FORTEAN FOLLOW UPS
The latest updates on previous FT stories
MOTHER GOD AUTOPSY [FT407:10]
The leader of the “Love has Won” cult, Amy Carlson, also known as “Mother God”, came to a bizarre end last April when her mummified corpse was found in a sleeping bag on a makeshift altar in a follower’s house, missing its eyes, daubed with makeup, sprinkled with glitter and festooned with Christmas lights. Results of her autopsy, released last December, concluded that Carlson, 45, had died naturally as a result of “global decline in the setting of alcohol abuse, anorexia, and chronic colloidal silver ingestion”. The seven followers found with her body remain under investigation for abusing a corpse. independent.co.uk, 3 Dec 2021.
Her mummified corpse was festooned with Christmas lights
THE BISHOP AND THE EROTIC AUTHOR [FT411:23]
Spanish bishop Xavier Novell, at the time of his appointment the youngest ever bishop in the Spanish Catholic Church, caused a stir last year when he resigned to marry Silvia Caballol, the author of Satanically tinged erotica with titles like The Hell of Gabriel’s Lust. Following his marriage to Caballol in a civil ceremony last November, he was stripped of his clerical powers in December. The Spanish Episcopal Conference said Novell had automatically forfeited his powers after marrying Caballol and that he was now forbidden under canon law from “exercising any of the rights and duties inherent to the episcopal office” and warned that “other possible consequences” could follow. Meanwhile, Novell, who trained as an agricultural engineer before joining the priesthood, has apparently found employment with a company that extracts and sells pig semen. theguardian.com, 12 Dec 2021
HIKER DEATHS [FT411:80]
When John Gerrish, Ellen Chung, their oneyear-old daughter Miju and their dog Oski died on a hiking trail in Mariposa County, California, authorities were initially mystified as to the cause as the bodies showed no signs of trauma and forensics could not find any toxins. Having considered fumes from toxic algæ or nearby mines might have killed them, investigators went on to look at causes such as lightning strikes, but drew a blank. Now, the Mariposa County Sheriff’s Office, after working with the FBI and a range of experts, have concluded that the family died from heat stroke and probable dehydration, given conditions on the day, the location of the bodies and because no water was found with them. It is apparently very difficult to detect signs of death by heat stroke at autopsy. The trail they took had steep inclines and no shade on parts of it and temperatures in the area that day reached up to 109°F (43°C), easily high enough to kill someone. “We’re confident of our findings”, said the Sheriff. livescience.com, 21 Oct 2021.
NEEDLE PANICS [FT413:4]
In a statement following investigations into the wave of “spiking by injection” last autumn that saw 51 incidents reported in Scotland alone, Detective Chief Superintendent Laura McLuckie of Police Scotland said that the force had found no evidence to support the claims. “We are only now starting to see the results of the forensics,” she said, “There is clearly alcohol involved. There is clearly recreational drug use involved. However, we don’t have any identified cases of spiking by injection in Scotland at this time.” McLuckie added that it looked as if the “significant increase in reporting” came about “as a result of the media and social media attention that it was given at that time,” and added that “reports to forces across the UK are now on a “significant downward trajectory.” BBC News, 20 Jan 2021.