Where and when did this murder take place?

October 29, 2005 12:23 AM

I'm trying to track down information about an incident where a murder victim's body was disposed of in an industrial crucible.

I'm 95% sure this was an actual case; I believe it was described in a cable-tv crime documentary a few years ago. For reasons unknown it's been nagging at me lately, like a morbid version of getting a song stuck in your head but not being able to place the name or the singer.

Here's what I remember. First, the detail above: body in the molten liquid. Second, the only physical evidence that survived the crucible were some remnants of wire used to bind the victim and some small metal components from the victim's clothing. Third, the time of the disposal was established by examining instrumentation records that showed a brief dip in the temperature of the crucible's contents when the body -- or possibly the living victim -- was dumped inside.

Does this ring a bell for anybody? Any tidbit that might point me in the right direction would help. And I solemnly swear not to use this information for any nefarious purpose.

posted by Lazlo to grab bag (13 comments total)

It seems I can only help my confirming that I too saw the same show some years back, though I can't for the life of me remember the name of it.
posted by Captain_Science at 4:21 AM on October 29, 2005

Was it Unsolved Mysteries? I recall the detail about the temperature dip.
posted by handful of rain at 6:25 AM on October 29, 2005

If it was fairly well known at the time, it might be in the Crime Library somewhere.
posted by cmonkey at 8:12 AM on October 29, 2005

...the only physical evidence that survived the crucible were some remnants of wire used to bind the victim and some small metal components from the victim's clothing.

Doesn't this seem unlikely? Wouldn't it be completely mixed with the original molten metal?
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 9:16 AM on October 29, 2005

Wouldn't it be completely mixed with the original molten metal?

Not necessarily - the original metal may have had a lower melting point - Lead, perhaps?
posted by Orb2069 at 9:28 AM on October 29, 2005

I thought about that. I think molten lead would not completely decompose a body, bones and all.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 9:55 AM on October 29, 2005

Same method here, but less detail.
posted by halcyon_daze at 10:51 AM on October 29, 2005

Probably the Helen Brach case. Yes, Brach's candy.
posted by dhartung at 2:26 PM on October 29, 2005

". . . forensic scientists say it would be virtually impossible to find traces of biological material burned in such a furnace." (Warning: I found this report to be quite disturbing.)
posted by namret at 4:31 PM on October 29, 2005

I think it was Helen Brach too. "The Candy Heiress". She was murdered after she tried to go after her ex who had cheated her on a bunch of horse deals. It all happened in Chicago in the 80s. A guy called Joe Plemons, who has a very shady rep in the horse world, (might have spelled his last name wrong) cut some kind of deal and confessed to being involved in this crime within the last year so there should be some new info out there on it.
posted by fshgrl at 5:19 PM on October 29, 2005

There are some similarities, but I don't think it was the Brach case. In the one I'm thinking of, they were pretty clear about having found the metal remains. The program also aired several years ago, while the information about the disposal of Brach's body came out earlier this year.
posted by Lazlo at 5:24 PM on October 29, 2005

Brach's: "We turn good things into great candy®"

I'm so relieved she wasn't in the candy.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 11:57 AM on October 30, 2005

I remember this case -- I believe it was on Unsolved Mysteries. Some poor guy had gotten himself in the position of know too much about other people.

IIRC, they found the figure-eight wire that bound his wrists and the plastic remains of his glasses. I'm not sure it was a molten metal, but possibly some kind of industrial reactor.
posted by QuasimodoJones at 2:55 PM on April 19, 2006