Most horrifying episode: The man in the steamer trunk
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Unsolved Mysteries
Mr_Ectoplasma — 9 years ago(July 19, 2016 03:41 AM)
Anyone else catch this one back in the late '90s/early 2000s? It was a case where an elderly man had been discovered in a steamer trunk and abandoned in a national park somewhere on the east coast (I believe it was in Virginia, but I could be wrong). The authorities were at a loss to identify him, so, for whatever reason, UM decided to show a photo of the man's face as his body lay in the morgue.
I'll never forget when I saw this. I was in junior high; I had been sick with the flu, so I hadn't gone to school that day. My parents' house was in the middle of the woods in Oregon, and it was stormy outside, some time in November, which only made watching this show creepier. This episode came on, and I remember Robert Stack giving a brief "viewer warning" to notify the audience of the graphic image they were about to show. Before I even had a chance to look away, it came up on the screenhis face twisted in an expression of terror, battered and bloody, his jaw agape. I grabbed the blankets I had on my lap and threw them over my face, I was so terrified. I waited a good 45 seconds, listening to make sure it wasn't on the screen anymore before I removed them. That image to this DAY is still ingrained in my mind. It was so traumatizing that I get chills even thinking about it now, over ten years later.
I researched the case in recent years and found out that it had been solved. It was an elderly man who had been killed by his abusive caregiver, which was incredibly tragicbut for me, I'll never forget seeing that face, on my parents' couch that day, and being so goddamned terrified that I could hardly sleep that night.
I have some DVD-Rs with a bunch of the older episodes on them, and I came across this episode on it a few months ago. I still couldn't bring myself to watch it. I wanted to, but I literally couldn't. That's how much it effected me.
Anyone else have a similar experience with this, or am I just a big baby? -
hilaryjrp — 9 years ago(July 19, 2016 09:10 AM)
I had no cable television access in those years (no internet streaming then!) and was interested to know if you weren't perhaps exaggerating. Clearly you were not!
http://unsolvedmysteries.wikia.com/wiki/Harper's_Ferry_Remains
I'm very glad the UM site host doesn't have the photograph.
Sorry you had to live through this. Certain sights do stick with you for a very long time. -
Mr_Ectoplasma — 9 years ago(July 19, 2016 02:41 PM)
Did you find the episode and/or image online?
It is honestly one of the most disturbing things I've ever seen, and I'm not someone who is easily scared or perturbedbut that picture is just downright horrific. If I remember right, his eyes were open too, which made it even worse. Ugh! Absolutely awful. -
hilaryjrp — 9 years ago(July 19, 2016 04:40 PM)
No. I'm sure it can be found, but reading your rather atmospheric post, I've already got the willies. Very surprised UM would have done this, considering that they always kept a lid on graphic stuffwhich is why the show was spooky, frankly. They left a lot to one's imagination.
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Mr_Ectoplasma — 9 years ago(July 19, 2016 08:33 PM)
I've seen posts about it on the Sitcomsonline forum before, and nobody there ever seemed to be able to find the image, but a lot of people remembered it. I'm sure it was pulled from the internet (if it ever was there) after they identified the man. It was a total shock for sure; as you said, UM rarely showed actual photos of crime scenes or anything of the sort, and if they did, it was very censored/tamenot that one though, it was a jolt to the system!
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newyorknyny — 9 years ago(August 30, 2016 02:29 AM)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTRlnjN8yqg It's the French version. Go to 8:53 and they show it.
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stefanheikel — 9 years ago(October 31, 2016 12:15 PM)
No wonder it's such a frightening image. It looks like one of these from the "nightmare machine":
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/this-machine-was-built-to-give-you-nightmares/