quote a ball of fire came through the open window and hit her I seen it happen in quote I don't trust anyone who says I seen it happening I've seen it there's something we can agree on I don't think this is a credible source the second theory is that the fire was started purposefully some suggest that the fire could have been caused by thermite bombs kerosene magnesium and phosphorus and napalm but according to the coroner of the case all of those would leave a distinct odor none of which were detected at the scene the third and final theory is that Mary was a victim of spontaneous human combustion let's dive into the history of spontaneous human combustion allegedly there have been roughly 200 recorded cases of spontaneous combustion 200 200 okay all right just one your thing then okay I mean these are alleged cases or reported cases yeah so by me that's a lot of cases well okay keep going okay the earliest case of spontaneous human combustion dates back to 1470 in Milan Italy when Polonius forced Diaz died by bursting into flames after a night of drinking his gruesome death was recorded in 1641 by Thomas Barthel in a Danish mathematician and doctor can you imagine just being out having a good night with your pals drinking and you know toward the end of the night when you're like yeah what a fun night this has been can you imagine just exploding just catching on fire all your pals would be like huh immediate buzzkill yeah I'd say that not a good night I think we could have blowed the grad for him or his friends in 1745 the countess Cornelia bandy of Cessna Italy was found burnt to a pile of ashes with only her legs intact skipping forward to modern times in 1982 the family of genes offend claimed they saw her burst into flames in her London home in 2010 a coroner claimed spontaneous human combustion to be the cause of death of 76 year old Irishman Michael Flaherty who was found in his home with none of his surroundings badly tarnished and of course Mary sir who many believe is a victim of spontaneous human combustion it's a very European to burst into flames I don't think incendiary behavior is exclusive to Europe because she happened in Florida I know I'm just saying your head down you just look like a jackass people explode the fear about it put it dad you want to look into this runs deep now let's get into the science of spontaneous human combustion the human combustion process involves internal fluids turning into gas and the melted fat of the body further burning organs and bones if you recall that was found in the rug at the scene of Mary racers dead some considered the possibility of spontaneous human combustion to be questionable since the body is made up of up to 70% of water though there are components of the body that are flammable such as body fat and methane gas unproven theories as to why the body would ignite so easily include static electricity bacteria stress obesity and alcohol consumption some also believe that human cells may reach a heightened state of vulnerability to ignite in 2012 in an issue of New Scientist magazine biologist Brian J Ford theorizes that a large concentration of acetate in the body may contribute to spontaneous combustion acetone build-up could result from alcohol intake variations and diet and diabetes cases of spontaneous combustion typically contain these three characteristics surroundings of the site of the fire are not drastically damaged there is no visible source of the fire and finally parts of the body are left intact and adjacent to the ashes all of these were present in Mary sirs case when I think spontaneous combustion I think like BAM like a pop balloon just little shards of person just exploding no I I think what you should be thinking if someone just immediately lighting on fire like that asshole and fantastic for now what do you have against him well I hate that movie a movie said it's not a good movie spontaneous doesn't mean instantaneous when if something spontaneously happened slowly Dainius tornado came up came up twirling over the mountain this thought you're having right now is not very spontaneous no it's certainly not another perplexing detail is why Mary along with other suspected victims of spontaneous human combustion do not try and escape their death or in any way indicate that they are on freaking fire the lack of evidence of fighting for one's life is potentially damning in regards to the cigarette theory yeah I was gonna say if my clothes are on fire I'll do a little dance to try and get them out stop drop and roll what have you I think the only thing I could think of is by the time they're on fire they're dead already because they combusted that would perhaps explain why no one's running around the room no maybe she just passed out or died or something if this was the only isolated case that maybe there's every one of these the surroundings aren't damaged and they're just contained at a little small area I don't think she could have sat still while she was cremated I think fire being on fire would wake anybody up dr. Krogman is quoted as saying about the case quote they say truth is stranger than fiction in this case apparently proves it I've never heard of anything like it and gluten was this dr. rod serling episode of the toilet it's so I mean it was quite profound and I found I found it probably never had a doctor speak to me like that I wouldn't you want to if I showed up and a doctor just started unraveling strange little tales they say truth is stranger than fiction physically give me some ibuprofen or there's no definitive answer to what happened to Mary sir did she simply set herself on fire in an unfortunate accident involving a cigarette was she a victim of the controversial spontaneous human combustion or perhaps the answer lies within something we haven't discovered yet for now the unfortunate case of Mary Reaser remains unsolved some believe there's so many cases of this happening in such contained you know confines of the blast radius the answer could lie with extraterrestrial origin what if aliens just get drunk and fly around the universe and people's skulls in tournament a little pot yeah you could see how aliens would be involved in kind of like shenanigans and like being hooligans like that bodies are weird I made a little flip book of that's her exploding that's a fireball well I'll leave you here here's ridiculous you

Channel: BuzzFeed Multiplayer

Views: 7,318,118

Rating: 4.9475327 out of 5

Keywords: Buzzfeed unsolved, BuzzFeed, unsolved, mystery, unsolved mystery, unexplained, investigation, investigate, investigative, true crime, crime, criminal, theory, theories, case, cold case, cold-case, detective, detectives, scary, spooky, creepy, eerie, weird, strange, haunted, ghost, monster, demon, spontaneous human combustion, spontaneous, human, combustion, fire, Mary, Reeser, burn, cremation, cremate, cinder woman, cinder, woman

Id: 4hVrSEWrKDY

Length: 13min 37sec (817 seconds)

Published: Fri May 19 2017