The Mystery of the Isdal Woman
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- čas přidán 31. 05. 2024
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I always read Shea Thunder Wear instead of Sheath Underwear 😆
17:49 😮
Sheath 😅
Simón I know you don't care but death valley regularly records the hottest temperatures on the planet
Volume too low to watch on the go. Would be okay if sitting at home perhaps, but I'm not. I can't be bothered to strain to hear you. Why is this such an issue?? Especially when people say it again and again when it's low like this.....
I may just be speaking from my autism, here- but plenty of us cut all our tags out just because they're god-awful uncomfortable
Good point!
Except on his Biographics channel, Simon pointed out that the labels had also been removed from the cosmetics items in her luggage. Also apparently the prescription label from the eczema cream.
"she's got random glasses with clear glass? that sounds a bit spy-ish," says the man who's so proud of his now clear glasses that he wears because, "they're part of my brand" 👓
BTW, Drew Carey does the same thing. He had Lasik years ago, but still wears clear glasses for the same reason
Maybe he knows the spy hallmarks for a reason.....allegedly
I guess it takes one to know one
I bet I have a dozen. 😸when I was a kid I would’ve given Anything to not have to wear them. They were the big thick “coke bottle” kind. In fact I have a scar from falling on my face. 52 stitches.
It irritates me to no end when Simon refuses to recognize a world in which he’s wrong. 🙄🤣
8:46 I'm not a spy, but I cut tags out of my clothes due to skin irritation.
Edited to add - Also she had eczema cream which could suggest she had sensitive skin. I personally do not think she was a spy but I guess we may never know.
That's EXACTLY what a spy would say...
@@onglogman😂😂😂👍
@@MrBarcode That’s how I feel when I see someone wearing a shirt with “DRINK COCA-COLA™️” on it hahaha
I want to have this printed on a shirt I’ll wear, just in case.
@@onglogman And you would know this how?
32:04 Simon says “the mystery woman claimed to be from Belgium, but all of the hotel admin was filled out in German.” As a Belgian: Belgium has 3 official languages: Dutch, French and German. The German dialect spoken in Belgium is different from Hochdeutsch (the standard German spoken in Germany), so that could very well account for the different grammatical usage and spelling.
I was thinking the same thing - that speaking German didn't mean she wasn't Belgian.
Also didn't she claim to be from Ljubijana on one of them?
😮😮
Exactly! There is a region in Belgium where they speak German.
The variety of languages in Belgium including Flemish which isn’t spoken anywhere else makes it a go to country to hide a bad accent. So imperfections wouldn’t raise suspicions
Always makes me chuckle the way such a big deal is made of labels cut off of clothes. I cut the labels off all my clothes, especially ones at the back of the neck because they itch on my skin and look naff when they turn out.
She also removed the labels from her cosmetics.
@@Max_Mustermann i had the same opinion as above but yeah, removing the labels from cosmetics is a weird extra step which i can't rly make sense of
I dont think its odd, unless everything is removed like from trousers, blazers, coats etc places that wouldn't be as irritating or irritating at all and when combined with other weird shit
@@Max_Mustermann I take the labels off stuff like that and water bottles because I like to play with the glue while talking/watching something. Turns out it runs in the family cause my sister who lives across the country from me does the same thing. We be stimmin'
I thought it was weird but I don’t think so any more because my 6 year old daughter HATES the labels on her clothes she always makes me cut them off..that’s when I realized wow I guess some people are just like that🤷🏻♀️ she says they itch her
Tormund Bones is the best forensic investigator name ever.
Norwegian here. The thought has never occurred to me because we pronounce our names very differently. But when Bones is pronounced the English way, the name ABSOLUTELY fits the profession. 😅
Or an adult video actor.😂
💯
FR!
His name was Tormund Bønes not Bones☺️
I am very surprised that people are so obsessed wirh missing tags while she clearly had egzema... Also I read somewhere that if a spy was to remove tags they would do it in a way not to leave any indication a tag was there.
I personally believe she was hiding from someone. She wasn't mentally ill , she was in real danger. She is organized but her goal isn't to blend in. Her goal is to be so different from who she really is.
She was hiding from the Nuremberg trials... she used a term only used by Germans during ww2... she's the right age too.
She was an early writer for Today I Found Out, but she kept using too small a font and no line breaks so Simon made her "disappear"
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
😂😂😂
😅😅😅😅 that is my kind of dark humor. Kudos 😅on 😅😅😅
She also forgot to put her name on the top of the page, she knew she was done for so escaped front the basement but Simon tracked her down through her many aliases through his expert knowledge of spying from movies 😂
It's funny to listen to Simon argue with people who were actually spies about how spying is accomplished 😂
Especially when he’s constantly admitting all of his knowledge comes from TV dramas.
I just got to that part and I'm laughing my ass out 🤣🤣🤣
He just wants so badly for her to be what his idea of a spy is that he's completely disregarding the different types of jobs involved in espionage even after it was spelled out for him. it's honestly hilarious. Especially for Mr. "I always try to be open to changing my opinions with new information." lmao
I think many of his arguments are "but they are spies, of course they are not telling us the truth!" Which in my opinion is not quite correct. But what do you want from person thinking spy = James Bond :)
@@semaj_5022 His confirmation bias is strong. It's hilarious seeing Simon argue the "belief over facts/expertise" side of a Decoding the Unknown episode.
She described herself as art dealer or antics dealer right? Maybe not a spy, but maybe art thief, or a conwoman? Corporate espionage also fits I guess. I'd probably rule out mental illness, especially the paranoia, since if she was paranoid, it was for a damn good reason, seeing she ended up murdered.
I agree with this. It is also possible she was a call girl who worked in certain circles. But maybe she overheard the wrong thing.
On the art thef theory. I cant comfirm this but I have heared rumores that the Nazies was hiding a bunch of their stolen gold and art in Norway.
Yep, she claimed to be an antique dealer.
Seems very likely to me that she was perhaps not doing any due diligence on the antiques she was trading if you get what I mean and as for her death... some customer probably didn't want to pay and saw it as the easier option to kill her.
This could also have been a serial killer or a pair of them. Lured her in with some story, then did their sick stuff.
I wish there was some surviving evidence for dna testing.
I agree with this.
Well, since you brought up Death Valley in the states, you could do a decoding the unknown on the Death Valley Germans. A German family of 4 disappeared in Death Valley in 1996. If I recall they found the parents remains, but not the children.
Yeah, but that’s not really a mystery anymore. They tried to take a minivan over a route that would be challenging to en experienced four-wheel driver, and got stranded in one of the deadliest places on earth. The fact that the children’s remains haven’t been found doesn’t mean much, children and their bones are more fragile and portable than adults, they were likely carried off by scavengers. A sad tale, but no mystery.
@@anna9072 I read up on it a few years back. There was mentions of people telling the father that the minivan couldn't make it through the trail they were talking about and him referring to how easy the "trails" are in Germany and the ones in the US can't be worse.
Then he apparently mentioned something about they'd be right next to a US Military base if they needed help. He didn't listen to anyone telling him bases in the Western US are WAY bigger than the ones in Germany.
Everything about it points to a family who wanted to have a fun vacation, but didn't understand something light and perfectly safe at home can be fatal somewhere else. No real mystery, just a tragedy.
@@nharber9837 A lot of people forget how stupidly massive America is, like it's literally half of North America, a fuckin continent and not even one of the smaller ones.
@@nharber9837 i went into death valley once. in early november, the heat was hotter than anything i ever felt, and i lived in virginia during a heat wave and spain in the summer. i fried an egg on the roof of our car. it is unbelievable unless you've actually experienced it. a lot of my friends (french born and bred) don't understand when i talk about my life in the states. it is another world. my wife is native abenaki, and now that she lives here, she knows what i mean by culture shock. my friends look at her like an alien when she talks about her life stateside. i know she ain't lying. i lived it.
Oooo I only found about this case in the last couple months. It would be an interesting story for Simon to tell but I think the mystery was pretty much solved when they located some of the adult bones and a couple other personal items. The desert takes no prisoners.
i know you’ve covered the isdal woman on biographics before but i just love how much you and your writers dig into these sort of historic mysteries on this channel. it’s not just feeding you information it’s really turning the wheels in your brain. just wanted to say i appreciate it and this is why decoding the unknown and the casual criminalist are my favorite channels in the whistle-verse!
Not sure about the rest of the world but in the US in 1970, we did not have to offer any ID at any hotel or motel; nor did we have to show ID to purchase tickets or get onto an airline flight. Not any screenings at all. It was, needless to say, a much more lax time. Hence, DB Cooper. He gave his name simply to pick up the ticket at the counter then walked on board. Seriously and thus why he could not be identified.
My mother was born in 1970 US, Ohio. Apparently my grandmother didn't need to show ID at the hospital she gave birth to my mother at because she put a fake name on the birth certificate. We don't know why she chose to put a name other than hers on her daughter's BC, but she did.
You have to show an ID here in Germany, but you have to fill out a so called Meldekarte, a card with your details on it. That Meldekarte is mandatory since 1985 when the SHengen agreement went into effect. It is only in effect for non German citicens.
Just remember; a desert is classified by the amount of precipitation it recieves, not the temperature of the area.
Epilepsy doesn’t cause mental illness, but on the 90’s I was briefly on an Epilepsy medication which made me hallucinate. A few of the medications I was on made me anxious and paranoid. Epilepsy medications were not as good as they are now.
Actually it is pretty common for people with epilepsy to have comorbid mental illness, from what I’ve heard.
Depends on the kind of epilepsy. Temporal lobe type is notorious for causing psychotic symptoms
@@mekabarefrom what you've heard?
Neurontin? Horrible stuff.
@@calebbean1384receipts.
I cut tags out of my clothes when they keep flipping up. My family and I also cut tags out of clothing that is going to be donated to discourage resellers, so that the clothes have a better chance of getting to people who need them.
There is very often more than one tag, usually an annoying one with laundry info etc, and one thats sown in, the annoying one is fairly normal to remove, however usually people do not remove the ”unnoticable” one.
Did they have the same kind of tags on clothes in the 1970s?
@@oliverbosson3217you would remove every single tag if you have sensory issues.
I remove all tags because they irritate me to no end. Autism isn't always a super power.
@@CaseyBDookthat’s what I was gonna say. I have to because autism
Another theory that never gets mentioned.: She was the ex-wife of some horrible man who had enough money to make his marriage a secret so he could control her. If I'd stolen a large amount of money from a man like that I'd be paranoid also.
nvm stolen money, if i was trying to get away from a man like that...
Came on here to give the same theory. This sounds way more like a woman trying to stay hidden from some dude than a spy.
Simon refusing to accept that she wasn't a spy 😂
She was a "secret guest" travel critic. Like a secret shopper. She was about to give the last hotel she was inspecting a very bad review. The hotel manager learned of this.
😂 It's as plausible as the "spy" theory
Removing the tags due to itching makes the most sense. Tags don't add much to figuring out a person's identity.
Tags, especially back when things weren’t as mass-produced, could be used to track down where clothes were bought- I think it’s likely she just had sensitive skin but also it did make finding info about her harder
I like how Simon’s definition of spy kept getting broader as he kept desperately holding on to his pet theory as the video went on.
Her movements sound like someone who was paranoid and believed someone was following her. Or maybe she was actually running from someone.
I find it more likely that she was actually running from someone (or someones), because if it was just paranoia, then why did it end that way
Or a salesperson of some kind, would also explain the shorthand/code and the multiple languages. Also Belgium is a 3 language country so that could be just that.
@@Lisss-eo3vp Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they're not out to kill you. lol.
Yeah, crazy exes exist across all time lines. There are a lot more battered women than there ever were spies....
@@carolinec3951 i think the keyword in their sentence was "just" paranoia. It's not mutually exclusive, you can very much become paranoid as a consequence of feeling threatened for a while, whether the danger is real or imagined, right? Sure it can still be a random homicide but i lean towards "she knew there was someone coming for her"
Buying an extra mirror makes sense if you're changing your appearance, as it's one way to see the back of your head (or to see yourself from different angles). I cut my hair at home, and that second mirror is crucial to not messing up the back of the haircut!
To do drugs, to read backward writing, to do kinky stuff in bed, to send coded flashes, to be able to tell who is coming into a room, to hiding something in it, to realizing that hotel mirrors never show the whole outfit, to having religious or spiritual beliefs that involve mirrors, to wanting to confuse people. If she was involved in anything shady it's more likely that she was attracting a lot of attention and diverting some surveillance assets away from someone else. Also codes or ciphers don't have to be unbreakable. They just have to make a message harder to read than normal. Something that someone who knows you can read and someone who doesn't will be thrown by works just as well in the right situation. If you're just telling someone where to go, where you've been, or hiding a decryption key in plain sight, a simple to break shorthand isn't that big of a deal.
@@khallkhall7237 Yes, to hide something in it, like plans.
As an American, encountering people without much of an accent whose first language wasn't English is so common. Where I grew up, I knew so many people whose first language was Arabic or Spanish (primarily those two), but spoke perfect English. Some of these people hadn't come to the States until they were like 10, but little kids pick things up so quickly. I woll also never cease to find it impressive when someone's parent doesn't know a word of English and the kid is the translator. I can barely speak Spanish in the present tense, yet this 6 year old at the store is switching from perfect Spanish with his mom to perfect English with me like it's nothing.
Yeah, I had a coworker who spent most of his childhood growing up in Nigeria, and I had no idea until he mentioned it in passing.
He only mentioned it because we got new security guards, who were also Nigerian and basically only spoke Yoruba, which was also his first language. Apparently they were jerks and my coworker didn't want to have to talk to them, so he just pretended to be a born-and-raised American (who didn't speak Yoruba). But he'd already worked here for quite a while, and he hadn't been pretending to be local prior to that point; that was just how he talked.
> Who falls forward into a fire?
A rather drunk person certainly can.
My first thought as well. “Drunk people, Simon. Drunk people.”
The same people who fall away from fires, but who cares about the safely landed face plant?
I've fallen face first into a fire... thank goodness my buddy was there with a jug of iced tea to put me out.
That was my first thought lol. I've seen it happen half a dozen times
Absolutely. This happened to my brother one bonfire night after a few drinks. He went to warm his hands or so he said and ended up falling over and burning both his hands. Knowing him, more likely he was doing a fire walk on the embers (the sort of thing that sounds like a good idea when you're drunk).
Abused women have been known to go to extreme measures to escape their abuser. Especially if she’s being pursued. Just a thought.
Doubt she’d set her self alight 6:00
@@carlllewellynIt would probably be whoever she was running from that finally caught her and set her on fire
So what a woman who fears that she's going to be deleted by the person who abuses her just deletes themselves by setting themselves on fire. Sorry about using the word delete the other word may get my comment deleted because CZcams's comment moderation bot sucks
@@carlllewellynpeople do insane things when they break mentally
This thought crossed my mind too, but it seems like more than just abuse when the last sighting of her might have been two men following her up a mountain to burn her in a fire after dosing her with pills...
What was it, her husband and his brother? Some kind of weird honor killing? Maybe, but it's a pretty weird outcome to her abuser catching up with her...
@28:10 I dunno....in 1968 my Dad tried to sneak a .38 Webley Mark III police revolver in my diaper bag my Mom was carrying, along with a disassembled Kimball double-barrelled shotgun in the check-in luggage.
Both were found and confiscated. My Mom was allowed to continue back to the States with me, and my Dad had to stay and "answer a few questions."
It was _mostly_ above board; the purchases were legitimate, his method of transport was not.
Mom said she stayed pissed at Dad for years after that. She said she felt like a Kray brothers moll when they pulled the pistol out with seemingly the whole world watching.
And get this, sometime in 1986, we got a package in the mail. In it were both guns, with a letter of explanation from customs.
True story.
Well I travelled in 1985 from Norway to London, since it was just before new year and we were supposed to celebrate New Year in London I thought it was a good idea to take a signal pistol with me on the plane. And so I did, it travelled with me over, I used it to fire some "signal rockets" at Piccadilly Square in London, and it travelled with me back to Norway, I was young and stupid. Well it proves that the checks was not really that good in those days, it became more serious not long after.
Simon: It's always a simple mundane explanation!
Also Simon: SPIES!!!!
😆
The thing is, SPIES!!! is actually a relatively mundane explanation
Simon: I need proof for everything
Simon on a few strange details and no facts: it's spies 100% spies and cover ups...
@@st0rmforce more mundane would be salesperson, would explain the movements of her and the different languages.
I got asked what high school I went to when I was in my 40s and got carded for a pg 13 movie when I was in my late 20s. My aunt who is several years younger than my mom, was asked how old her daughters were...pointing at my mom, my sister, and me. Some people do just look a lot younger than they are.
Also, with excema it makes sense she would cut out any potential itchy stuff that could irritate her skin.
Similarly; turned 32 this year. Was carded at my birthday drinks.
My mom’s family is the same way. My maternal grandpa was 90 when he died, but appeared to be 65-70; my mom is 73, but appears to be 50-55, & I'm 45, but appear to be 25-30. We call it the “genetic gift”.
FYI, the my profile photo was taken before my 10-year high school reunion, so I was 28.
My mom’s side of the family is the same way. My maternal grandpa was 90 when he died, but appeared to be 65-70, my mom is 73, but appears to be 50-55, & I'm 45, but appear to be 25-30. We call it the “genetic gift”. FYI, my profile photo is just over a year old.
My mom’s side of the family is the same way. My maternal grandpa was 90 when he died, but appeared to be 65-70, my mom is 73, but appears to be 50-55, & I'm 45, but appear to be 25-30. We call it the “genetic gift”. FYI, my profile photo is just over a year old.
My mom’s side of the family is the same way. My maternal grandpa was 90 when he died, but appeared to be 65-70, my mom is 73, but appears to be 50-55, & I'm 45, but appear to be 25-30. We call it the “genetic gift”. FYI, my profile photo is just over a year old.
If someone has done a bunch of things that make you think they're a spy, the chances are they aren't a spy.
Back in the late 70s my parents saved up and then quit their jobs to do the van-life thing. And my dad's parents were convinced they had to be spies because who quits their job to travel the U.S. 😂😂
Awww. Does that apply to witches too?
As part my prior job as an IT consultant I once met a guy (a Russian colleague on a project in Germany) who nonchalantly mentioned to me and another colleague that some governments were willing to pay for information, implying that it would be a way for me and the other colleague to make some additional money. Suffice to say we didn't take him up on the offer.
@@Max_Mustermann hope you reported it. He might have had success elsewhere
@@vetinaris1297 I thought about it, but by that time I was no longer on the project and didn't really have concrete evidence besides that off the cuff remark.
I have fallen forward into fire exactly once. I was 5 and trying to put some sweet wrappers into the flames and I tripped on the carpet. My dad and granddad grabbed me out incredibly quickly thankfully.
A quick run under the cold tap and some crying later and I was back to happily watching Ferngully with the guard in place covering the fire.
13, drinkin beer, and goofin off with a bonfire. Also lost some hair when my idiot ex roommate tried to fry everyone suddenly walking up pouring gas from a low fume filled can onto a bonfire from directly above the open flame. Me and another dude hit the deck backwards "noohhhhshit" The other female, her, and the dude 12 beers in all lost eyebrows and other bodyhair. Still not as bad as the time she built a fire 4 feet from my bedroom wall in the driveway... I walk out goin wtf to a sheriff driving by and flippin round and her divin into the bushes on more than beer. 3 mins after i put it out while im calming everyone else down, them amazed he left after i talked to him.. i hear "Wooo its snowing"... And my near new car is covered white in extinguisher powder. Yeah.. fun times, just not for me so much. No, was not dating her. The older, heavier, and more a lush she got the more a pattern developed of her getting smashed, bangin someone, then making accusations... Like 4 in 5 relationships included. Wild times tho.
I don’t know why but I just picture a British person looking at you going “ you alright mate? You know that hurts huh?” 😂 idk why I just do 😅
@@bannankev a bearded father hiding his shame shielding his eyes with his hand and asking "bet ya wont do that again huh?"
My nephew fell into a burn pit filled with embers and hot ash. He wound up with second and third degree vurns on 80% of his body. Thanks to the Shriner's Burn Hospital at Shand's UF, he was fine and his scarring is minimal and nearly completely faded. It becomes evident when he tans, but is otherwise unnoticeable. Burns are terrifying and horrible.
Batty ftw
A perfect case for this channel would be the death of Mikas Alps. I live in guernsey and, as it’s a very small island, everyone knows everything about everyone else. The main narrative around his death, which was said by authorities to possibly have been murder, is that it was orchestrated by the Russian government due to his links to anti Russian groups. Additionally, there were rumours of a pair of Russian men entering and leaving the island on the same day of the death.
Either way, it’s certainly an ‘unknown’ that’s yet to be decoded, and it would be really interesting to see you guys take a crack at a case from my home island!
That would be cool I thought Guernsey was free from horrible stuff tbh being so tiny 😂 maybe Sark is?
Age can be such a tricky thing to judge, depending on not just a person’s physical appearance but also their demeanor, sense of style, and even where the guesser is from. I’ve had clients at my job be appalled and even loudly outraged upon first meeting me in a professional setting, because they think I’m 17-19 and thus far too young to be working in something as serious as refugee resettlement. One person even refused to get in a car I was driving because “I’m not sure you’ve even reached the driving age yet, you’re a damn child”. I know she was mad but it was complimentary in its own way 😬
I do understand why they think this (I’m a bit baby faced, I don’t have to wear a suit or other bits of business attire, I tend to be more informal and less stiff than social workers are expected to be, etc) but the shock when I show them on my ID that I’m actually almost 30 is truly quite the show.
When I was 19:
A shopkeeper refused to sell me beer (I went to buy for my mom); after I told my mom about that, and she went to confront them, I've never seen them again. 🫥
A kid in the park I was ~12 instead. 😄
My drivers license was from Minnesota when I was in my 20s, which has a weird texture and could fold in half. My name is also strange so when I first left the state for school I got carded and denied all the time because it looked like a fake ID with a fake name for someone who was obviously younger than 15.
I also sound young and once tried to cancel an account (I believe it was internet) and the person on the phone wanted to talk to my parents because I was to young to have my own account despite being in my mid 20s.
Yep, I'd 100% believe that she looked that much younger. I have blessed genetics n everyone from my myself down my mothers line have looked easily 10 yrs younger (more than 10 depending on what they were wearing n the shape they were in). I didn't know it until I was 8 n my mother told me that my babysitter was only 5 yrs older than her n not my grandma age. Meanwhile our teeth & eyes age twice as fast! LOL
My Dad still got carded in his 40s.
Simon on every other decoding episode - "I need proof, not circumstantial but real undeniable proof!"
Simon in this episode - "She's a Russian spy nothing else can be possible not even a spy working for someone or a lady on the run for some reason." cos Simon has such intimate knowledge of who is or isn't a spy. Like what they look like. Apparently generic which doesn't have to be true what about those used in honey traps etc. I especially love how he knows more about it than real people involved in the spy industry, man!
It's insane to me to have rarely been out of cell phone range. I can drive a little over an hour from where I am in the middle of a city and be out of cell service. We generally camp with no or extremely spotty cell service off of logging and pipeline roads. Canada is pretty empty in the middle and the north.
Or any part. I was on the TransCanada through BC a couple weeks ago and lost service.
The forensic expertwas called "Bones"? 🤔
Kathy Reichs has entered the chat☠️
YES
I think we are missing an obvious hypothesis here. International THIEF fits the MO better than spy.
That was also my thought. Pretending to buy antiques or artefacts would give her access to rich people's houses and the opportunity to scout for burglaries. It would be interesting to know whether there has been an increase in burglaries or thefts on her route. Maybe she betrayed some gangster boss and had to hide from them. That would explain the overkill, too. Stating an example and punishing.
That’s actually a good theory. It would fit in nicely with her cover story of being an antiques dealer and all the men she was seen with. But then why kill her? Did she figure out something fishy was going on and she suddenly had a guilty conscious? Who are you really Élisabeth (my name for her)?
No, I have watched all documentaries bout this and it points in the direction of an eastern block spy that was there in regard of NATO activity.
Simon would completely freak out living in the US. Until I moved several years ago, I was so remote that I had zero cell service at home. When wifi calling became a thing, I could use that unless the internet was out, but I had to drive about a mile and a half down the road to get an actual cell signal.
Misread as 'when *wife* calling became a thing'
Retracting funny comment 😊
Companies making clothes without tags is one of the greatest things fashion has accomplished in the 21st century.
When the camera zooms in and you can’t see the desk. Simon looks like a floating head.
This case had oddly similar aspects to that of “jennifer fairgate” which also occurred in Norway, Oslo specifically.
This is another mystery worth researching
The Body In The Tree is an unsolved murder of a woman whose remains were found in a hollow tree in Hagley, Worcestershire, on 14 April 1943.
I have seen a young Asian woman sitting in a field with a soda bottle in her hand. She then started pouring it on herself and the next thing she is alight. Several people nearby rushed to her aide. One had a fire extinguisher. They put her out and got her to a hospital 1/4 mile away. She was so burnt she passed away the next day. Never heard why she may have done it.
😢
How sad
I don't know if it was the case during this period, but art dealing and antiquity dealing are common and effective methods for money laundering.
Sadly, Simon is my most consistent "relationship " these days. Lol
Love seeing a new video pop up!
There are countless people with a parasocial relationship with Simon.
Technically, Italian and German were my first two languages. My parents spoke them to me until we moved to France when I was almost 3. Then I was taught French. Then we moved to the U.S. when I was almost 14, in '83.
So, English is, I guess, my fourth language. I speak it better than all of the others combined.
I am again reminded of how US rural defers from Europe rural, in that he called the Isle of Man the middle of nowhere, when the county I grew up in was about twice as big as the Isle of Man land wise, and had about 1/5th the population.
cutting tags out of clothing is actually really really common. its done for many underlying reasons but basically lots of people have medical conditions that give them sensitive skin so they cut the tags out so they dont get irritated by them. Very common in any clothing that touches skin, dresses, blouses, t-shirts etc.
So many channels, so many frequent uploads. I cant keep up 😂
I don't feel so bad now, it is a bit of a full time job, isn't it?
Rookie
True OGBBs can.
Speak for yourself. I run out of "new simon" in one day after not listening for just my weekend (mon-wed) every week.
It's literally a full time job at this point😂
Regarding her looking young for her age, my grandfather was an absolute mutant when it came to looking his age. In a WW2 photo he's the oldest guy in his unit, but he looks 14. In his 40's he was mistaken for his wife's son (she was younger than him), and in his 70's he looked like his 40yo son's brother
Actual former spies: "So here's the facts about how this all worked at that time!"
Simon who definitely knows more about how spy work in the 70s worked: "I disagree."
36:23 It's possible with good genes - my mom was commonly mistaken for being in her early 30s when she was in her mid-40s. She still looks about 10 years younger than she really is. I seem to be following in her footsteps so far - I just hope it stays that way! 😅
Came to comment the same. I’m in my mid-40s and most people believe I’m at least 10 years younger! And not said just kindly, but insistently. I have oily skin, use sunscreen religiously, and never smoked - all of which protect against wrinkles 😉
Yep, another one here. All down my mother line, male & females, all look 10yrs younger, n even less if they keep physically fit. I've had people insist that I'm lying about my age & demand ID (n not at a bar), but honestly, these days I just avoid mentioning my age at all & just go with whatever they think it is. LOL
I have a friend who looked so much younger than he really was for a very long time. He finally stopped getting carded when buying alcohol when he was nearly 40. He grew a beard out of desperation to actually look like an adult.
Actual professional spy: “it doesn’t work like that.”
Simon: “Yes it does!!”
Lol
My wife removes all tags from her clothing. It's not uncommon. She doesn't like the feeling of tags rubbing on her skin. Usually someone with sensory issues or sensitive skin will remove every single tag from all the clothing they own to avoid the rubbing of the material from clothing tags.
I used to do the same thing and now most shirts have the tag printed. She also had eczema cream in her bag
It's not only the tags, the missing tags was just one of MANY open questions, but the missing tags confirms that something very unusual with this woman.
I don't get why someone would go to the trouble of cutting tags out of clothing, removing lenses from glasses, etc. To hide their victim's identity instead of just getting rid of the stuff. She also seems to have gone out of her way to make herself memorable; people, like the shoe salesman, remembered her clearly weeks after. I'm thinking she intended for something to happen to her and wanted her things found but not identified. Why, though?
All good points, but I dont think she nesersearly went out of her way to make herself memorable...
I think what would be an almoest perfect disguise in any metropolitan european city in 1970 would stick out like a sour thumb in a "rulal norwegian fishingvillage" due to cultural diffeances..
I may be scolded by some for saying Norways 2`nd biggest city is a "rural fishingvillage", but compeard to Paris, Brussels or London, I think it realy was back in 1970.. (and Stavanger even more so at the time..)
Amazed that he was "vaguely familiar" with this, because typically he's familiar with absolutely nothing
I think he was referring more to the feeling of having no clue what was going on. Probably just confused that with knowing the story.
He could almost be an Amercan Zoomer.
He did a biographics video about her 2 years ago
He did do a video about her on another of his channels
some of these topics does so many videos of for the different channels that he knows the stories by heart. most probably it's more surprising to him that he doesn't remember something then that he does. in this case it's probably the name doesn't ring a bell at the start, but then once he gets into it he probably realizes he remembers the smaller details. this happens to me all the time at my job. I do retail inventory for a living so I go to a lot of different stores, and there's a lot of times I think I've never been to a particular one, but then when I get there I'll be standing in a particular spot and all the sudden a memory will snap into place. with regards to Simon there's a lot of times where he spoils what the writer is writing one line ahead as he starts remembering the details from a previous video
Generally "John Doe" is used in the UK by the police. "Joe Bloggs" or "John Smith" can also be used but not usually in legal / criminal matters, you'd be more likely to see them as anonymous sources for journalists etc.
One small point.
Tags cut out of clothing means absolutely nothing. I do it to all my clothes, because the tags itch. There's nothing at all spyish about me, I'm afraid.
I was thinking 2 similar things around the tags being cut out.
The woman had excema - if her skin was very prone to itching and irritation, maybe cutting all tags out had become just habit to avoid further scratching and reactions.
Also - the whole cutting labels out is something I've heard of in other insilved cases, but mainly pre or just after post war era. I suspect that clothes producers and retailers were pretty niche and so someone could be track to a country or city by an item. But by the 70s in the time of mass production would it have still been so easy? I guess the names of a national clothing chain is easier to spot but maybe less so. On the flip side of that, as global clothing markets in the west would have been slightly more joined up - even without tags I'm surprised nothing could have been made out looking at the styles and fashions of the clothes, colours and patterns and types of fabric to identify particular countries of origin.
Can't fool Simon, you're a spy
Simon: “but why were her tags cut off?!??!!”
Previously also Simon: “her luggage included eczema cream”
😅
My opinion is she wasn’t a spy, she was a high class sex worker. She pissed off the wrong rich person and she took a forever sleep.
When is Coca-Cola Zero Sugar going to start sponsoring Simon’s videos. I’ve never seen anything else on his desk but coffee.
Speaking purely from a potential profit view, why give him free drinks that he already pays to drink? Any marginal increase in their sales based purely on what he has on his desk would be below a blip, and would already be part of their sales before even thinking of losing his money to give it to him for free. 😂
If I was watching, as part of their marketing department, I see this as a free win.
@NnH_Kairyu giving one person free drinks when they have exposure to millions of people is exactly what a marketers job is. You're right he already buys the drinks, but giving them for free means he can convince way more people.
@@GenusMusic But it's already there on his desk. If someone was going to buy it based on what Simon drinks, it's already there. 😂
yeah it would make more sense to do if he wasn't already drinking a Coke product, so for example it might make sense for Pepsi to pay him to pretend to switch... supposing he gets enough views across all of his channels.
from that perspective it might make sense for him to actually hide which beverage that he's drinking with a self-branded koozie
2:20 - Mid roll ads
3:45 - Chapter 1 - A body is discovered
8:55 - Chapter 2 - Initial investigation
21:50 - Chapter 3 - The case re opened
31:35 - Chapter 4 - Who was the isdal woman ?
40:00 - Chapter 5 - A spy in our midst
52:30 - Chapter 6 - Other theories
58:00 - Conclusion
OGBB❤
Nice to meet you again my friend. ❤
Ilze is the Danny of Decoding the Unknown.
Ilze is the Ilze of Decoding the Unknown
@@jrmckim A very fair correction. Apologies Ilze.
Only meant as praise.
Danny is the Ilze of Decoding The Unknown.
Im surprised that I had never heard of this case before. Ive been studying crime mysteries for 40+ years now and this one eluded me.
Thing is now we have this marvelous thing which actually does all your research for you and makes it good fun at the same time.
Its called Simon Whistler and The Casual Criminalist!
Thanking you much very.
There are usually 2 tags inside clothing. There's the brand tag and the washing instructions. Usually, the washing instructions are around the bottom and sown into the side stitching. The brand tag is up near the collar. The size is most likely going to be onnone of these tags. The tag around the collar is more likely to be removed since it touches the sensitive skin of the lower neck.
If you remove both tags, I'd find that iffy. Having been an elementary teacher for almost a decade, many of my students have the tag around the collar removed but the one toward the bottom doesn't seem to bother them as much. Probably because that tag usually sits where the top of the pants are. Not saying some of them didn't cut off both tags, only that it's rare.
Funny the one around the waist is the one that annoys me more because it tends to be bigger.
“Who falls forward into a fire?!” Let me introduce you to Christopher Titus as a teenager…
😂😂😂😂 but wasn’t that “liquid courage” induced?
😂😂😂
I also recall an episode of surviver where one contestant fell into the fire (I think they were in Australia).
@@DeathByBlonde1 she had a bottle of liquor on her so that isn't out of the question.
Possibly someone with epilepsy. Falling down with a loss of consciousness near a fire happens.
I don't think she was a spy, but she could be a con woman or she was hiding from someone who maybe caught up to her.
That’s plausible. However, there was a LOT of spy activity in Europe in the 60s and 70s.
Aside from the heat, the unsettling thing of death valley is the lack of sounds, no birds, almost no wildlife, no leaves that rustle. Same feeling as a soundproofed room I once visited at a university.
I was leaning towards A Beautiful Mind type of situation. The school they think she attended made me think she was a mentally unwell lady that thought she was involved with a spy ring, but she caught the attention of people involved with real espionage and they took her out thinking she was a foreign asset. I like the art theft theory too though.
The podcast for this was really good.
Thanks for the extra bits and bobs!
There was an excellent podcast on this a few years ago on the BBC
Good job Simon you just gave the networks and idea for a new CSI spinoff.
You also have to remember that everything Simon knows about spaceflight he learned from Stargate SG-1.
Us Australian listening hearing him talk about the SOS only service we get that plus no service that SOS won't even work
it makes me think of the guy in Australian the Somerton Man.
Yes, a true classic mystery of the internet. A great way to end the week DTU crew! Thank you!
CC crew? As in casual criminalist? Because this is DTU
@@TheCanagoose Haha lol caught me out. But thanks I changed it. Could also go on CC too I suppose.
I spent two weeks in Bergen for work and it rained the entire two weeks straight. Apparently that's a normal occurrence in Bergen.
It rains for 200 days a year on average here 😅
I'm 48 and got id'd the other day for buying alcohol "are you over 25?". Made my day! 😁😂
Lucky you...I'm in my 20s and instead of getting carded, my birth year was guessed as 1980.
This was one of the most entertaining videos I’ve ever watched
Easiest explanation - She was a sex worker, just as today where sex workers travel around various states and countries (now days advertised via Only Fans or Twitter). Guys were buying her stuff as part of payment for her services. She had wigs, various outfits, and potentially knew a variety of languages (all to meet the fantasies and needs of her clients). Also, this would explain why she was seen with a variety of men but none of those men ever came forward to say how they knew her.
Seriously, troll?
@@mariakelly90210 it is the easiest and most logical explanation. Nothing trolling about it.
*Conspiracy theory Simon hates* : LISTEN TO THE EXPERTS, THERES NOTHING HERE.
*Conspiracy theory Simon likes* : I completely disagree with the experts.
For the love of god, Simon please stick with one mic. You're super loud one side projects and really quite on Decoding the Unknown. How dare you make me turn my phone volume up and down😂
It’s shocking that someone could pick up on sound difference in that manner.
Oh I get that, I listen on my walk to work, so I make a play list of all the videos from the past week. You can imagine me half way to work pulling out my phone to adjust the sound. Lol (and yes I heard all the drilling.) ❤
@@lijohnyoutube101Watching videos from him back to back (say he releases two videos around the same time on different channels & you want to watch both), the difference is noticeable enough that those with normal hearing could pick up on it (some needing to adjust the volume). It's not the biggest difference, but it isn't that slight that it's shocking people would notice.
@lijohnyoutube101 that's an acoustic thing to pick up on for sure
@@hutchio I would never notice that or even process a sound adjustment in that manner. It’s astounding how different humans all are.
Thanks for another one simon and team. ❤️❤️❤️
Finally! You did a shorter video on this and just been waiting for Decoding The Unknown!
One of my favorites! I've watched/listened to the Buzzfeed Unsolved video on it many times. So I'm over the moon that you've done a video on it (or shall I say, another video on it and a way longer one), and I have a new one to over consume.
So like... The neurotypical idea that only spies cut the tags out of their clothes is a pretty limited world view. As a neurospicy person, I frequently cut the tag out of my shirts and pants, sometimes even pulling the tag out from under the stitching. The material that tags are made out of is usually stiffer and scratchier than the fabric of the clothing, especially back when I was younger. Cutting tags out of clothing can just be for comfort.
Also, she doesn't have to be a spy to have multiple identities: she could be running from a bad-natured ex. The ex could just generally be a jerk, or involved in organized crime. Violence towards women was certainly a lot more common back then, so it's entirely possible that this woman was just trying to enjoy life, take a wild whirlwind of a vacation, or even just doing her best to escape her ex based on some pulp spy novels she'd read.
Not to say that any of this is true, but I've noticed that, in a lot of cases like this, the majority of opinions tend to be from a masculine and neurotypical point of view. That's it! Keep up the great videos, though, Fact Boy.
Yeah, I completely agree, 🤝
This was written by a woman, just saying
I have a big objection.
The ML - MM annotation is not the last entry.
It is actually in the bottom left corner of the page, not in line with the Nov entries. It is this:
"10 M
ML23 N MM"
It appears to refer to 10 March (it is located beneath the March - early May column).
At the top of the March column was an entry for 10 March, but with no location or end date.
The ML - MM entry appears to have been supplementary info for 10 March, dropped in later several inches under that column.
If the entry reflects the standard format, it means "10 March -- traveled from ML23, through N, to MM".
At another point she had N678 T N8 TOS, which meant Nov 6-8 Trondheim, then traveling later on Nov 8 from Trondheim, through Oslo, to Stavanger.
In case you're wondering, in the first column she wrote dates as day-month ("10 M" for 10 March), then in the rest changed it to month-day ("A23" meaning 23 April).
Apparently she learned that letter-number-letter (month - day -city) was a clearer annotation than number-letter-letter (day-month-city), especially when you might occasionally have to use two or more letters to designate a place or a route or a month (she later uses "JJ" for July).
I don't know if you've covered it before, but mentioning Death Valley at the start of this episode reminded me of the Death Valley Germans mystery- It'd be an interesting story to cover if you haven't!
The argument that a Soviet spy wouldn't make mistakes (like being memorable) seems a little overly generous.
Also, making a memorable persona is a good way of hiding too. If you fake a limp or wear a red wig, they'll search for someone with a limp or red hair and not the real person. You can set people on a wild goose case after someone who doesn't exist.
Lisbeth Salander. This story reminds me of the "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" series.
You'd need to be more specific really.
I am born and raised in Bergen, and have spent most of my life here. For me, the biggest issue I have in regards to the suicide theory, boils down to the geography of Bergen. I am an avid hiker, and, as a matter of fact, just two days ago I hiked in the Isdalen area. Here is the thing: The Isdal woman checked out of her hotel at 10:30 am and then took a taxi to the train station. This would be, depending on traffic, about a 7-10 minute drive. We also know that witnesses reported seeing smoke from the Isdalen area around noon. Furthermore, the partially melted wristwatch found next to her body, had frozen at the time 12 : 32. We can therefore assume that time of death probably was some time between noon and 12:30 pm.
This leaves between 75-90 minutes for the Isdal woman to get from the train station to the isolated forest patch where she was found, In order to make it from the train station to this part of Isdalen in this time frame you would have to walk extremely fast. Basically you would have to run for 75-90 minutes straight with no breaks. Even for an active hiker like me, it would be difficult. However, considering all the stuff that was found at the crime scene, this would be, I would argue, pretty much an impossible feat, considering everything she would have to carry. If we ,in addition, assume that she had swallowed dozens of sleeping pills before she arrived at the spot where she died,, it would be even more unlikely.
It is possible, in theory, that she could have taken another taxi, or a bus, for part of the stretch, but even if you get off at the closest current bus stop to Isdalen, you would still need to hike at a brisk pace for 45 - 50 minutes to get to the forest patch where the body was ultimately found. However, no taxi drivers, bus drivers or bus passengers, observed the Isdal women in the relevant time frame.
The only possibility left is therefore that she must have been driven in a private car for most of the stretch. Which means that there must have been other people with her pretty much up until her death.
"There's no CSI L London"
Poor Silent Witness :p
You know, especially back then, much of the work of the security services were to run down individuals _suspected_ of being foreign intelligence assets or associated with such. If they were all any good at their jobs, that in itself would suggests quite a lot of suspects looked into turned out _not_ to be associated with foreign intelligence (security services need to cast a wide net, otherwise you're gonna miss and overlook a whole bunch of real threats that do a good surface job).
Given the state of such affairs here in Norway back in the 70s, just the details of the initial police and media reports would be plenty of reason for the services to look into this case. And if they did so with a heavy hand, even if they didn't find anything, that heavy handed intrusion could have been reason enough to kill the police investigation. To minimize the risk of who and how intervened ending up in official police reports or court documents further down the line.
People used to cut off clothing tags because they were damned uncomfortable.
And still do
I knew this one would come up eventually! Thanks Ilze, Simon, and team.
5:14 in the US, that is definitely a 911 call. I've called the non-emergency police number to report a dead pet dog that I found on the side of the road (it had a collar on it) and they patched me through to 911 for that, so I think a burned person would definitely be a 911 call. 911 is directly to the dispatcher, they're the ones who have the ability to dispatch all the correct and necessary things, if you call the non-emergency police number you get beat cop at the desk who doesn't have the ability to dispatch police officers and such, and so he's just going to patch you through to 911.
this is one of the quietest videos on youtube. Have to be quick on the controls to prevent deafness when ads come on
Turn your volume up Whistle Boi.
Good, so I am not the only one. The damn background music is to dominant in the mix.
The pod is definitely worth listening to I found on BBC Sounds 9 years ago whilst on holiday. Ok😊 thx Simon great reminder of this case
Bravo. This one was a belter!