The Woods 3 “The Hanging Body”

At approximately 9:30 am, on December 2nd 1995, a body was found hanging from a high branch of a tree in the local wood. The only witness to the events surrounding the body was a young girl around the age of nine, who had entered the wood that morning to play. The following is a mostly unaltered transcript of the conversation between the young girl and local police, about an hour after the body was discovered.

“Please state your name.”

(Her name has been withheld for the sake of anonymity)

“Now, I want you to tell us what you saw when you entered the woods this morning.”

“I saw a man.”

“Can you tell us about the man?”

“He was tall, thin, and looked very sad. I couldn't really make out his face very well.”

“Why couldn't you see his face very well?”

“His face was weird...It looked blurry. Like...like when you smear paint. His hair was messy, and his clothes looked old. He had a rope in his hand. When I first saw him, he had been pulling on it like this (At this point it is asserted the little girl described a tugging motion). After a little bit he noticed I was there, but he didn't seem to mind.

“Did he say anything to you?”

“Not at first. He coiled the rope in his hand and put it on the ground. Then he began to talk. He said he was wondering what I was doing in the woods. All by myself.”

“What did you say”

“I said that I went out to play. He asked why I wasn't with friends and I said I didn't really have any. He didn't seem to like this because he got really quiet.”

“What happened after that?”

“I told him I should go home because I shouldn't be talking to people I don't know. He said his name was Alex. Said he lived down the street from me. Said he waves to me all the time. I don't remember him though.

This information was looked into, but it turned out to be a fabrication on the part of the assailant.

“I figured he wasn't really much of a stranger if he lived so close. He asked if I wanted to build a snowman. I told him I would love to. So that is what we did. He seemed really good at it because it didn't seem to take him more than a few seconds to roll the snow. I helped as much as I could...but he was much better at it than me. By the time I finished one he already made two really big ones. It was nice though. I don't get to play with others a lot...I think he doesn't get to either”

There was is long silence, then the officer asked her what happened next.

“He picked me up, and I placed the snowball I had made on top so our snowman would have a head. Then we found two stones for eyes, and a pair of branches for arms. He asked if I liked it, and I really did. I told him that my favorite movie was “Frosty the Snowman.” I love to make snowmen I told him, but it is really hard to do by yourself. I said it would be really wonderful if the snowman came alive like in the movie. He nodded when I said that, then he told me a BIG secret. He said...he said that he knew how to make a snowman real...All it needed...was a heart” she whispered.

“What happened after that?”

“He told me that I had to go, since he had some things to finish. He said it was nice seeing me again, and told me that I should come back later. I went to my mom and told her what happened though. She got all upset at me. Then she called you.”

An officer was sent over soon after the call had been made, and was led by the girl to the area in question. As she had said, there was a tall snowman with stones for eyes, and sticks from a nearby tree acting as arms. The officer went to the other-side of the tree, and quickly told the mother and child to get back a good distance. He called for backup and after several minutes many more officers arrived.

Only after the child and her mother had been moved away did they begin to investigate the scene. There, hanging from one of the tallest branches was a body. It had been flayed open, and there was a severe amount of tissue damage. Several of the organs had been removed, then placed back in the body. The heart, however, was missing.

A thorough investigation of the area provided no tangible evidence as to the identity of the man the girl had met in the woods. The body seemed to have been dragged a considerable distance, but the shoes of the assumed killer were average in size and branding, providing very little additional information. The man who had been hung had seemed to have been given a heavy anesthetic before being moved, though he was certainly dead by the time he had been hung. The actual drug that had been administered was hospital grade

The initial wound was placed a couple of inches below the neck with a knife, and had then been dragged outward until the blade had passed cleanly across the bottom of the victim’s chin. Strangely, the victim had then had their wound sewn carefully shut with heavy thread, and had only then been hung by the neck.

The identity of the body was soon determined, but no motive nor even a suspect in the crime was ever determined. At this time, the case has been considered unsolved, though the precision of the cuts as well as the nature of the stitching suggests that the work had to be performed by someone with medical training. This has led many to connect it with a more recent case, that also utilized precision mutilation, though the differences in the two are admittedly rather pronounced.

After a long search, one of the officers noticed that the sun had begun to melt the snowman, revealing a growing pool of red. After breaking the snowman apart, the officer managed to find the source of the discoloration. There, just off center of mass, was the man’s heart. After being examined by the on-site medical team, it was determined that the heart had still been beating when it was placed inside.