Man staged own suicide to look like murder, copying CSI plot, police conclude

pigeontoad

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Florida man, 71, staged his own suicide to look like MURDER by copying CSI plot and tying a weather balloon to a gun so it would float over the Atlantic and disappear after he shot himself
  • Authorities closed the case for 71-year-old Alan Jay Abrahamson, who was found dead near his BallenIsles Country Club, Florida, home on January 25
  • Police had ruled his death a murder but found no leads, turning to suicide as a possibility
  • Investigators scoured the internet and learned of a 2003 CSI episode where someone committed suicide but made it appear to be murder
  • They believed that he tied a gun to a helium balloon in hopes that it would ascend over the Atlantic Ocean and disappear
  • Officers found string and rubber bands near his body and found the same ones at his home
  • Also found were a pair of scissors near his body and police were able to track down purchases for balloons and helium tanks
 
(Palm Beach Post)

LATEST: Gardens man staged his suicide to look like murder, police say

Alan Jay Abrahamson's royal blue sweatshirt had a circle of blood where a single copper hollow-point bullet ripped into his heart. But Palm Beach Gardens detectives noticed something odd: a thin line of blood running to the shoulder.

As if something had been dragged across the shirt. Like maybe string.

Then police learned that, in the weeks before the 71-year-old was found dead on Jan. 25 in a field near his Ballen Isles Country Club home, he had bought two weather balloons, asking questions such as how much they could lift, how far they could drift and at what height they'd pop. And he had bought big tankfuls of helium.
...
Investigators found Google searches dating to 2009 for ways to commit suicide by gun, hanging, drugs and poison — and how quickly a gunshot victim dies. And there were searches about helium balloons.

The week of Abrahamson's death, he searched sunrise and sunset times and Palm Beach County traffic counts, the report said. And the night before his death, he deliberately deleted his Dropbox software. That’s a service for storing files online.

 
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Florida man, 71, staged his own suicide to look like MURDER by copying CSI plot and tying a weather balloon to a gun so it would float over the Atlantic and disappear after he shot himself

  • Police had ruled his death a murder but found no leads, turning to suicide as a possibility
  • Investigators scoured the internet and learned of a 2003 CSI episode where someone committed suicide but made it appear to be murder
  • Also found were a pair of scissors near his body and police were able to track down purchases for balloons and helium tanks

How elaborate.o_O
Wonder who he tried to implicate in this staged event.

So in any dodgy plan, don't use your devices to google/watch/shop for crime shows, nor carry your phone around.
Yesterday, after shopping, my phone beeped: "did I enjoy my shopping experience, in that particular store"!!!
 
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'CSI' episode helps Florida police solve a fake murder
"They also found a 2008 real-life attempt to duplicate the 'CSI' episode in connection with a New Mexico suicide.

Investigators learned Abrahamson purchased two weather balloons last year, in October and on Christmas Day, the paper reported.

He also exchanged four emails with the balloon vendor asking logistical questions about the balloons, according to the paper. He sent the last email four days before his death.

Police found no gun when they found Abrahamson’s body in a field near his home.

He made large payments into his life insurance account before his death, the Sun Sentinel reported.

He also searched for information on whether life insurance companies could deny payments for suicide, the paper reported."
 
What a wild story. It sounds like the motive was financial related and he wanted his wife to get life insurance money so tried to make it look like he was murdered.

Lots of life insurance policies will not pay out if suicide which makes a lot of sense.

Sadly he must have been struggling financially or had some health issues too which could have contributed.

I have never heard of something like this. Goes to show how good investigations can lead to strange results.

RIP Alan.
 
Life insurance policies can pay out on suicides but usually not if the policy is new. It's to prevent people from buying a big life insurance policy and killing themselves the next day. Also gives the person some time to really think about suicide and maybe realize that their loved ones would rather have them around than a pile of cash.
 
Remember the staged murder where the guy hired a hitman to kill him but the guy forgot to bring a gun. So he had him stab him multiple times before painfully bleeding to death.

They denied his wife the life insurance policy after the killer was caught and confessed to the suicide by hitman.

A motivational speaker paid a hitman to kill him so his family could benefit from his $14 million life insurance policies, a court heard today.

Motivational speaker 'paid hitman to kill him' so family could get $14 million life insurance | Daily Mail Online
 
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Remember the staged murder where the guy hired a hitman to kill him but the guy forgot to bring a gun. So he had him stab him multiple times before painfully bleading to death.

They denied his wife the life insurance policy after the killer was caught and confessed to the suicide by hitman.

A motivational speaker paid a hitman to kill him so his family could benefit from his $14 million life insurance policies, a court heard today.

Motivational speaker 'paid hitman to kill him' so family could get $14 million life insurance | Daily Mail Online
That‘s the case I was referring to. Also known as ”Harlem Kevorkian“. I think he only got 12 years for it. Defense was that it was an assisted suicide, not murder.
 
A 71-year-old man tied a gun to a weather balloon to fake his own murder, police say
Washington Post

The Palm Beach Gardens Police Department’s first homicide investigation of 2018 opened in late January — rather early in the year, considering that Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., is basically a live-in golf course of 50,000 people, where the annual murder count rarely cracks one.

The case proceeded by the books, at first.

Victim: Alan J. Abrahamson. A well-liked man, by the accounts of friends and family. Ostensibly happy, according to the same.

“Alan was an avid golfer, enjoyed traveling and had a zest for life,” per his obituary in the Palm Beach Post. “He woke up each morning with a smile on his face and was adored by all.”

Abrahamson lived in a $900,000 house, inside the gates of an opulent country club, within walking distance to the ocean and whatever amenities a 71-year-old man might avail himself of. He owned the house with his wife, Linda (“soul mates,” as a family friend put it to police). He had children and stepchildren and step-grandchildren. He had no major medical issues that police knew of. No known enemies, either.
more
 

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