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Welcome back to the Path Went Chile
for part two of our series about the

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death of an unidentified deceed known only
as Peter Bergmann. Robin, do you

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want to catch everyone up of what
we talked about in our previous episode.

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Well, this case takes place in
two thousand and nine in the town in

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Ireland called Sligo, and Involl was
a middle aged man who showed up there

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and decided to check into a local
hotel under the name Peter Bergman, but

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he did not provide any identification and
it turned out that was not his real

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name. He spent three nights at
the hotel and CCTV footage captured his movements

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during that time period. It appeared
he would exit the hotel caring personal items,

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and then they would be gone whenever
he returned, so it almost appeared

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like he was gradually disposing of all
clues to his identity because he didn't want

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anyone to find out who he was. And after he checked out of the

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hotel, he traveled to a beach
in a village called Ross's Point and numerous

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witnesses saw him hanging around the beach
for about eight hours or so, but

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the following morning he was found dead. His body had gone into the water,

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he was wearing limited clothing, but
it turned out that his exact cause

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of death was actually cardiac arrest rather
than drowning, and when a medical toxicology

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report was performed, it turned out
that he had prostate cancer and likely would

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have only lived for a couple more
weeks if he had not died on that

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date, But it showed no trace
of drugs in his system, and it

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did show that he had a history
of three previous heart attacks. But some

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of the personal items of his like
his clothing, were found on the beach

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to him. A lot of his
items that he was shown carrying on the

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CCTV footage was never found, so
there's a lot of mystery surrounding his death.

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People have speculated that he traveled to
this place in Ireland because he wanted

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to end his own life on his
own terms, but he didn't want anyone

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to find out what happened to him, which is why all form of identification

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was disposed of. All the people
who spoke to him said that it sounded

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like he had an Austrian or German
accent, and when he signed into the

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hotel, he provided the address for
a place in Austria which turned out to

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not even exist. So they've spent
the last fifteen years or so trying to

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figure out who he is, but
they haven't had any success, even though

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there's actual CCTV footage of him and
actual photographs that have been released to the

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public, but no one has ever
come forward to say that they recognize him,

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and that's why this case is still
unsolved to this day. So in

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October of twenty nineteen, one of
the investigators on this case, Detective Inspector

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Ray Mulderigg of the Sligo Guardee,
was interviewed for an article in Vice magazine.

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He expressed his belief that Peter Bergmann
had chosen to travel to Sligo for

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a reason, stating quote, there
seems to have been a purpose to it.

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Everything he did seem to have had
a purpose, from cutting the labels

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of his clothes and all the rest
of it. The question you have to

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ask is why Sligo. If you
want a scenic place to die, you're

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spoilt for choice across the west coast
of Ireland or even Scotland for that matter.

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Something must have brought him here.
Even if we've never been able to

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say what that was end quote.
Indeed, the consensus seems to be that

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Peter was definitely not a native of
Ireland, unlikely hailed from Austria or possibly

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even Germany, So what made him
travel the county Sligo. Another complication in

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this case is that even though Peter's
actions suggests that he had planned an elaborate

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suicide, we can't even be one
hundred percent certain how Peter died. I'm

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going to make a comparison to a
case which we once covered on a path

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went Chile Bonus Patreon Minniesote, and
that's the twenty fourteen death of Alan Jeel.

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Alan was a sixty four year old
man whose nude body was found washed

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up on Parentporth Beach in England,
and he was not carrying any identification.

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In fact, the only reason Alan
was identified was because he had been carrying

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an old photograph of himself as a
toddler, and his siblings recognized it when

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it was circulated throughout the media.
It turned out that Alan lived in another

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town located twenty five miles away,
and much like Peter Bergman, CCTV footage

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would tract Allan's movements in the hours
prior to his death, but no one

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could figure out why he traveled to
Parentport or if he died by suicide,

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homicide, or accidental drowning. And
to make another comparison to Peter's case,

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Alan's clothing and a lot of his
personal items he had been carrying around were

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never recovered. Alan was pretty much
considered to be a loner and he may

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have planned to travel to a location
which he found comforting in order to end

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his own life. You get the
sense that this was the same situation with

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Peter and that for whatever reason,
he decided that the beach in Ross's Point

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would be his ideal final destination.
What's really intriguing about this, though,

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is that he asked the cab driver, can you take me to a beach

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nearby? Right? Can you take
me over to a beach? And he

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goes to multiple locations to these beaches, so he's not super familiar with them.

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If it was me, I would
think I would do exactly what you've

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said. I would go to a
place that had some kind of nostalgia,

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that had some kind of dream moment
for me. And even the detectives and

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investigators are saying this is not really
the place I would have picked. When

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you think about all of the beautiful
locations around where he could have gone,

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even from this point where he was
at, why this location it doesn't seem

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to be a place that he's familiar
with, It doesn't seem to be a

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comforting area unless he literally part of
the plane is just I'm going to go

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on a whim in the moment when
I feel right, I'm going to find

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a place in the moment that feels
safe and peaceful, and it happens to

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be this random beach. But it's
really interesting that there's really no tie.

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There's no way of knowing what it
would have meant to him, But we

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know he wasn't familiar or he wouldn't
have asked the cab driver to take him

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to this random place. And then
to add on top of it that he

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died via cardiac arrest. It makes
you wonder was he really going to this

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elaborate measure to complete suicide and then
his body gives out right at the end

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that this cardiac arrest is what takes
him and not his plan to end his

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life with dignity. It's very very
interesting the cause of death and in the

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momentary plans that were leading up to
being on that beach in that moment.

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Yeah, going back to the Alan
Jill case, it was established that the

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town where he died parentpoor that was
a place where he spent his childhood and

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had probably some of his happiest,
fondest memories. So if it was a

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suicide, you could understand why he
chose to travel to that location. But

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for Peter Bergman, he has no
ties to Ireland that anyone could know of.

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He did not know about this particular
beach beforehand, since he asked the

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cab driver to recommend a place,
and he also did not seem to have

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too much familiarity with Sligo. So
it's still a big mystery like why if

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he would travel to Ireland, and
if he wasn't planning a suicide, would

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what would it be his reason for
going here to begin with? Maybe it

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was just so simple as he had
absolutely zero connections in Ireland and he thought

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the potential for his identity being discovered
if his plan was to complete suicide,

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would be slim to none. And
perhaps all he really required was the ocean.

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Maybe he was a big ocean lover, or he was drawn to water

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like so many of us are,
and just the idea that he would be

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able to end his own life in
water could have been enough for him to

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go, I've got no connections to
Ireland, no one's going to find out

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who I am there. I'm going
to dispose of any personal identification or things

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that could lead back to my true
identity, and then I've got the beach

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here, and then that's all I
require moving forward with the plan to complete

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suicide. If that was indeed what
he was doing. If it was what

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he was doing, it does seem
very serendipitous that before he was able to

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do that, he would be struck
down by a heart attack at that exact

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moment. The timing seems just so
bizarre and uncanny that it's just such an

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interesting element to this case. Yeah, it's just why this story stood out

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so much because it is just so
bizarre and unique. And if that was

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his plan to travel to a place
where he had no connection so that no

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one would identify him, then it
technically did work, because no one has

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ever come forward who recognizes him.
It's been theorized that Peter may have wanted

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to drown himself and hope that his
body would be washed away in the Atlantic

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Ocean forever. But it sounds like
there was just not enough salt water in

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his lungs for his cause of death
to have been drowning. I really don't

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get the impression that there was any
foul play involved, and the medical examiner

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seemed to believe that Peter died of
an acute cardiac arrest, suffering a fatal

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heart attack at the exact same time
you're planning to unlive yourself. Seems like

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one hell of a coincidence. But
given how the autopsy indicated that Peter likely

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had a prior history of heart attacks, I suppose it's not impossible. On

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our last episode, we mentioned that
this story was featured in a short documentary

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titled The Last Days of Peter Bergman, and if you go on YouTube you

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can find handheld footage of a Q
and A with the director Kieran Cassidy following

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it screening at the Sundance Film Festival
in twenty fourteen. Cassidy says that the

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coroner told him he suspected Peter may
have taken a fatal dose of cyanide to

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end his life, but we have
not seen this information corroborated by any other

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sources. However, even though no
medication or drugs were found in Peter's system,

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I guess he could have ingested something
which caused his death and it was

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never detected during the autopsy. And
I think you have to step back and

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say what did the autopsy actually test
for? Because there's so many levels of

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testing you can do for substances that
could be so in somebody's body, and

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that's how you see these cases where
someone has poisoned someone and because they weren't

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looking for that chemical, because there
wasn't a test for that specific drug or

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whatever is going on, it is
missed. And so if it's this idea

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that this is a person who's very
clearly sick, they have cancer riddled throughout

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their body, they have other issues
where you can see his heart has struggled

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and he's had multiple heart attacks,
then maybe they're not looking as carefully as

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possible, saying hey, listen,
are we going to run all of the

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toxicology reports? Are we simply going
to do these basic tests, therefore missing

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something like cyanide I mean, I
think it is a possible ability that they

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simply didn't run the test given what
his body was already telling them. The

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standard panel's pretty basic, right,
It's going to be testing for like alcohol,

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marijuana, cocaine, methampheta means all
those types of things. So unless

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they know what to test for,
it's so hard to pinpoint it. Like

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look at the case of like Alexander
Livinenko, the one who was the Russian

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who was poisoned in the UK with
their radioactive isotope. I can't remember exactly

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which one, and it took them
so long to figure out exactly what happened,

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how it was administered, and what
was causing this rapid deterioration. But

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do either of you know that in
the case of the ingestion of cyanide,

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is cardiac arrest the first thing that
it causes A good question. I'm going

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to look that up. It says
at Wikipedia at least that early symptoms of

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cyanid poisoning include headache, dizziness,
fast heart rate, shortness of breath,

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and vomited and this phase mean and
this phase may then be followed by seizures,

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slow heart rate, low blood pressure, loss of consciousness, and cardiac

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arrest. So that is one of
the symptoms. Yeah, it says that

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suicide attempts are the primary cause.
This is from a medical journal or the

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suicide attempts with the primary cause of
a cyanide intake, and the majority of

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these attempts are fatal. Cyanide induced
cardiac arrest or hypotension is one of the

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most common causes of death through the
ingestion of cyanide. How easy do you

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want to check? How easy it
is to see the effects of cyanide,

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Like would a medical examiner upon doing
an autopsy think, oh, there's something

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strange here, there's been this cascade
of effects, or would it simply pass

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for a heart attack unless you specifically
did a panel testing for cyanide, Like

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with something in the autopsy indicate that
they should test for cyanide. Let's see,

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Like it says it can be detected
in an autopsy, but it depends

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on if you're looking for it.
And I am reading that detection of cyanide

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poisoning can be difficult, so it's
possible that And it says that a lot

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of the effects of ingestion are similar
to the effects of suffocation, so as

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possible it could be missed if they're
not looking hard enough. And what I

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think here is you have to look
at if you were the medical examiner and

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you found this body washed up on
shore and you start to explore his body

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and you see a heart that is
sick. Right he's supposedly they were able

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to tell you had multiple heart attacks. So right there, you're going,

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my gosh, this is a sick
heart and it looks like it actually stopped

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and that was the cause of death
based on the fact that there wasn't water

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in the lungs and things like that, and then you see that he has

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an advanced stage of prostate cancer,
which means cancer could have spread to other

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parts of the body. I think
it would have been one of those where

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you very quickly say, given that
he was found in the water, there's

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no water in his lungs, and
his heart clearly stopped, and we have

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this cardiac arrest present in his heart
and a sick heart. On top of

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that, we're able to see that
it has multiple histories of issues. Then

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I don't know that you would dig
much further. There's no sign that drowning

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caused it. And then you see
that he's very sick, and then his

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heart stopped, and I bet he
may have if that is the case he

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may have bet on that. Why
would they test for sinide poisoning? They're

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going to see a very sick man
who's in advanced age of prostate cancer with

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a weak heart, who has a
history of heart attack, So why would

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they dig any further and why would
they assume anything other than he was just

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struck down by a heart attack.
But then when you have the director Tacidy

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Caring Cassidy saying that there was potentially
cyanide adjusted, then the serendipitous timing of

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this heart attack is called into question
and you go, okay, well did

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he just attempt to ingest something that
wouldn't have been tested for at a regular

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drug panel. And if we look
at his behavior leading up to what could

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have been his suicide or just you
know, a medical cardiac event that led

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to his death, then we have
to think, like the cutting off of

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the labels and the disposing of identification
or anything linked to himself, then it

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is very possible that he would have
chosen a substance like sinide. But then

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the other question is what would he
have been doing in what type of a

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line of work would he have been
in to have had access to cyanide,

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because you can't just go out and
buy it. I want to say you

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can get it on I mean the
dark Way. Yeah, I was going

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to say, I feel like if
I wanted it, I could get it.

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But what year was, like,
uh dread Pygriate, Roberts and the

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Silk Road. What year did that
start? Because before that it would have

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been a lot harder. Oh it
was twenty eleven and this take took place

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in two thousand and nine, so
I don't know if it would have been

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more difficult to obtain cyanide at this
point. Also, think about this,

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if you knew I'm dying I wanted
to, I would dig I don't want

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to be a burden on my family
anymore. And he really is going to

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end his life. He buys that
one way ticket. He says, take

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me to this place that's a peaceful
beach, and he scopes a mound and

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00:16:10.799 --> 00:16:15.320
he goes back the next day.
If that's the case, can you imagine

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the fear of drowning to death.
That seems like one of the most brutal,

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horrific moments that could ever happen.
So if I knew that I wanted

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to end my life, it is
a much more ideal situation that I ingest

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something that's going to cause me to
die, and then I would be taken

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out to see after I knew that
I was either unconscious or deceased. So

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I think that could very well have
been part of his plan as at Cyanide.

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Who knows, but if there was
an ingestion of something that would have

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caused cardiac arrest to a weak heart, that makes a lot of sense versus

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saying I want to drown myself.
That seems like a very scary, painful

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way to end your life. And
I know people who were very determined to

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end their own lives can indeed drown
themselves in small amounts of water. But

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it's that survival mechanism that kicks in. And I don't necessarily think that you

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yourself, unless you've attempted it,
are going to know if that's going to

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kick in and that you're going to
pull yourself out or you're just you're going

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to pull yourself out of the water
like not being able to complete it.

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But I think with Cyanide, there's
that no turning back type of a thing,

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and it's very very quick. I
mean, I'm not an expert,

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You too did just do some googling, But the amount of time from ingestion

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to death is pretty short, no, I think so. Yeah. Like

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you remember, we did another case, the William L. Toomey case.

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That was another decedits who did jest
cyanide in a church in nineteen eighty two

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and he was waiting to go into
the confession booth. But it sounds like

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he gest died it before he got
his turn because someone else was in there

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and die before it can happen.
And in that case, we still don't

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know how he obtained his cyanide.
But before we talk more about Peter's death,

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let's go back to the beginning and
track his movements. The first CCTV

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footage of Peter showed him at the
bus depot and Dry before he made the

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one hundred and thirty five kilometer trip
to Sligo. Since it seems very unlikely

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that Peter was an Irish citizen,
he had to travel from somewhere else,

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possibly Austria, in order to arrive
in Dry. This would have required the

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00:18:22.400 --> 00:18:25.799
usage of a passport, but he
probably got rid of it at some point,

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00:18:26.000 --> 00:18:29.400
and since we don't know his real
name, that makes it very difficult

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00:18:29.480 --> 00:18:33.440
to track down when he originally entered
the country. Now, in spite of

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all the theorizing about how Peter chose
Sligo for a reason, his actions when

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he first arrived there give off the
impression that he wasn't all that familiar with

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00:18:41.680 --> 00:18:45.880
the city. The bus station was
only about a fifteen minute walk from the

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Sligo City Hotel, so there was
really no need for him to take a

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00:18:48.400 --> 00:18:52.519
taxi. It seems like he didn't
have much idea where to go. He

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never made a reservation anywhere and only
wound up staying at the Sligo City Hotel

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because the first hotel he tried was
full, and much like with the Jennifer

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00:19:02.799 --> 00:19:07.160
fairgate case, it's very frustrating that
the desk clerk did not ask Peter for

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identification when he checked in, even
though it was supposedly standard policy in Ireland

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for all hotels to require ID from
their guests. If Peter had been asked

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to produce ID, who knows how
you would have reacted and if things might

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00:19:19.599 --> 00:19:23.640
have turned out differently. Instead,
he was allowed to provide a fake name

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and address, and there has been
endless speculation about their potential significance. What's

265
00:19:29.880 --> 00:19:33.880
interesting is I do think that Peter
was looking for a place that probably wouldn't

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have asked for identification. Like we
mentioned in episode one, you know,

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the hospitality industry and law enforcement have
protocols in place to help with things like

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human trafficking, fraud, all of
these different things, drug networking, and

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00:19:47.240 --> 00:19:52.279
so because now you are required to
produce an ID, you are produced,

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you have to produce a credit card
that matches the ID on file, and

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that's how you have to book your
room. I think Peter we're out in

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the car and specifically said I want
a cheap hotel and I don't really care

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where it is, and he goes
to a place, assuming that the cheaper

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the hotel, the less likely they
would stick to those protocol It's two thousand

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and nine. I'm assuming in Ireland
they had the same rules, and he

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found a place that wanted the money, they didn't care what was happening in

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their rooms. And that's one of
the issues that we run into. I

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don't think it matters what country you're
in if there's a rule in place,

279
00:20:26.920 --> 00:20:30.960
and yet I'm the kind of establishment
that just cares about the bottom line of

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00:20:30.960 --> 00:20:33.079
my money. I don't care what
age the people running my room are.

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I don't care who they are,
and I don't care what they came for.

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I just want their money. Then
why would they care who Peter actually

283
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was, because you even mentioned our
last episode that, for all you know,

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Peter could have provided a fake story
just saying, oh, I forgot

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my identification, I'll show it to
you at a later time. And they

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00:20:51.440 --> 00:20:52.599
just went for it. They said, well, we want your money,

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00:20:52.640 --> 00:20:56.680
and that's why they decided to let
him check in. And they probably never

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00:20:56.759 --> 00:21:00.039
guessed that this would become the centerpiece
of a huge mystery. Yeah, and

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00:21:00.200 --> 00:21:03.079
I guarantee you had he been staying
at a place like you know, Jules

290
00:21:03.039 --> 00:21:06.920
said to like if it was the
Hilton, or if it was a bigger,

291
00:21:07.640 --> 00:21:11.799
a higher end hotel chain that does
care about the protocol being followed.

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00:21:12.119 --> 00:21:15.480
I remember just losing my room key
and needing to get back in, and

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00:21:15.519 --> 00:21:18.640
I was like, hey, here
I am on the internet, Like here's

294
00:21:18.640 --> 00:21:22.240
my face, here's my school ID, here's these things. I just don't

295
00:21:22.279 --> 00:21:23.839
have my driver's license and credit card
with me. They're in the room.

296
00:21:25.400 --> 00:21:29.680
They had to have security escort me
to my room, produce the documents before

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00:21:29.720 --> 00:21:32.799
I could be, you know,
back down at the front desk and get

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00:21:32.839 --> 00:21:34.920
a copy of the key. But
it was a very serious thing. They

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00:21:34.960 --> 00:21:37.880
said, no, no, I
don't care what else you produce with your

300
00:21:37.960 --> 00:21:41.480
name on it. I don't care
what pictures you show us. It has

301
00:21:41.519 --> 00:21:42.960
to be your government issued idea and
it has to be the credit card that

302
00:21:44.000 --> 00:21:45.839
matches it. And I went,
goodness, okay, So I mean it

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00:21:45.880 --> 00:21:49.960
is a it's serious for them.
That's something that you know a lot of

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00:21:51.319 --> 00:21:53.599
higher end hotel chains. I don't
think you're going to bend. And Peter

305
00:21:53.759 --> 00:21:56.720
won, if he was ending his
life, doesn't want to pay a lot

306
00:21:56.759 --> 00:22:00.200
of money. But I think he
knew that he could probably get away with

307
00:22:00.359 --> 00:22:02.759
saying this is my name, I'm
Peter, and I can write down a

308
00:22:02.759 --> 00:22:08.119
fake address and it doesn't really matter. And Robin, one question for you.

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00:22:08.599 --> 00:22:12.720
I think you'd mentioned it in episode
one and I forgot to ask,

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00:22:12.799 --> 00:22:17.599
and you'd said that they never asked
him to produce ID. Do we know

311
00:22:17.799 --> 00:22:21.880
for a fact that they never asked
him to produce ID or did the person

312
00:22:22.319 --> 00:22:26.000
ask him to produce ID? And
he said that he wasn't able to at

313
00:22:26.000 --> 00:22:30.079
that moment, and they just let
it slide. It's never been clarified.

314
00:22:30.119 --> 00:22:33.720
I don't think that they've ever asked
the desk clerk to confirm it, so

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00:22:33.799 --> 00:22:36.680
that is kind of a mystery in
this case. I know that's one of

316
00:22:36.680 --> 00:22:41.559
the big controversies in the Jennifer fairgate
case, because apparently the desk clerk at

317
00:22:41.559 --> 00:22:47.160
the hotel there like has given conflicting
stories about why they did not ask Jennifer

318
00:22:47.240 --> 00:22:51.279
for her ID and why she was
allowed to check in, So who knows.

319
00:22:51.319 --> 00:22:55.079
Maybe the clerk was no longer working
there by the time this became a

320
00:22:55.119 --> 00:22:57.400
mystery, and they just were never
able to track them down and get their

321
00:22:57.440 --> 00:23:03.359
side of the story. I could
almost understand in the Jennifer fairgate case because

322
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it's in nineteen ninety five, but
with Peter Bergmann, it's two thousand and

323
00:23:07.160 --> 00:23:14.240
nine. It just seems so inconceivable
that somebody wouldn't ask for identification. Now

324
00:23:14.319 --> 00:23:18.599
there's been differing accounts from different sources
about whether the address he provided from Vienna

325
00:23:19.160 --> 00:23:23.440
led to a vacant lot or just
never existed in the first place. I

326
00:23:23.519 --> 00:23:29.519
know that if you type the supposed
street name in Stetterson into Google, the

327
00:23:29.599 --> 00:23:33.519
only matches you're going to get are
sources related to this case, so I

328
00:23:33.599 --> 00:23:36.839
wonder if it might have been a
misspelling or of some sort, and if

329
00:23:36.920 --> 00:23:40.960
Peter just made the name up.
The thing with the postal code he provided

330
00:23:41.079 --> 00:23:45.000
four four seven two is that even
though Vienna's four digit postal codes only begin

331
00:23:45.119 --> 00:23:49.279
with one, there is another section
of Upper Austria which it does use that

332
00:23:49.359 --> 00:23:56.319
particular number. But it doesn't sound
like investigators ever found any significance to it.

333
00:23:56.079 --> 00:24:00.240
And of course you have to wonder
if there's a reason why he shows

334
00:24:00.279 --> 00:24:03.440
the name Peter Bergmann. Bergmann is
spelled with two ends, not one,

335
00:24:04.079 --> 00:24:07.680
and if you type that name into
Google, you'll find a Wikipedia page for

336
00:24:07.720 --> 00:24:14.400
a prominent German American physicist named Peter
Bergman, who work with Albert Einstein and

337
00:24:14.440 --> 00:24:18.200
publish a couple of textbooks on such
topics as general relativity before his death in

338
00:24:18.279 --> 00:24:22.400
two thousand and two. But it's
possible this connection is nothing more than a

339
00:24:22.440 --> 00:24:29.359
coincidence and the name provides no clues
about the man's true identity. It's interesting

340
00:24:29.359 --> 00:24:32.799
that the people who have talked to
Peter and who have actually interacted with him

341
00:24:33.039 --> 00:24:37.839
can identify this Austrian accent. But
then when he makes up this address,

342
00:24:37.880 --> 00:24:40.920
there seem to be bits and pieces
that'll match, but things like the postal

343
00:24:40.960 --> 00:24:45.640
code doesn't match a place in Vienna. He does have a street that could

344
00:24:45.720 --> 00:24:51.400
be real, but it actually traces
back to more of an abandoned lot instead

345
00:24:51.440 --> 00:24:55.799
of an actual home where he would
live. So is Edmund to confuse people?

346
00:24:56.000 --> 00:25:00.839
Is he taking bits and pieces of
reality and trying to put some pieces

347
00:25:00.880 --> 00:25:04.200
down or is this all just simply
made up, like his name. Well,

348
00:25:04.240 --> 00:25:08.160
to make another comparison to Jennifer Fairgate, when she checked into her hotel,

349
00:25:08.240 --> 00:25:12.480
she provided the name of a village
in Norway, and they did check

350
00:25:12.480 --> 00:25:17.119
this out, but cannot find anyone
who recognized or knew who she was.

351
00:25:17.240 --> 00:25:21.079
So it seemed apparent that she might
have just just chosen this place at random

352
00:25:21.440 --> 00:25:22.839
and it had no real connection to
her. So, for all you know,

353
00:25:22.920 --> 00:25:26.799
maybe Peter did that. Maybe he
chose a location that just didn't even

354
00:25:26.839 --> 00:25:32.119
exist because it just popped into his
head and said, well, if anyone

355
00:25:32.160 --> 00:25:34.119
tries to track me down, they'll
never find me because I'm not giving them

356
00:25:34.119 --> 00:25:41.759
any information. So, unlike the
aforementioned Jennifer Fairgate and Lyle Stevick cases,

357
00:25:42.039 --> 00:25:45.599
Peter did not die until after he
checked out of the hotel, so you

358
00:25:45.720 --> 00:25:51.119
have to wonder about his reasons for
staying in Sliego for three nights. In

359
00:25:51.160 --> 00:25:55.720
the Last Days of Peter Bergmann documentary, the hotel manager shared a story about

360
00:25:55.720 --> 00:25:59.640
an incident in which she visited Peter's
room and knocked on the door but received

361
00:25:59.640 --> 00:26:03.400
no anas, sir. When she
decided to unlock the door and go inside,

362
00:26:03.759 --> 00:26:07.359
she saw Peter standing in the doorway
with a startled look on his face,

363
00:26:07.680 --> 00:26:10.519
and he almost appeared like he had
been caught in the middle of doing

364
00:26:10.559 --> 00:26:14.720
something. But then he apparently gave
off a look which almost seemed to indicate

365
00:26:14.799 --> 00:26:18.279
he was relieved that it was only
a member of the hotel staff who was

366
00:26:18.400 --> 00:26:21.279
visiting him. So I don't know
if this can be seen as a sign

367
00:26:21.359 --> 00:26:25.160
that Peter traveled to Sligo to hide
from someone. Of course, you can

368
00:26:25.279 --> 00:26:30.359
understand why Peter might have valued his
privacy, as the CCTV footage captured him

369
00:26:30.400 --> 00:26:34.400
exiting the hotel no less than thirteen
times while carrying a purple plastic bag,

370
00:26:34.799 --> 00:26:38.839
and then returning out a later time
with nothing in his hands. This is

371
00:26:38.880 --> 00:26:45.599
why investigators believe that Peter spent his
entire three night hotel stay, gradually disposing

372
00:26:45.599 --> 00:26:49.039
of most of his personal possessions and
taking steps to ensure that no one would

373
00:26:49.039 --> 00:26:53.039
ever be able to figure out his
true identity. We saw another example of

374
00:26:53.079 --> 00:26:56.279
this when Peter was shown checking out
of the hotel with three bags in his

375
00:26:56.359 --> 00:27:02.160
hand, but he was only carrying
two of these bags when CCTV footage captured

376
00:27:02.200 --> 00:27:06.720
him arriving at the bus station less
than thirty minutes later, so I'm guessing

377
00:27:06.720 --> 00:27:08.759
he had some additional items in that
bag he wanted to get rid of.

378
00:27:10.279 --> 00:27:15.000
The authorities were unable to recover any
of the possessions that Peter supposedly disposed of,

379
00:27:15.440 --> 00:27:18.640
but the problem is that they really
didn't have any idea what they were

380
00:27:18.640 --> 00:27:22.279
looking for, and I'm not sure
if these items would have had any distinctive

381
00:27:22.359 --> 00:27:26.119
characteristics to prove they belonged to him. Since Peter was never shown getting rid

382
00:27:26.200 --> 00:27:32.119
of any personal items on CCTV,
it's been theorized that he knew the camera's

383
00:27:32.160 --> 00:27:36.400
blind spots and went out of his
way to avoid them. This is why

384
00:27:36.440 --> 00:27:40.519
we've seen online sleuth speculate that Peter
might have been in the police or the

385
00:27:40.519 --> 00:27:45.440
military, or had experience as a
spy because he had the necessary skills and

386
00:27:45.559 --> 00:27:51.160
training to avoid security cameras. However, this seems to contradict the assertion that

387
00:27:51.240 --> 00:27:55.480
Peter did not have much familiarity with
Sligo, as they seemed to know so

388
00:27:55.599 --> 00:27:59.559
little about the downtown area that he
had to ask the taxi driver to find

389
00:27:59.599 --> 00:28:03.599
him at Tell when he first drived. So how would he have known where

390
00:28:03.599 --> 00:28:07.240
all the CCTV cameras were. I
have a feeling that Peter not being captured

391
00:28:07.319 --> 00:28:12.680
on camera disposing of any possessions was
do more to luck than anything. Yeah,

392
00:28:12.720 --> 00:28:17.119
I have to lean more towards it
that a luck thing. He seemed

393
00:28:17.319 --> 00:28:19.519
very unsure of a lot of things
in this area, like, Hey,

394
00:28:19.720 --> 00:28:22.559
is there a cheap hotel I can
go to? Hey? Is there a

395
00:28:22.640 --> 00:28:26.480
nice beach I can go? To? Take me to any of those?

396
00:28:26.519 --> 00:28:29.160
Hey, I got on the wrong
bus a few times. I mean,

397
00:28:29.200 --> 00:28:33.079
we see him make decisions and actions
that show that he's not familiar with his

398
00:28:33.160 --> 00:28:38.119
surroundings. It doesn't seem like he's
actually at this stage where he's planned out

399
00:28:38.160 --> 00:28:42.079
so carefully that he can avoid these
cameras. Yes, he's doing some careful

400
00:28:42.079 --> 00:28:45.920
planning. If he's disposing of items. But is it also the fact that

401
00:28:47.240 --> 00:28:49.519
I don't know about you guys,
but anytime I've been with law enforcement in

402
00:28:49.640 --> 00:28:56.319
like pulled security camera or you were
looking for camera coverage of a certain business

403
00:28:56.400 --> 00:29:03.119
or businesses, it's like it's very
purposely placed on one segment of the building,

404
00:29:03.240 --> 00:29:07.480
the doorway right or the front desk
or things like that. Possibly not

405
00:29:07.640 --> 00:29:11.519
in the areas where the receptacles are, where the trash cans are located.

406
00:29:11.759 --> 00:29:15.920
Maybe they're simply not priority areas in
these establishments where he's visiting, and they're

407
00:29:15.920 --> 00:29:19.839
focusing on places like where the cash
register is located, where the front door

408
00:29:19.920 --> 00:29:26.319
is located, where other potential large
gathering areas might be, but that they're

409
00:29:26.400 --> 00:29:32.400
not in these smaller locations or these
more corner obscure locations where someone might go

410
00:29:32.480 --> 00:29:36.920
to dispose of something. And so
I think it's more luck or placement of

411
00:29:36.960 --> 00:29:41.200
the cameras versus saying he was able
to elude them. We caught him on

412
00:29:41.279 --> 00:29:45.039
CCTV. You just didn't see him
disposing of the items. But they also

413
00:29:45.119 --> 00:29:47.799
don't place trash cans in the middle
of the room. They don't place the

414
00:29:47.839 --> 00:29:51.440
trash can right in front of the
front desk at the hotel, So I

415
00:29:51.480 --> 00:29:55.799
think it could just be the placement
of these items. I don't think he

416
00:29:55.839 --> 00:29:57.359
was familiar with where he was,
therefore, I don't think he was at

417
00:29:57.359 --> 00:30:03.880
the point of being able to elude
ude the recordings. Yeah, that's a

418
00:30:03.880 --> 00:30:06.519
good point. If he was going
to, say a dumpster in a back

419
00:30:06.559 --> 00:30:08.359
alley to dispose of items, that's
not a place where you're going to find

420
00:30:08.359 --> 00:30:12.680
a security camera. So I think
he probably just lucked out and just went

421
00:30:12.720 --> 00:30:18.279
to locations that just didn't happen to
have any cameras. Now, one thing

422
00:30:18.400 --> 00:30:22.519
we do know about Peter's stay and
Sligo is that he stopped by the post

423
00:30:22.519 --> 00:30:27.720
office and purchased airmail stickers and ten
eighty two cent stamps. Well, it's

424
00:30:27.759 --> 00:30:33.240
never been officially confirmed that he mailed
any letters, the fact that these stamps

425
00:30:33.240 --> 00:30:36.799
and stickers were not found on him
when he died would imply that he did

426
00:30:37.480 --> 00:30:40.720
well. It's easy to believe that
Peter was some loner who did not have

427
00:30:40.759 --> 00:30:44.799
any family or friends, why would
he have felt the need to mail out

428
00:30:44.839 --> 00:30:48.119
any letters. But if he did
have family and friends, then these actions

429
00:30:48.160 --> 00:30:52.200
do make sense, especially if he
knew he was going to die sometime in

430
00:30:52.200 --> 00:30:56.599
the near future. However, not
one person has ever come forward to say

431
00:30:56.599 --> 00:31:02.000
that they received any letters from Peter, which would be all the more surprising

432
00:31:02.079 --> 00:31:06.160
if he mailed them to ten separate
people. At that time, the postage

433
00:31:06.160 --> 00:31:08.759
to mail a letter to someone in
Ireland was fifty five cents, and it

434
00:31:08.839 --> 00:31:12.920
was eighty two cents to mail something
outside the country. So the fact that

435
00:31:12.920 --> 00:31:18.119
he purchased eighty two cent stamps obviously
suggests that any letters he had sent had

436
00:31:18.160 --> 00:31:25.160
an international destination, right. And
also you have this idea that maybe he

437
00:31:25.240 --> 00:31:29.559
was sending information for work, maybe
he had to mail in time cards,

438
00:31:29.640 --> 00:31:32.599
or maybe he had to mail in
receipts, or maybe he was mailing in

439
00:31:33.000 --> 00:31:37.359
I don't know, bills for his
medical expenses, so his partner wasn't burdened

440
00:31:37.400 --> 00:31:40.920
with him. I mean, we
really have no idea where these were going.

441
00:31:41.480 --> 00:31:45.359
I really would have assumed that they
would have found them on his person,

442
00:31:45.480 --> 00:31:48.000
except for the fact that it seemed
like he did have a plan for

443
00:31:48.400 --> 00:31:52.519
either getting rid of his things preparing
for the end of his life. There

444
00:31:52.680 --> 00:31:56.759
was a meticulous decision made when you
see the actions of him trying to check

445
00:31:56.799 --> 00:32:02.319
things off the list, right like
minimizing on his person getting these postage stamps,

446
00:32:02.319 --> 00:32:07.079
and then we assume subsequently mailing letters. So either it was sent to

447
00:32:07.119 --> 00:32:10.920
someone like you said earlier, where
he's trying to say, I'm not here

448
00:32:12.000 --> 00:32:15.279
anymore. I ended my life.
Please don't worry about me. I wanted

449
00:32:15.319 --> 00:32:20.279
to die with dignity. I mean, it is possible people receive letters and

450
00:32:20.400 --> 00:32:25.279
weren't connected to the Peter Bergmann case, but that they know that their loved

451
00:32:25.319 --> 00:32:30.920
one was dying of cancer. Didn't
want them to have to see him at

452
00:32:30.960 --> 00:32:32.759
the end of his life where he
wasn't able to have all of his faculties

453
00:32:32.759 --> 00:32:37.039
about him, and he wrote the
truth, I'm taking my life with dignity.

454
00:32:37.119 --> 00:32:39.440
Please let me be I love you
with all my heart. This is

455
00:32:39.480 --> 00:32:43.279
the way I want to do it. Please honor and respect that. And

456
00:32:43.759 --> 00:32:46.960
they were at peace with that,
and therefore when they don't link themselves to

457
00:32:47.359 --> 00:32:52.920
Peter countries away, then it's kind
of the end of that story. So

458
00:32:53.480 --> 00:32:57.279
I don't know. I think the
fact that you didn't find the postage stamps

459
00:32:57.720 --> 00:33:00.839
likely he did send them to some
one, or he was doing something more

460
00:33:00.880 --> 00:33:05.400
practical where you wouldn't have really had
anyone paying attention, like paying a bill

461
00:33:05.519 --> 00:33:08.480
or sending something to his workplace.
I just don't think that we can operate

462
00:33:08.559 --> 00:33:14.480
under the presupposition that everybody in his
life, if he did have these close

463
00:33:14.519 --> 00:33:19.400
relationships or relationships at all, that
they were aware of his councer diagnosis,

464
00:33:19.440 --> 00:33:22.200
because if he wanted to end his
own life, he may have been dealing

465
00:33:22.200 --> 00:33:27.400
with this on his own without the
supportive family, because they might not have

466
00:33:27.519 --> 00:33:31.000
known that they had to support him
if he didn't disclose his diagnosis, which

467
00:33:31.079 --> 00:33:36.200
some people don't, especially if they
find out about the disease in the end

468
00:33:36.240 --> 00:33:38.039
stages, and then he may say, well, I don't want to burden

469
00:33:38.079 --> 00:33:43.519
people with this and watching my rapid
dissent, so I'm going to take it

470
00:33:43.599 --> 00:33:46.000
upon myself. But I don't want
to make people sad. And so if

471
00:33:46.000 --> 00:33:50.559
that is the case, we can't
assume that he disclosed the truth, which

472
00:33:50.599 --> 00:33:52.599
would be I'm ending my own life, I'm going to be at piece.

473
00:33:52.960 --> 00:33:55.519
Well, then I would think that
one of those people would have heard about

474
00:33:55.519 --> 00:34:00.400
the Peter Bergman case because their antennas
would have been up and somebody would have

475
00:34:00.480 --> 00:34:04.759
contacted the authorities. I just think
that if he did send letters, there

476
00:34:04.759 --> 00:34:09.159
would have been an element of misdirection
involved. One of the big complicating factors

477
00:34:09.159 --> 00:34:14.280
with identifying Peter Bergmann is that,
even though his story got extensive coverage in

478
00:34:14.320 --> 00:34:17.119
Ireland, it's very unlikely that he
was an Irish citizen, and I'm not

479
00:34:17.159 --> 00:34:22.239
sure how well known his case is
and other countries. If Peter hailed from

480
00:34:22.280 --> 00:34:25.719
Austria or Germany and his friends and
family received some letters there, they may

481
00:34:25.760 --> 00:34:30.840
have had no idea that he became
an unidentified John Doe in Ireland. According

482
00:34:30.920 --> 00:34:37.119
to a twenty fifteen article in the
French newspaper Le Mont, the Austrian authorities

483
00:34:37.119 --> 00:34:40.199
claim they were never contacted by the
Guardee about this case, so I don't

484
00:34:40.239 --> 00:34:45.400
know how much effort has been spent
attempting to match Peter with missing persons in

485
00:34:45.440 --> 00:34:51.039
Austria. There is also no official
interpoal notice for Peter Bergmann because their only

486
00:34:51.079 --> 00:34:54.480
two categories are missing person and wanted
person, and as far as anyone can

487
00:34:54.519 --> 00:34:59.440
tell, no one has ever reported
this guy missing. It would be the

488
00:34:59.480 --> 00:35:02.360
responseb of his home country to do
so, but we don't even know which

489
00:35:02.400 --> 00:35:07.320
country's from. On the other side
of the coin. It's also possible that

490
00:35:07.360 --> 00:35:10.440
the people who received Peter's letters are
well aware of his story, but he

491
00:35:10.480 --> 00:35:15.639
gave specific instructions for them not to
come forward and claim his body, and

492
00:35:15.679 --> 00:35:19.519
they've decided to respect his wishes.
But of course we still can't be one

493
00:35:19.559 --> 00:35:23.599
hundred percent certain that Peter mailed any
letters in the first place. That's right,

494
00:35:23.639 --> 00:35:27.840
I mean, we have no idea
that he You didn't take those postage

495
00:35:27.840 --> 00:35:30.039
stamps in that purple bag and discard
of them somewhere. You could just as

496
00:35:30.039 --> 00:35:35.599
easily throw the postage stamps away as
you could mail them. It. Just

497
00:35:35.679 --> 00:35:38.199
because I wasn't found with his belongings
doesn't mean that he actually used them.

498
00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:45.000
The only other significant movement we know
about from Peter Stan's lago was when he

499
00:35:45.039 --> 00:35:49.679
asked a taxi driver to take him
to a quiet beach and they took a

500
00:35:49.719 --> 00:35:53.079
brief trip to Ross's Point. It
doesn't sound like Peter was aware of this

501
00:35:53.159 --> 00:35:58.599
location beforehand, but it made a
strong enough impression for him to travel back

502
00:35:58.599 --> 00:36:01.719
there when he decided to check out
of the hotel. We know that Peter

503
00:36:01.880 --> 00:36:07.440
subsequently took the bus to return to
the beach the following day, and while

504
00:36:07.480 --> 00:36:10.760
we don't know the exact time he
died, Several eyewitnesses placed him on the

505
00:36:10.760 --> 00:36:16.159
beach at various times between four and
eleven fifty pm. Most of them described

506
00:36:16.199 --> 00:36:22.079
Peter as introspectively pacing and walking through
the water in his bare feet. But

507
00:36:22.199 --> 00:36:25.960
why would he remain at that same
location for eight straight hours if he was

508
00:36:27.000 --> 00:36:30.360
planning suicide by drowning himself in the
ocean. Perhaps he wanted to wait until

509
00:36:30.360 --> 00:36:34.920
the middle of the night and then
there was less chance of someone coming along

510
00:36:34.960 --> 00:36:37.360
and rescuing him. But for a
guy who liked to keep to himself and

511
00:36:37.480 --> 00:36:42.440
was going out of his way to
erase all traces of his identity, he

512
00:36:42.559 --> 00:36:45.559
still managed to leave an impression on
all the people who saw him. Most

513
00:36:45.559 --> 00:36:50.880
of the witnesses who spotted Peter on
the beach would later say they distinctly remember

514
00:36:50.960 --> 00:36:53.800
him because he seemed at a place
there and something about him really stood out.

515
00:36:54.679 --> 00:36:59.159
While it's not uncommon for people to
end their life by jumping into a

516
00:36:59.159 --> 00:37:04.320
body of water, walking into the
ocean to intentionally drown yourself is a lot

517
00:37:04.360 --> 00:37:08.320
more complicated way to die. Even
though it's been theorized that Peter hoped to

518
00:37:08.360 --> 00:37:13.920
be swept out into the Atlantic Ocean
and lost forever, part of me wonders

519
00:37:13.960 --> 00:37:17.119
if he actually wanted his death to
be as mysterious as possible so that he

520
00:37:17.159 --> 00:37:22.920
would be remembered. In fact,
I'm genuinely curious to know if Peter might

521
00:37:22.960 --> 00:37:25.800
have been familiar with the Somerton Man
case, because both men went to the

522
00:37:25.800 --> 00:37:30.880
trouble of removing all the labels from
their clothing, and this could also be

523
00:37:30.960 --> 00:37:36.239
the reason that Peter intentionally chose a
beach as his final destination. So are

524
00:37:36.280 --> 00:37:42.559
the similarities between these two mysteries just
a coincidence or did Peter orchestrate the whole

525
00:37:42.559 --> 00:37:45.760
thing intentionally. Well, if Peter
did want to be forgotten about after he

526
00:37:45.840 --> 00:37:51.159
died, then it's truly ironic that
his actions have led to him becoming the

527
00:37:51.239 --> 00:37:57.440
subject of endless discussion in the media
and on the internet. Yeah, exactly,

528
00:37:57.480 --> 00:38:00.679
I mean this idea. I think
it's a coincidence between the cases in

529
00:38:00.719 --> 00:38:05.079
my personal opinion. But one of
the things that really caught my eye when

530
00:38:05.119 --> 00:38:07.239
I was listening to this is that
he went to the beach so early in

531
00:38:07.280 --> 00:38:10.599
the afternoon, right, it was
around what two thirty or three o'clock When

532
00:38:10.599 --> 00:38:15.440
he gets there at four o'clock,
four o'clock and then we know for a

533
00:38:15.480 --> 00:38:19.119
fact that there's people who are saying
they see him well into ten eleven,

534
00:38:19.199 --> 00:38:22.079
eleven thirty at night. You would
think if you were going to the beach

535
00:38:22.159 --> 00:38:28.039
to end your life, you would
go at dusk at the you know,

536
00:38:28.079 --> 00:38:30.239
as the evening's rolling in, or
even later, so that there aren't other

537
00:38:30.320 --> 00:38:35.639
people on the beach. But you
also feel this sense that if he did

538
00:38:35.760 --> 00:38:39.920
take a substance to render himself unconscious
or to cause cardiac arrests before being swept

539
00:38:39.960 --> 00:38:44.719
out, that's all of this is
a huge decision, right, And so

540
00:38:44.840 --> 00:38:49.199
I could see going and having thirty
minutes an hour where you're pacing back and

541
00:38:49.239 --> 00:38:51.079
forth and saying like, Okay,
this is it, this is it,

542
00:38:51.159 --> 00:38:54.639
this is it. That's a to
me, a horrifying thought that I'm about

543
00:38:54.719 --> 00:39:00.440
to dictate exactly when my life ends. So I could see the delay in

544
00:39:00.559 --> 00:39:05.760
actually executing that plan. But the
hours upon hours upon hours that he's there

545
00:39:06.000 --> 00:39:10.480
is odd. It opened him up
to being talked to by multiple people by

546
00:39:10.679 --> 00:39:15.159
being identified, you know, later
down the road, And in my mind,

547
00:39:15.199 --> 00:39:19.599
it's like, is that part of
that kind of delirium psychosis that he

548
00:39:19.599 --> 00:39:22.039
could have been experiencing where he says, I'm going to go down there,

549
00:39:22.360 --> 00:39:24.320
I'm going to wait till it's dark, But he's not really factoring in how

550
00:39:24.360 --> 00:39:30.119
long this takes. I don't know. It's sad if he's if he's waiting

551
00:39:30.119 --> 00:39:32.639
to end his life, that seems
like a very sad, drawn out to

552
00:39:32.800 --> 00:39:37.840
me scary circumstance that you would be
there for eight hours waiting to end your

553
00:39:37.880 --> 00:39:43.639
life, contemplating, though, you
know, pacing back and forth thinking about

554
00:39:43.639 --> 00:39:47.159
your life. Because once, if
we are to believe he did take Seinid,

555
00:39:47.280 --> 00:39:50.559
or even if he was just going
to walk out into the ocean,

556
00:39:50.920 --> 00:39:53.559
the finality of it, it could
take a lot of nerve. Even if

557
00:39:53.559 --> 00:39:59.800
you're sure exactly what actions you want
to take and your hell bent on taking

558
00:39:59.840 --> 00:40:06.519
the actions, I think getting the
courage to actually take that action that will

559
00:40:06.639 --> 00:40:10.800
end your own life and not knowing
what awaits you on the other side is

560
00:40:10.800 --> 00:40:15.920
a truly scary endeavor for anybody who's
going to be in a position such as

561
00:40:15.920 --> 00:40:22.039
that. So eight hours does sound
extreme, but I think given the gravity

562
00:40:22.239 --> 00:40:24.639
of a situation, if we're to
believe that was his objective, then I

563
00:40:24.679 --> 00:40:30.880
can completely understand. In addition to
the unanswered questions, about how exactly Peter

564
00:40:31.039 --> 00:40:36.239
died. There's also some mystery about
the items he did and did not leave

565
00:40:36.280 --> 00:40:39.760
behind. Various witnesses from the beach
saw him with the small black bag slung

566
00:40:39.800 --> 00:40:44.840
over his shoulder and the purple plastic
bag in his hands, but neither of

567
00:40:44.880 --> 00:40:47.840
these bags were recovered. It's one
thing for him to dispose of items like

568
00:40:47.880 --> 00:40:51.960
this in the middle of town,
but there would have been a limited amount

569
00:40:52.000 --> 00:40:54.440
of places to get rid of them
on the beach unless he carried the bags

570
00:40:54.440 --> 00:40:59.440
into the water and the tide took
them out to see. His glasses also

571
00:40:59.480 --> 00:41:01.840
disappear, though I suppose he could
have lost those in the ocean as well.

572
00:41:02.679 --> 00:41:06.800
And even though he was found wearing
a navy T shirt, he had

573
00:41:06.840 --> 00:41:09.639
been seen wearing a long sleeved pale
blue shirt when he left the hotel,

574
00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:14.800
and it was not on the beach
either. It's also odd that Peter was

575
00:41:14.800 --> 00:41:19.760
wearing underwear over top a speedo if
his plan was to drown himself all along.

576
00:41:20.119 --> 00:41:22.159
I wonder why he even removed any
of his clothing to begin with,

577
00:41:22.519 --> 00:41:27.199
because wearing all those heavy articles into
the water would have made it easier for

578
00:41:27.280 --> 00:41:30.760
him to sink the way the clothing
was neatly folded, almost gives off the

579
00:41:30.800 --> 00:41:37.280
impression that Peter was legitimately planning to
go for a swim before he unexpectedly succumbed

580
00:41:37.320 --> 00:41:42.079
to a fatal heart attack. That's
also very possible that this was not a

581
00:41:42.320 --> 00:41:45.360
place to go in his life.
That maybe he had a sensory issue where

582
00:41:45.400 --> 00:41:50.159
he's cutting the labels out of his
clothing right where he doesn't want the tags

583
00:41:50.159 --> 00:41:52.800
on his clothes, or maybe he
you know, it was part of his

584
00:41:54.159 --> 00:41:57.599
mental health that you know, where
he's going. I don't want the name

585
00:41:57.639 --> 00:42:00.360
brands on here. I don't want
the label on my clothes. My daughter

586
00:42:00.400 --> 00:42:04.719
can't have labels touching her body.
So who knows if Peter had something like

587
00:42:04.760 --> 00:42:07.599
that as well, But it is
possible that he was going just for a

588
00:42:07.639 --> 00:42:13.119
swim. I don't know as a
man, why you would put undies over

589
00:42:13.199 --> 00:42:16.199
your speedo. I mean, it
feels like just two layers of an undergarment,

590
00:42:16.519 --> 00:42:20.360
So that seems very odd to me. If you were going with the

591
00:42:20.360 --> 00:42:23.199
intent to swim, why not just
wear the speedo under your clothes. Why

592
00:42:23.239 --> 00:42:27.000
put the pair of underwear on top
of it. You also have a bag

593
00:42:27.039 --> 00:42:29.719
with you, why not put the
extra pair of underwear in your bag for

594
00:42:29.800 --> 00:42:31.840
when you're done swimming, you can
just change from the speedo to the underwear.

595
00:42:32.280 --> 00:42:37.159
That seems a little bit odd to
me. Yeah, as a man,

596
00:42:37.199 --> 00:42:38.880
I can tell you that's not normal. So I can't think of anyone

597
00:42:38.880 --> 00:42:44.880
who's going a sweeto with underwear or
obnet while going for a swim. But

598
00:42:45.039 --> 00:42:49.480
now let's explore the personal items which
were left inside the pockets of Peter's clothing.

599
00:42:50.280 --> 00:42:52.960
Many of them, such as the
envelope containing money, were not unusual,

600
00:42:53.519 --> 00:42:57.960
but the two items which seemed a
bit odd were the aspirin and the

601
00:42:58.000 --> 00:43:02.039
wrap bar of hotel soap. Under
normal circumstances, the aspirin wouldn't be weird

602
00:43:02.079 --> 00:43:07.599
at all, but the toxicology report
showed no traces of any medication in his

603
00:43:07.679 --> 00:43:13.039
system, including aspirin, even though
Peter's cancer likely would have been causing him

604
00:43:13.039 --> 00:43:15.519
great pain. I mean, if
he were one of those people who didn't

605
00:43:15.519 --> 00:43:21.039
believe in drugs or painkillers, that
would be one thing, But then why

606
00:43:21.039 --> 00:43:25.159
would he be carrying around aspron to
begin with? These particular aspirin tablets were

607
00:43:25.159 --> 00:43:30.320
distributed in Germany by the country's pharmaceutical
company, Bayer. So I don't know

608
00:43:30.400 --> 00:43:34.880
if this could be seen as a
clue that Peter originally hailed from there.

609
00:43:35.480 --> 00:43:38.079
The soap in Peter's pocket wouldn't be
unusual if he had taken it from the

610
00:43:38.119 --> 00:43:44.559
Slago City hotel, but the rapper
had the words Mild Soap Hotel Care printed

611
00:43:44.639 --> 00:43:47.639
on them, and this particular brand
is not made or stalked by any hotels

612
00:43:47.679 --> 00:43:52.480
in Ireland. So obviously Peter must
have stayed at a hotel in another country

613
00:43:52.800 --> 00:43:57.639
and carried the soap into Ireland with
him. But after Gwen is so much

614
00:43:57.639 --> 00:44:00.320
trouble to dispose of all of his
personal items, why did he still have

615
00:44:00.400 --> 00:44:04.280
this soap on him at the time
of his death. And it's the soap

616
00:44:04.440 --> 00:44:07.039
on him, it's not in his
possession like in one of his bags.

617
00:44:07.079 --> 00:44:10.840
Like we teased earlier. A lot
of us take the free soap from the

618
00:44:10.840 --> 00:44:15.880
hotel right just in case, but
I never have it on my person.

619
00:44:15.960 --> 00:44:20.679
I don't have it in me in
my pocket when I'm discovered, right when

620
00:44:20.679 --> 00:44:22.119
I've been out at the beach,
I don't have it sitting in my pocket.

621
00:44:22.360 --> 00:44:27.239
It was just a very odd location
to have a bar of hotel soap

622
00:44:27.400 --> 00:44:31.880
on you. Overall, the one
thing about this case I'm fairly certain of

623
00:44:32.119 --> 00:44:36.400
is that Peter was not the victim
of foul play, so it's not like

624
00:44:36.440 --> 00:44:39.480
we're looking for some unknown killer here. I do believe his death was either

625
00:44:39.559 --> 00:44:44.599
suicide or natural causes. But even
if he was a loner, you still

626
00:44:44.639 --> 00:44:46.920
have to think there must be someone
out there who misses this guy and is

627
00:44:46.920 --> 00:44:51.639
wondering what happened to him. In
a lot of the more recent cases in

628
00:44:51.679 --> 00:44:54.719
which John or Jane does have been
identified, it turned out they were living

629
00:44:54.800 --> 00:44:59.519
a transient lifestyle and had no fixed
address at the time of their death,

630
00:45:00.039 --> 00:45:02.440
which is why they were never officially
reported missing and it took so long to

631
00:45:02.480 --> 00:45:07.239
figure out who they were. But
I do not get the impression that that

632
00:45:07.320 --> 00:45:10.840
Peter Bergman was a transient So if
he resided in another country, did he

633
00:45:10.920 --> 00:45:15.719
not have a house or an apartment
under his name somewhere which suddenly went unoccupied

634
00:45:15.760 --> 00:45:21.280
and left people asking questions? He
was in the advanced stages of prostate cancer

635
00:45:21.559 --> 00:45:24.480
and had bone tumors, so were
there no medical professionals who were treating him

636
00:45:24.480 --> 00:45:28.880
at that time? And why ed
why he just stopped showing up for appointments

637
00:45:29.480 --> 00:45:31.800
hell, Peter was missing one of
his kidneys, so unless he sold it

638
00:45:31.840 --> 00:45:36.880
on the black market, there have
to be records somewhere of an operation where

639
00:45:36.880 --> 00:45:39.800
that kidney was removed. There had
to have been, and there had to

640
00:45:39.840 --> 00:45:43.960
be. The teeth records are the
ones that really bother me where you say

641
00:45:44.280 --> 00:45:49.599
there were specific things like bridges made
for his mouth, there were rude canals

642
00:45:49.639 --> 00:45:52.199
performed in his mouth, Like,
there had to be dental records that said,

643
00:45:52.400 --> 00:45:59.559
this is so obviously this person and
having those very clear health issues,

644
00:45:59.599 --> 00:46:02.079
knowing he had hard issues, know
any had the prostate cancer, it seems

645
00:46:02.119 --> 00:46:07.599
like his body gave keys to who
his identity was. Yeah, that's the

646
00:46:07.639 --> 00:46:12.159
thing, Like they could use his
teeth and match them to dental records if

647
00:46:12.199 --> 00:46:15.360
they could figure out where he was
from. But that's the issue is where

648
00:46:15.400 --> 00:46:17.719
do you start, Which country do
you go to, which city you go

649
00:46:17.760 --> 00:46:22.039
to to start checking dental records?
And I just have a feeling if they

650
00:46:22.039 --> 00:46:24.199
can narrow it down a bit that
even if they do not use DNA,

651
00:46:24.400 --> 00:46:30.559
those distinct dental records could be used
to identify them. Again, the key

652
00:46:30.559 --> 00:46:36.480
to uncovering Peter's true identity is figuring
out if he mailed any letters from Sligo,

653
00:46:36.599 --> 00:46:38.920
and since he purchased ten stamps,
there could have been as many as

654
00:46:38.960 --> 00:46:44.159
ten recipients who heard from him.
It's unlikely he would have referred to himself

655
00:46:44.159 --> 00:46:47.519
as Peter Bergman and these letters,
so you can understand why these recipients have

656
00:46:47.639 --> 00:46:52.280
never put two and two together.
But you also have to wonder if there's

657
00:46:52.320 --> 00:46:57.360
anyone out there who recalls receiving a
letter postmark from Slago, Ireland in June

658
00:46:57.400 --> 00:47:01.039
two thousand and nine and never heard
from the writer again. Like we mentioned

659
00:47:01.039 --> 00:47:07.239
earlier, there are CCTV images of
Peter Bergmann plastered all over the Internet,

660
00:47:07.559 --> 00:47:12.480
and his Wikipedia pages even has an
actual post mortem photograph of him. So

661
00:47:12.559 --> 00:47:16.559
unless Peter's friends and family have their
own reasons for not coming forward, there

662
00:47:16.599 --> 00:47:21.119
may be a day where someone comes
across one of these images of Peter and

663
00:47:21.199 --> 00:47:24.800
recognizes him. During our episodes,
we've made mention of this. Somerton Man

664
00:47:25.119 --> 00:47:30.960
another case in which an unidentified John
Doe died under such strange circumstances that many

665
00:47:30.960 --> 00:47:36.880
people speculated that he was a spy
involved in espionage, but now he's likely

666
00:47:36.920 --> 00:47:40.920
been identified as Charles Carl Webb.
We know that these spy theories were nothing

667
00:47:40.960 --> 00:47:45.159
more than smoke and mirrors, and
the decedent was an ordinary guy who lived

668
00:47:45.199 --> 00:47:51.280
an unhappy life and suffered from serious
mental health issues. So the same logic

669
00:47:51.360 --> 00:47:54.719
might apply to Peter Bergman, as
he was also probably not a spy with

670
00:47:54.760 --> 00:48:00.599
a larger than life backstory, but
was simply an ordinary man who traveled Slago

671
00:48:00.679 --> 00:48:04.360
for his own personal reasons. That
is exactly what I think happened. I

672
00:48:04.360 --> 00:48:08.440
think if Peter had been some kind
of larger than life entity and there had

673
00:48:08.440 --> 00:48:14.480
been this huge romantic story as to
how he got there, there would have

674
00:48:14.519 --> 00:48:19.239
been more attention. There would have
been more links to him to external places

675
00:48:19.280 --> 00:48:23.159
other than just the location where he
was discovered. So I for me,

676
00:48:24.360 --> 00:48:28.719
the prayer would be that someone would
be able to see Peter and know,

677
00:48:29.199 --> 00:48:31.480
for their own sake, this is
what happened. He is at rest,

678
00:48:31.960 --> 00:48:35.679
They have his body, we can
actually bury him with a headstone, we

679
00:48:35.719 --> 00:48:38.880
can cremate him and have him back
in our care, those kinds of reasons.

680
00:48:39.039 --> 00:48:43.280
It's my prayer that they recognize Peter. But I don't think there is

681
00:48:43.320 --> 00:48:47.679
some huge international spire espionage happening with
Peter. I just don't think it's the

682
00:48:47.719 --> 00:48:52.760
case here. I mentioned in our
last episode that the Guardie have confirmed that

683
00:48:52.760 --> 00:48:58.000
they do not use websites like ancestry
dot com, as I think the rules

684
00:48:58.039 --> 00:49:01.800
for using genetic genealogy and criminal investigations
might be a lot different in Europe than

685
00:49:01.840 --> 00:49:07.159
North America. So even though the
authorities do have Peter Bergmann's DNA, I

686
00:49:07.199 --> 00:49:12.199
do not believe identifying him will be
as simple as submitting his DNA into a

687
00:49:12.239 --> 00:49:15.920
genealogical database. But of course,
if they manage to find anyone who seems

688
00:49:15.960 --> 00:49:21.360
like a promising candidate to be a
biological relative of Peter's, they can still

689
00:49:21.480 --> 00:49:25.320
use his DNA to make a genetic
comparison and positively identify him. While I've

690
00:49:25.360 --> 00:49:30.079
already addressed the potential ethical issues of
identifying Peter if it goes against his final

691
00:49:30.119 --> 00:49:35.039
wishes, I still hate the idea
of this man having loved ones out there

692
00:49:35.079 --> 00:49:38.000
who are suffering because they don't know
what happened to him. And that's why

693
00:49:38.039 --> 00:49:43.840
I believe every investigative possibility should be
explored. So if you happen to have

694
00:49:43.960 --> 00:49:47.639
any information about the identity of the
man known only as Peter Bergmann, please

695
00:49:47.719 --> 00:49:52.800
contact the appropriate authorities. Jules Ashley, any final thoughts on this case?

696
00:49:53.920 --> 00:49:58.440
This one for me, it's more
about the family that there is a family

697
00:49:58.480 --> 00:50:02.519
summer saying I wonder what happened to
my loved one. He was sick,

698
00:50:04.000 --> 00:50:09.840
And the reality is that when you
have a person who makes a decision to

699
00:50:09.920 --> 00:50:14.840
end their life, that is a
very personal, very big decision that that

700
00:50:14.920 --> 00:50:20.360
individual is struggling with. Yet they
still have a family who is waiting to

701
00:50:20.480 --> 00:50:23.159
understand what happened where they are and
just having their body to say that this

702
00:50:23.559 --> 00:50:28.920
is a closed part of our life
that he passed away. He was sick.

703
00:50:29.199 --> 00:50:30.760
We want to honor him and have
a place where we can go and

704
00:50:30.840 --> 00:50:36.360
honor him as a final resting place. There's a family that doesn't have that.

705
00:50:36.760 --> 00:50:39.360
And there's still the potential that Peter
did not complete suicide, that he

706
00:50:39.440 --> 00:50:44.079
did go, let's say, to
get away and left. He was having

707
00:50:44.119 --> 00:50:46.920
a mental health crisis and just needed
to get away and clear as mind,

708
00:50:47.039 --> 00:50:50.880
knowing that he was not going to
live much longer. This might be his

709
00:50:50.960 --> 00:50:53.480
last chance to travel. Maybe he
was going to go home and had that

710
00:50:53.559 --> 00:50:59.159
cardiac arrest on the beach. Still
again, there's a family wondering what happened

711
00:50:59.159 --> 00:51:01.559
to our loved one if he had
not left detailed plans of where he was

712
00:51:01.599 --> 00:51:05.800
going, which he likely did not. When he's using false names and things

713
00:51:05.840 --> 00:51:09.559
like that, then someone's wondering,
where is my brother, where is my

714
00:51:09.800 --> 00:51:14.239
uncle, where's my cousin, where's
my coworker, where's my husband? So

715
00:51:15.119 --> 00:51:20.679
it's just sad. And my prayer
is that the authorities who say the DNA

716
00:51:20.719 --> 00:51:23.280
and genetic genealogy would do nothing to
help this case, that they step back

717
00:51:23.320 --> 00:51:29.480
and they rethink that there's too much
progression in terms of genetic genealogy. I

718
00:51:29.559 --> 00:51:34.840
believe it is being practiced very heavily, and databases are being used heavily.

719
00:51:34.840 --> 00:51:37.960
In Europe. This would be the
prime case to say who is this John

720
00:51:38.039 --> 00:51:45.039
Doe and give that family some answers. I agree. I think genetic genealogy

721
00:51:45.159 --> 00:51:49.800
absolutely should be used in this case, but like we mentioned throughout, I

722
00:51:49.880 --> 00:51:53.079
am completely unaware of what the laws
are in Europe with regards to using it,

723
00:51:53.400 --> 00:51:58.400
and Robin had said that it's only
used in Canada and the US.

724
00:51:58.480 --> 00:52:01.960
So I really hope moving forward,
as you know, the technology continues to

725
00:52:02.039 --> 00:52:07.719
improve, and there's so many different
Jane and John doe cases that are solved

726
00:52:07.760 --> 00:52:13.119
through genetic genealogy that countries in Europe
get on board as well. But if

727
00:52:13.119 --> 00:52:17.000
they are unable to do so,
even something so simple as radiocarbon dating could

728
00:52:17.119 --> 00:52:22.239
allow them to figure out potentially where
Peter Bergman grew up, where he's lived,

729
00:52:23.079 --> 00:52:25.079
you know, in the last few
years of his life, and it

730
00:52:25.159 --> 00:52:31.840
might narrow down this zone. And
as far as what his objective was,

731
00:52:32.480 --> 00:52:37.920
I mean, I personally think that
there's a strong likelihood or probability that his

732
00:52:38.119 --> 00:52:44.119
intention was to complete suicide. And
since Kuran Cassidy, the director of that

733
00:52:44.280 --> 00:52:47.599
fourteen minute short that showed at Sundance
and I think won in a word at

734
00:52:47.760 --> 00:52:52.239
Melbourne International Film Festival, Robin is
that right, Yeah, that's correct.

735
00:52:52.119 --> 00:52:58.440
Yeah, that Cassidy had said that
there was a potential that cyanide was used,

736
00:52:58.840 --> 00:53:01.760
and I think that for me,
that makes a lot more sense than

737
00:53:01.920 --> 00:53:07.840
just a random heart attack just before
one could complete suicide. But I think

738
00:53:07.920 --> 00:53:13.159
that I can't discount any possibility in
this case. And as Ashley just mentioned,

739
00:53:13.920 --> 00:53:17.559
I really really hope that moving forward
they can figure out the identity because

740
00:53:17.800 --> 00:53:22.239
somewhere out there there's friends and family
who are missing this man, and who

741
00:53:22.320 --> 00:53:28.719
wonder what happened to him, And
it's just so heartbreaking that he died while

742
00:53:29.199 --> 00:53:34.800
staring down this insidious disease all alone
on this beach. Just it really breaks

743
00:53:34.840 --> 00:53:38.960
my heart. Yeah, Like we've
talked about how in recent years, identifying

744
00:53:39.440 --> 00:53:44.079
John or Jane Does and giving them
their names back has pretty much become a

745
00:53:44.119 --> 00:53:49.119
weekly and sometimes a daily thing because
there are literally hundreds of decedents who have

746
00:53:49.119 --> 00:53:52.599
gotten their identity back thanks to genetic
genealogy. And I remember when they started

747
00:53:52.719 --> 00:53:58.000
using it in twenty eighteen. One
of the first John Does who was identified

748
00:53:58.199 --> 00:54:01.719
was Lyle Stevick, which was a
very similar case, like we said to

749
00:54:01.719 --> 00:54:06.360
Peter Bergman, where he checked into
a hotel under a false name and then

750
00:54:06.639 --> 00:54:09.559
took his own life, and they
couldn't figure out who he was until they

751
00:54:10.000 --> 00:54:15.920
submitted his DNA into a genealogical database. And it seems inevitable that the vast

752
00:54:15.960 --> 00:54:19.800
majority of these cases will be solved
someday in North America. But there is

753
00:54:19.960 --> 00:54:24.159
kind of a gray area here where
genetic genealogy does not seem to be implemented

754
00:54:24.480 --> 00:54:30.320
much in Europe or in many other
foreign countries or continents, and The two

755
00:54:30.320 --> 00:54:34.239
prime examples of this are the Jennifer
Fairgate case and the Peter Bergmann case,

756
00:54:34.320 --> 00:54:38.000
about two mysterious folks who checked into
a hotel under a false name and then

757
00:54:38.159 --> 00:54:44.039
died under very strange circumstances. And
I think if these cases had taken place

758
00:54:44.079 --> 00:54:46.840
in North America, they would already
be solved now because they would just enter

759
00:54:46.880 --> 00:54:52.440
their DNA into a deep database and
try to find some relatives. But here

760
00:54:52.480 --> 00:54:55.039
things are a lot more complicated.
I mean not only taking into account what

761
00:54:55.079 --> 00:55:00.760
potential laws there might be in Ireland, but also potential laws in other countries,

762
00:55:00.800 --> 00:55:05.400
because it seemed like Peter was from
Austria or perhaps even Germany, and

763
00:55:05.440 --> 00:55:09.159
that just makes the whole situation all
the more complicated. I do think that

764
00:55:09.559 --> 00:55:15.400
he probably traveled to Ireland with the
intention of ending his own life because he

765
00:55:15.440 --> 00:55:19.320
probably did not want to suffer from
the cancer he was facing anymore, and

766
00:55:19.719 --> 00:55:22.840
he was in so much pain that
he wanted to end things before he died

767
00:55:22.880 --> 00:55:28.360
of natural causes. And maybe he
just picked out Sligo randomly on the Internet.

768
00:55:28.400 --> 00:55:30.679
He said, this seems to be
a nice place where I can die

769
00:55:30.719 --> 00:55:36.159
peacefully, and then just decided to
get rid of all clues to his identity

770
00:55:36.559 --> 00:55:38.360
before he went out into that beach. I mean, we may never know

771
00:55:38.440 --> 00:55:43.280
what was going on in his mind. Perhaps he was lucid and he chose

772
00:55:43.280 --> 00:55:46.559
that place for a reason. But
like we said earlier, perhaps his cancer

773
00:55:46.679 --> 00:55:51.519
was just causing a lot of mental
health issues or delusions and he was just

774
00:55:51.719 --> 00:55:54.800
not thinking rationally. Maybe he thought
people were after him. Maybe he was

775
00:55:54.880 --> 00:56:00.480
just not in his sound mind.
But it sounds like even if he was

776
00:56:00.519 --> 00:56:05.559
planning suicide, a severe coincidence could
happen and he just died of cardiac arrests

777
00:56:05.559 --> 00:56:08.400
before that took place. But all
that being said, I do think that

778
00:56:08.519 --> 00:56:12.880
this is one of the cases we
covered that has one of the best chances

779
00:56:12.880 --> 00:56:16.000
of being solved sometime down the line, because even if they do not use

780
00:56:16.039 --> 00:56:22.239
genic genealogy, they still have Peter's
photograph and images of everywhere all over the

781
00:56:22.239 --> 00:56:27.320
internet, So there is always a
chance that the right person might see those

782
00:56:27.360 --> 00:56:30.920
images and recognize them and come forward, and that's how they'll be able to

783
00:56:30.960 --> 00:56:35.800
positively identify him. And in spite
of the fact that he may have wanted

784
00:56:35.840 --> 00:56:38.440
to die under these circumstances, he
may not have wanted to be identified.

785
00:56:38.760 --> 00:56:42.960
I still think we should figure out
who he is because he probably does have

786
00:56:43.000 --> 00:56:45.760
a family or friends out there who
are wondering about what happened to him,

787
00:56:45.800 --> 00:56:50.800
and they definitely deserve to get some
answers. Robin, do you want to

788
00:56:50.840 --> 00:56:53.159
tell us a little bit about the
Trail Went Cold Patreon? Yes, The

789
00:56:53.159 --> 00:56:57.719
Trail Cold Patreon has been around for
three years now, and we offer these

790
00:56:57.760 --> 00:57:02.440
standard bonus features like early ad free
episodes, and I also send out stickers

791
00:57:02.480 --> 00:57:07.320
and sign thank you cards to anyone
who signs up with us on Patreon.

792
00:57:07.559 --> 00:57:12.400
If you join our five dollars tier
Tier two, we also offer monthly bonus

793
00:57:12.440 --> 00:57:15.880
episodes in which I talk about cases
which are not featured on the Trail Went

794
00:57:15.960 --> 00:57:20.800
Cold's original feed, so they're exclusive
to Patreon, and if you join our

795
00:57:20.920 --> 00:57:23.639
highest tier tier three, the ten
dollar tier. One of the features we

796
00:57:23.719 --> 00:57:30.280
offer is a audio commentary track over
classic episodes of Unsawved Mysteries, where you

797
00:57:30.280 --> 00:57:35.199
can download an audio file and then
boot up the original Unsolved Mysteries episode on

798
00:57:35.239 --> 00:57:39.239
Amazon Prime or YouTube and play it
with my audio commentary playing in the background,

799
00:57:39.320 --> 00:57:44.800
where I just provide trivia and factoids
about the cases featured in this episode.

800
00:57:45.039 --> 00:57:47.840
And incidentally, the very first episode
that I did a commentary track over

801
00:57:49.039 --> 00:57:52.119
was the episode featuring this case.
So if you want to download a commentary

802
00:57:52.159 --> 00:57:57.000
track in which I make more smart
ass remarks about Jewel Kaylor, then be

803
00:57:57.079 --> 00:58:00.280
sure to join Tier three. So
I want to let you know the bit

804
00:58:00.280 --> 00:58:04.320
about the Jewles and Nashty patreons.
So there's early ad free episodes of The

805
00:58:04.360 --> 00:58:07.599
Path Went Chili. We've got our
Pathwent Chili mini's, which are always over

806
00:58:07.639 --> 00:58:10.320
an hour, so they're not very
mini, but they're just too short to

807
00:58:10.360 --> 00:58:15.079
turn into a series, and we're
really enjoying doing those, so we hope

808
00:58:15.119 --> 00:58:17.599
you'll check out those patreons. We'll
link them in the show notes. So

809
00:58:17.800 --> 00:58:21.559
I want to thank you all for
listening, and any chance you have to

810
00:58:21.559 --> 00:58:24.280
share us on social media with a
friend or to rate and review is greatly

811
00:58:24.280 --> 00:58:29.119
appreciate it. You can email us
at The Pathwentchili at gmail dot com.

812
00:58:29.400 --> 00:58:31.880
You can reach us on Twitter at
the Pathwin. So until next time,

813
00:58:31.960 --> 00:58:37.239
be sure to bundle up because cold
trails and chili pass call for warm clothing.

814
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Music by Paul Rich from the podcast
Cold Callers Comedy