Man From Florida Faked His Murder Using A Weather Balloon
The mysterious death that has been racking the brains of the Palm Beach Gardens police department has apparently been solved.
On January 25th, Alan Jay Abrahamson – 71 – was found dead with a bullet wound in his chest near his home in Palm Beach Gardens in Florida. Abrahamson was known for carrying a few hundred dollars in cash in his wallet, along with having a nice watch. When police found his body, the watch was missing and he had no money in his wallet.
No weapon or shell casings were found at the scene, and his death was ruled a homicide. The only thing found nearby the body was a pair of scissors, however Abrahamson died of a gunshot wound. Even after offering a $3,000 reward, no one had any information to give to the police.
Shortly after his death, police obtained surveillance footage from a shop near the scene, which showed Abrahamson’s last moments. He was wearing a long-sleeved sweatshirt, shorts, sneakers, and a blue ball cap. Abrahamson walked off-camera with something in his left hand, and approximately 37 minutes later a gunshot was heard.
For months police have been investigating the murder, not coming up with any leads. They discovered an email on his phone that revealed that he purchased a weather balloon the month before his death, however none of the man’s friends could give any insight into why he bought the balloon. He had also purchased helium tanks, and this led police to a rather strange theory.
The theory: Abrahamson’s death may have been a suicide, made to look like a homicide. Police believe that Abrahamson used the helium tanks to fill the weather balloon and then tied a string from the balloon to the gun. Once Abrahamson shot himself, the balloon would carry the weapon away and leave no trace.
Whilst this theory may sound rather unbelievable, a bloodstain was found on Abrahamson’s shirt that pointed towards this being a possibility. There was a long thing line of blood that traveled up his shirt, not down. This is believed to have been caused by the string attached to the weather balloon dragging across his shirt as the gun was lifted away.
Investigators continued their search to see if there were any similar cases like this in the past, and stumbled across an episode from CSI Las Vegas that showed almost the same circumstances. In 2008 a man in New Mexico also tried to recreate this, however shortly after the gun fired, the weapon became tangled on a cactus nearby.
It is believed that the weather balloon took the weapon somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, north of the Bahamas. The case has since been closed.
