Post by Catsmate on Feb 16, 2021 14:20:27 GMT
The Odd Life and Death of Walter Rice
This, or a facsimile of it, is perfect for the Misfit Mob; a small-scale mystery that (probably) isn't that important. Unless it is.
The mystery started in 1990 when a man named Walter Rice moved from Essex in Connecticut (where he'd apparently lived quietly and worked as a hotel cook) to the small town (<3,000 people) of McCormick in South Carolina. There the 73-year old man purchased a plot of ground and a trailer (an immobile mobile home); form then on, for about two years, he lived virtually as a recluse, barely speaking to anyone. He had no job, no friends or associates and no known activities or hobbies.
On 25JAN1992 Rice was involved in a car accident and took a cab home. This was his last known, living, contact.
His life was so isolated that when he failed to pay his electricity bill in FEB1992, and he didn't respond to attempt to contact him or call, they company assumed Rice had simply abandoned his trailer. It happens. So a worker removed his outside meter and nothing more was thought of the matter, or mister Rice. The few items of post that arrived for him started to pile up and the Post Office began to return them.
Jump forward a year, to 04APR1993, and the local police received an odd phone call; a woman stated that a "friend of hers" had broken into the Rice trailer in February and found him there, dead. She said that she'd expected someone else to notice and hadn't bothered to report the matter at the time.
Later it was established that two men broke into his home and found Walter's decomposed body. They fled and it was the girlfriend of one of them who spoke to the police.
The police investigated and on 05APR1993, Walter's body was found and removed. There were signs of a break-in.
The coroner estimated that Rice had died early in February 1992, probably of a massive heart attack; it was thought probable that the road accident had contributed to his death. So far a minor tragedy, but not a mystery.
Then things got interesting.
Rice had paid cash for everything possible, be possessed no credit cards nor any visible means of support, nor any of the personal junk that normal people accumulate. What he did have was around US$150,000 in four banks.
As there was no will the probate judge attempted to trace his next-of-kin, to find an heir.
Tracing his life backwards found a birth certificate giving his birth as Abbeville in South Carolina on 06JUL1920. Curiously neither the hospital nor the city have any such record. His Social Security Number was also found to be false, though he did have a SS card.
But he did have a passport, with evidence that he'd visited several foreign countries. Now it was easier to get a passport with false information back in the sixties but this man had no paper trail. His only known job was in that hotel restaurant, from 1973 to 1983.
And in the end...............
Game use.
The Misfit Mob, or some other such group (it'd fit for Torchwood Cardiff for example, perhaps as a favour to Gwen's former colleagues) get a case dumped on them, mainly because no-one else wants it and a favour is owed.
There's a person, found several months after their apparent death from natural causes. But no-one can establish who they are or who gets the moderately large fortune found in their home. They have cash, lots of it1, and bank accounts which date back decades to the days when the modern paper trail wasn't needed2. His birth certificate is fake, from a child to died soon after birth. Curiously the death seems to have not been filed at the time. He has no employment records or social welfare or tax history.
The bought the caravan/basement apartment/cottage for cash, and the previous owner is long dead.
But no plastic, no driving license, no NHS registration, nothing else. His fingerprints and DNA appear to be in no database (not even the ones that UNIT can access and the police can't). He paid utility bills in the post office, in cash. He has no friends that anyone knows about; "He kept himself to himself".
Just who was he?
Comments? Ideas? Suggestions?
1. Or perhaps a trove of gold coins.
2. And no-one at the banks knows anything. The staff who appear to have opened the accounts are dead or retired and don't remember anything. Unless the PCs need a clue....
3. Don't forget t emphesise the smell.
This, or a facsimile of it, is perfect for the Misfit Mob; a small-scale mystery that (probably) isn't that important. Unless it is.
The mystery started in 1990 when a man named Walter Rice moved from Essex in Connecticut (where he'd apparently lived quietly and worked as a hotel cook) to the small town (<3,000 people) of McCormick in South Carolina. There the 73-year old man purchased a plot of ground and a trailer (an immobile mobile home); form then on, for about two years, he lived virtually as a recluse, barely speaking to anyone. He had no job, no friends or associates and no known activities or hobbies.
On 25JAN1992 Rice was involved in a car accident and took a cab home. This was his last known, living, contact.
His life was so isolated that when he failed to pay his electricity bill in FEB1992, and he didn't respond to attempt to contact him or call, they company assumed Rice had simply abandoned his trailer. It happens. So a worker removed his outside meter and nothing more was thought of the matter, or mister Rice. The few items of post that arrived for him started to pile up and the Post Office began to return them.
Jump forward a year, to 04APR1993, and the local police received an odd phone call; a woman stated that a "friend of hers" had broken into the Rice trailer in February and found him there, dead. She said that she'd expected someone else to notice and hadn't bothered to report the matter at the time.
Later it was established that two men broke into his home and found Walter's decomposed body. They fled and it was the girlfriend of one of them who spoke to the police.
The police investigated and on 05APR1993, Walter's body was found and removed. There were signs of a break-in.
The coroner estimated that Rice had died early in February 1992, probably of a massive heart attack; it was thought probable that the road accident had contributed to his death. So far a minor tragedy, but not a mystery.
Then things got interesting.
Rice had paid cash for everything possible, be possessed no credit cards nor any visible means of support, nor any of the personal junk that normal people accumulate. What he did have was around US$150,000 in four banks.
As there was no will the probate judge attempted to trace his next-of-kin, to find an heir.
Tracing his life backwards found a birth certificate giving his birth as Abbeville in South Carolina on 06JUL1920. Curiously neither the hospital nor the city have any such record. His Social Security Number was also found to be false, though he did have a SS card.
But he did have a passport, with evidence that he'd visited several foreign countries. Now it was easier to get a passport with false information back in the sixties but this man had no paper trail. His only known job was in that hotel restaurant, from 1973 to 1983.
And in the end...............
No-one knows, the mystery was never solved. The local police seem to have gotten obsessed and eventually though the CIA, or a similar acronymic agency, was involved. Said agencies said nothing, but then they never do.
Game use.
The Misfit Mob, or some other such group (it'd fit for Torchwood Cardiff for example, perhaps as a favour to Gwen's former colleagues) get a case dumped on them, mainly because no-one else wants it and a favour is owed.
There's a person, found several months after their apparent death from natural causes. But no-one can establish who they are or who gets the moderately large fortune found in their home. They have cash, lots of it1, and bank accounts which date back decades to the days when the modern paper trail wasn't needed2. His birth certificate is fake, from a child to died soon after birth. Curiously the death seems to have not been filed at the time. He has no employment records or social welfare or tax history.
The bought the caravan/basement apartment/cottage for cash, and the previous owner is long dead.
But no plastic, no driving license, no NHS registration, nothing else. His fingerprints and DNA appear to be in no database (not even the ones that UNIT can access and the police can't). He paid utility bills in the post office, in cash. He has no friends that anyone knows about; "He kept himself to himself".
Just who was he?
- Not an alien, his biology and DNA are quite human. He might be a clone but it's impossible to tell due to the decomposition3.
- An involuntary visitor from a parallel universe, one who had reason (and perhaps assistance) to live a quiet life.
- A Temporally Displaced Person; from the past or future, living quietly for reasons of his own.
- A 'retired' time traveller who was living off the grid to avoid someone or something.
Comments? Ideas? Suggestions?
1. Or perhaps a trove of gold coins.
2. And no-one at the banks knows anything. The staff who appear to have opened the accounts are dead or retired and don't remember anything. Unless the PCs need a clue....
3. Don't forget t emphesise the smell.