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The bizarre death of Christopher Case
Not exactly an "unresolved" mystery, but an strange death that has always interested me, which I almost never see discussed on Reddit, and thought some of you might find interesting.
Christopher Case was an elevator music exec in the mid 90s. He traveled a lot for his job and eventually took a business trip to California. He met with an unidentified woman for a business meeting and apparently she took a liking to Christopher, making advances towards him. He was not interested in the woman's advances and politely turned her down. The woman did not take this well, and according to Christopher became extremely angry, claiming to be a witch, and yelling that she would put a hex on him, telling him he would be dead soon.
Christopher flew back home, not thinking anything of it, as he was by all accounts not religious nor superstitious whatsoever. Soon after though, he claimed that he was being awoken by strange people who threaten him and would cut up his arms. He claimed that this would happen nearly every night.
Eventually, it would get to the point where he would stay at hotels to avoid sleeping home. He called his close friends who lived across the country and told them that he believed the woman had indeed cursed him. He was in a panic. He then began visiting Christian bookstores and stocking up on crucifixes and Bibles. Shortly after, he was found in a bathtub, dead of cardiac arrest. Salt lined the floor, melted candles and crucifixes were everywhere.
Interested to hear some of your thoughts on the story. It has always fascinated and frightened me, that a man in his mid-thirties, perfectly healthy, physically and mentally, and by all accounts nonreligious and not superstitious, could spiral into apparently being frightened to death by a woman he probably met once. Did a young man literally scare himself to death? Did he have a rapid sudden mental breakdown that happened to coincidence with the incident? Is it possible the woman found out where he lived and sent people to frighten him?
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19910504&slug=1281135
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Is there proof that he ever actually talked to a woman? Sounds like maybe that was the onset of his deterioration? Maybe she was a figment of mental disease too?
That was my first thought too. Maybe he had a mental health history; could be one he was aware of but did not discuss with others, or it could be one he didn't even know he had.
Being a salesperson can be a very stressful job - long hours, lots of travel, loneliness, sales pressures, and the need to be "on" all the time, up and peppy when making your calls. Perhaps the grind wore him down.
If he was struggling mentally, how tragic that he didn't get help or even necessarily realize he needed it.
A figment of his illness, yeah, or maybe just some poor lady who may or may not have tried to flirt with him, but on whom he projected a whole lot of stuff.
Now this IS good stuff
Yes there is obvious proof, this woman was invited by one of Christopher's colleagues and they lived close to each other. They all had supper together.
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What do you want them to say? It's not their headache after all.
I think the encounter with the "witch" is a bit of a red herring personally. In the article it mentions he was a fitness enthusiast and took multiple supplements. I'd be a lot more curious about what he was taking, had he recently switched supplements or began taking something new. Supplements are not very well regulated, so the possibility for accidental heavy metal poisoning is definitely there. I'd argue that his mental state was already deteriorating when he was in San Francisco because he was so frightened of a "witch cursing him".
Just seems very unlikely to me that a one time dose would be able to destroy his mental state this quickly and eventually lead to his death. On top of that, the logistics of poisoning him just seem to be too much of a mental gymnastic to figure out considering he rejected her which is when the tone of their relationship changed.
It's really a shame they didnt do a toxicology report.
Edit: I might be on a list now with the amount of googling I've done into heavy metal poisoning
E2: This is the info I was referencing that mention his supplement use: https://www.bedtime-stories.uk/project/christopher-case-peculiar-death
Also gives a clearer timeline, he left for San Francisco on April 11 and died on April 18.
This is a really valid thought. Supplements can contain all sorts of weird substances that cause crazy symptoms. I once nearly had a breakdown because a was taking a new sports supplement with chromium in it, and had a weird reaction to it.
Also, a possibility is that he increased supplement intake in response to a stressful event (the confrontation with the 'witch') and that could have cascaded into feeling worse, which could trigger someone to take even more of something that they think will help them.
The article says he was introduced to the woman but at the end states he took her name to the grave. Surely if she was in the same industry or was a friend of one of his colleagues it wouldn’t be hard to track her down? Particularly if she was being aggressive towards him. I find it hard to believe if he was scared of her that she would be able to poison him during the short time he was there on business. I agree it’s a red herring.
seriously! i used to have a gym buddy who’d take all sorts of dangerous-sounding supplements before he worked out so he could “get his metabolism going faster.” i’m, like, “ dude. go to the gym. work out. eat healthy. you’re in your forties now - don’t fuck around with that shit!”
That makes a lot of sense. I remember seeing an article not too long ago about dangerous things in fitness supplements, and I really don't think things were any better in the '90s.
Things were worse in the 90s. There were lots of things that were basically legal speed. A friend of my boss in college sold supplements (some kind of MLM thing) and got us all hooked on them. In the month or so that I took them, I started to have serious paranoia and dissociative feelings, and they made my heart feel like it was beating out of my chest. I can absolutely see fitness supplements causing both his delusions and his death.
The glory days when NHL players were cranked on pseudo-ephedrine for every game. Diet pills, supplements - that stuff was commonplace.
Things were much worse before they banned ephedra. It caused a bunch of adverse events up to and including many deaths in the 90s, was only finally banned in 2004.
He died of acute myocarditis according to the linked article. If he had inflammation in the blood vessels of his brain related to the myocarditis that could explain his strange behavior.
It’s interesting to see that toxins, including heavy metals, are a known possible cause of myocarditis. So that fits into the idea of contaminated supplements.
Is the woman unidentified because no one knows who she is or do some people know her name but it just hasn't been made public?
Or because she's a witch?
It's because she's a witch.
The first bit where he says people are in his room sounds a bit like sleep paralysis.
I agree that it sounds like sleep paralysis. I started experiencing it in my twenties and now that I'm in my 30s I still experience it. I've noticed the frequency increases if I'm stressed out.
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i remember having it as a young child and i still have it happen regularly in my ‘40s, but you’re right - it’s often connected to narcolepsy, and is usually considered a neurological disorder, though isolated attacks can be triggered by stress and fatigue. it does seem weird to me that someone would have developed it and have repeated attacks later in life, unless they perhaps had a brain tumor...?
(i don’t see crazy shit like demons or aliens - i just panic and feel like i’m suffocating and experience false awakenings!)
(edit - a couple of mornings ago i “woke up” but couldn’t open my eyes, so i got on my knees and turned to face the window and tried desperately to blink into the light to get my eyes to open but they just wouldn’t cooperate. then i woke up for real, still lying in my bed. that’s a typical sort of event for me.)
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yes - with me there isn’t really much rhyme or reason. i guess, perhaps, false awakenings could be considered hallucinations, but really it’s just extremely realistic and vivid dreams that i’ve already awoken and am moving around in my very realistic and concrete environment (i normally have very weird, vivid dreams anyway). i can see how people have thought they’ve been attacked by demons or witches or have been abducted by aliens, though, depending on their background and mindset! the fact that we can recognise them afterward for the dreams they are is, i think, what makes us regular sleep paralysis sufferers/experiencers(?) side-eye people who shout “PARANORMAL!” 🤷🏻♀️ i’ve always had disturbed sleep, and s.p. usually happens on the rare occasions when i’m able to sleep in.
i know someone (okay, a hippy) who had it once and said how amazing it was: she floated out into the cosmos as a pure “light being” and “kissed the universe”. um, yeah. i mean, that’s beautiful and all, but i think most of us are just lying there, paralysed, conscious or semi-conscious, struggling to awaken for real, hallucinations or no, lol. 😆
sleeping on my back is definitely a trigger, as is napping, but it can also happen when i’m not doing either (because of course!) :/
and, sorry - i know this isn’t exactly contributing to the thread or helping to explain this poor man’s death!
(eta: maybe when you’ve experienced it regularly from childhood, you accept it as just a part of being, so when people have it a few times and shout “aliens!” or “demons!”, you’re, like, “bitch, please.” 🤷🏻♀️)
Mine only happen when I sleep on my back (which is the only position I get apneas as well). But I read a long time ago a trick I now use that works prett well if I fall asleep on my back and find myself in a sleep paralysis state.
I read to start to try to wiggle your toes and fingers. As you start moving it, you can actually feel the ability to move spread until you finally wake up. It works great, only my stupid self sometimes will wake up and then forget to switch to my side and I fall back asleep and have to do it all again.
My sleep paralysis was worst when I was 8-11, but had quieted down to "occasional" by the time I was in my 20s. In my 50s, it's a rare occurrence (thank goodness).
I've had "fake wakeups" too. I don't believe in out of body experiences or any of that, but the best way I can describe it is I've had experiences where it feels like my "soul" gets up and walks around but it doesn't feel quite right, and then a few minutes later I wake up for real laying in bed.
yes!! i’ve had that, too, but because i’ve had it all my life i’ve always just assumed it was my brain doing the same weird shit it always does (it does weird things while awake, as well - lucky me 😜). when i’m dreaming, everything is so vivid and weird and intense i have no concept of reality (sleep partners have apparently worried i was actually dead until i cried [as if in mourning/agony] or yelled in my sleep?? [i have no memory of these things. i must be a terrible bed partner at times, but at least i don’t saw logs loud enough to wake the dead, unlike some people. i won’t name names here...]), and usually wake up “sleep drunk” for me it doesn’t make the experience any less powerful, though. in a way, even though it’s kind of awful a lot of the time, i’m grateful for those experiences and that glimpse into an alternate reality - i hope you’re able to appreciate it, too, for the crazy glimpse into the brain’s potential that it is! ♡ :)
edit: i don’t know if you have disturbed/troubled sleep, too... for the most part i have fitful, 2-3-hour naps with insane dreams interspersed by wakefulness, but when i DO sleep?! goddamn, i have EPIC sleeps and TOLSTOY level-dreams, if tolstoy wrote about post-apocalyptic, rubble-strewn malls and theatres, lol.
I was in my mid twenties before I had my first one. Now I have them a couple times a year.
Anyway, it could be that, combined with some sort of paranoid episode. If he was literally too scared to sleep, that would probably have taken a toll on his health.
Hot take theory: Most of the details are probably invented. A young man dies suddenly from a heart attack, and a local psychic *coughswindlercough* takes it upon themselves to drum up a bit of business. "Oooh, we we good friends. But then someone put a curse on him! He had crucifixes and candles! And salt! Witches don't like salt! This is totally real!"
Not to be pedantic but witches do like salt...
I'll be honest, I don't know what salt does in magic. I've seen Supernatural, and they put salt on everything, and the monsters are like "Ew, I'm not crossing that!". But that's as far as my research goes.
I agree about the details. How much of all this has been vetted? Seems like the perfect scenario where things have been added over the years, aka urban legend.
Sounds exactly like sleep paralysis to me. I only started getting them in my late twenties and still get them now in my early forties. They can feel very real and terrifying especially the first few times. Often wondered if they could cause a heart attack.
There have been times I was sure I was going to die.
I've had it since I was a kid, and still do occasionally at 40, but it peaked in my 20s. I've found that stress and anything that disrupts sleep can bring on an episode. If he was taking fitness supplements, like someone mentioned above, that could definitely have messed up his sleep cycles and brought on sleep paralysis episodes.
“Usually” seems accurate, but definitely not “always.” I had my one and only instance of sleep paralysis at the age of 30. I keep bracing myself for another instance but so far I’ve gone two years without another episode. It was horrifying and I never want to experience it again
I didn't experience my first episode until my late 20s. I still have it occasionally. Back then I was suffering panic attacks and eventually it was linked to a prolapse issue. I also eventually was diagnosed with sleep apnea and I've probably suffered from that for years without knowing.
Anyway, the early episodes were intense. I thought I saw people in the room (including the infamous "Old Hag"), I thought I heard voices and I even thought I had an out of body experience. It was pretty scary. But after I found out what was going on, the next times were much more managable. I still thought I sense people in the room but I knew nobody was actually there.
10 years later I still get them occasionally and in the moment it still seems like someone is the room messing with me. But now I just start cursing them out until I wake up and I "came to" laughing the last time it happened because of how mad I got while paralyzed.
Had one. Late 20s. WTF. Messed up.
A latent mental illness could have been triggered by the woman. Sometimes, an even slightly traumatic event or an upsetting one can send someone over the edge. I've seen it happen.
Is 35 too old for schizophrenia?
Edit: to be more specific, I know that most men have their first schizophrenic break in their late 20s, I’m just wondering if 35 is outside of the range for that. I’m definitely not an expert but that kind of sudden paranoia and break from reality made me think of that.
No. I don't think so.
yeah, i wonder. could he have had a mental illness either he himself or those close to him didn’t recognise? i’m mentally ill myself and have been in the system, exposed to a lot of different people from a lot of different backgrounds... some people function until a certain point... and then they can’t any more. :/
"Case was an elevator executive in the mid 90's"
OKAY.....I have SO many questions about THIS....
I Didn’t Know Elevator Music Was Not Only Peddled But Had It’s Own Executive.
Muzak was a corporation, and was the first non-radio music streaming service (and actually was initially developed at the same time as radio, but was outcompeted for the home market).
That was literally my first thought!
I'm not sure if a mental illness could lead to a heart attack out of fear or not, but I'm also curious as to whether the reverse could be true - are there heart problems that could lead to an onset of sleep paralysis and the like? Anxiety can feel like heart problems, could heart problems in a young (and so far as he knew) healthy man be misinterpreted as fear? Especially right after an odd experience?
There's a condition called broken heart syndrome which does that. Traumatic experiences and/or mental illness can lead to acute heart problems
I don't think this is unresolved is it? He upset a witch and she put a hex on him eventually leading to his death.
Is there any evidence his arms were ever cut up? I agree with the many others who have said it sounds like he may have been suffering sleep paralysis, but as someone who has had episodes of sleep paralysis, I’ve never injured myself as a result. I don’t think that means he was being visited by strange people (if he was actually cut up), but just that something else might have been going on here. I’d be interested to know if that claim was ever corroborated
One of my great great grandfathers was a shaman (I’m Ojibwa-Cree on one side of my family). He put a curse on someone and it doubled back on him - a double whammy my mother says. My mom says that’s why there is a lot of death and bad stuff on that side of my family. I always thought it was just an excuse for bad choices (and inter generational trauma from residential schools etc) but then my sister was raped and killed. She was not living any sort of high risk lifestyle. I don’t know, I think there are lots of possibilities - what is that Shakespeare quote?? There are more things on heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy?? Maybe the lady was some kind of witch dabbling in bad stuff.
Sounds like she poisoned him.
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Bismuth toxicity can cause visual hallucinations, delirium and psychosis.
You know, that poison that causes your mental state to deteriorate over months. Yea that one.
This happened over the course of 6 days.
Any heavy metal will work like that and some herbs can too! Yall, seriously sometimes I wonder if these cops use common sense or just try to make it bigger because they never think the simpler route.
What heavy metal. What are you talking about?
She poisoned him
Oh that kind of heavy metal. Ha.
Fair enough
I feel bad for him that, presumably because he’d recently moved cities, he had no friends living close by who could have stayed with him for a couple of nights. Having company might have reduced his anxiety until the end of the week, if he really was just frightened, and if he was suffering from heavy metal poisoning, dodgy supplements or whatever else, they could have called for help. And of course, in the unlikely case he was being tormented by spirits after being cursed, there would have been a witness. Poor guy.
There was a witness to his behaviour and that was the book store owner.
Maybe it was a witch's curse.
All of the above theories don't explain how a man predicted his death just the day before? He may have been taking supplements, he may have been mentally ill, however being found in a bath, on your knees, leaning against the bathroom wall with a stopped heart when you predicted as such the previous day is beyond weird. The fact he was buying books on the paranormal and requesting help in how to "defend yourself against paranormal attacks" would suggest his thoughts may have been preoccupied with something other than whether he should dose down the pre-workout supplement. I can't explain it, perhaps he developed some immediate hallucinatory condition? I'm not religious myself, but there are most likely other key aspects that may not be public record, or may not have been reported?
That’s amazing. It’s not really about the case but you really do learn something new everyday. Thanks :-)
Right?!? What do those pitch meetings sound like? There are prolly even bribes involved somewhere too. Absolutely Bananas.
...Well TIL that being an "elevator music exec" is a thing.