Man's Murder Really Elaborate Suicide by Balloon

[left-of-center2012]

Palm Beach Gardens (FL) police rule Alan Abrahamson's death a suicide

At 71, Alan Abrahamson had started taking early morning walks, explaining he was hoping to shed the weight he gained on a recent cruise. On the morning of Jan. 25 he left his $900,000 home in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., for that walk, with a camera in his gated country-club community recording him at 5:53am. At 6:30am, the camera picked up the sound of a gunshot. Abrahamson was dead. It was assumed to be murder, but there was no indication of a struggle and no weapon or shell casing.

The Palm Beach Post reports there was just one unusual clue at the scene: a very thin line of blood that ran from the wound in his heart to his shoulder. But when police accessed Abrahamson's email, they found something else: He had purchased two weather balloons, though no one they interviewed thought he had any interest in weather balloons, weather, or aerial photography.

His internet history gave up more secrets: He had emailed the seller four times asking about things like burst altitude; his Google Maps history revealed a Jan. 23 visit to an industrial supply store where police learned he had bought a 40-cubic-foot helium tank; internet searches regarding suicide dated to 2009. The Washington Post reports one February 2017 search read, "Can you have a gunshot suicide with no weapon present?"

What police described as a "far-fetched" but "plausible" theory formed: That Abrahamson attached a gun to the balloon, ran a string from the trigger to his finger, and shot himself, with the balloon carrying away the weapon and the string dragging that line of blood across his sweatshirt. Using a simulator, they determined the balloon could have carried a gun north of the Bahamas and into the Atlantic. By early March, they had closed the case, ruling it a suicide.

[fleur-de-lisa]

1. How weird.

[mr_lebowski]

2. That was for insurance money for his family one would think,can't get it when you kill yourself (nt)

[mercuryblues]

3. they solved it on CSI Vegas too.

[rusty quoin]

4. Sounds like something from Columbo

[Mosby]

5. They have no evidence.

There was no reason other than spite to rule this a suicide.