So, today I want this post to be a bit more interactive. I want my readers to tell me in the comment box, if they were going to fake their own death, how they would do it.
In crime fiction, deaths are faked as well as committed. For instance, Sherlock Holmes pretended to die from the fall from the Reichenbach Falls.
In Ruth Rendall’s Adam and Eve and and Pinch Me, Jock Lewis supposedly dies in a train crash, but a mystery man of shadows arrives and it’s not likely to be a ghost.
But fact often imitates art even more bizarrely as we became aware of in recent history when John Darwin, a British man, presumed drowned on a canoeing trip, was many years later identified alive and well after his wife had cashed in on the insurance policy.
So, if you were going to do it, fake your own death, would you be predictable and leave a pile of clothes on a beach or do something a little more dramatic and with flair? Let me know your thoughts in the comments. I’d love to hear them.
Joanne Phillips says
What a great question! I don’t think you can beat leaving a suicide note and abandoning your car next to a cliff, maybe with your coat blown over the edge or some other personal detail. I’d have to let my family in on it though 🙂 I think disappearances are fascinating. In my family there’s a story of a distant aunt who left her husband one day and took nothing with her other than her sewing machine. I’ve often wondered what lay behind this 🙂 x
Rebecca Bradley says
Wow, what a story to have in your families history. And just her seeing machine! That really is a fascinating one with, I’m sure, a really interesting story in it.
DJ Kirkby says
Oh my…I’ve never thought about this before…guess that’s why i read crime novels instead of writing them! I don’t think I could fake it actually because I would worry even more than I already do. Though if my life or my family’s lives were at stake and that was the only solution then I guess I would have to….let me think about this and get back to you.
Rebecca Bradley says
Haha! Yes, I don’t imagine many of us have spent time considering this question. 🙂
Sisyphus47 says
It won’t happen… but if it did… a bright morning jumping from a plane, over the ocean, without parachute: the ultimate thrill for this old para! Leaving a stack of books behind ;-P
Rebecca Bradley says
Oh fabulous. I once did a tandem skydive many moons ago and absolutely loved it. If you’re faking it though, you need to remember your parachute! 😉
sharonsant says
What a fascinating idea! I’d probably pretend I’ve jumped into the Wispa vat at Cadbury World or something.
Annalisa Crawford says
Hmm, that’s got me thinking. I’d probably do something completely underwhelming and just walk away (after setting up completely new bank accounts etc – it’s always the bank accounts that give people away). I think I’m going to have to come up with something better than that though – if I do it too underwhelmingly, people might not notice I’ve gone… until they run out of clean clothes, of course!
D.A.Cairns says
I’d go predicatable because I’m risk averse and the pile of clothes on the beach seems like the best way to get away with it.
Margot Kinberg says
Rebecca – Oh, this is an absolutely fascinating and creative idea! Hmmm…. I do like the pile of clothes on the beach idea, but as that’s been taken, perhaps I’d do a similar thing, only in a holiday cabin some where remote. Erm – having taken proper precautions to make sure I get safely out of the area, that is.
ramblingsfromtheleft says
Not fair, Rebecca. We’ve had one person disappear and another left us without a note. If I were inclined to put my family through what I went through I’d have to do something dramatic like leaving my clothes on the Brooklyn Bridge with a note pinned to my shirt. “Gone for a swim.” Great post, BTW 🙂
DL Shackleford says
Great question! It would have to be a situation where the expectation of finding a body is extremely low so this limits the choices severely. Disappearance is the obvious one, of course with a little flair like the pile of clothes. What about feigning a fall into a deep crevasse while skiing down a glacier?
Bel Anderson says
I was about to say I’d go missing at the scene of an avalanche – only that wouldn’t really be planned, it would just be a perfect opportunity! Or maybe I’d act drunk on a ferry and ‘fall off’ in the middle of the night, leaving my bag by the railings, but have a partner in crime nearby with a dinghy. We’d row away and start the engine when we were far enough from the ferry. I’ve never thought about it – like everyone else!
Jean Davis says
I’d probably overpack a little and then go camping in some bear infested woods and just disappear.
Alex J. Cavanaugh says
That’s something I’ve never considered. I guess packing extra and vanishing would work.
nancyrae4 says
Since I live at the foothills of The Rocky Mountains where many poor souls actually dissappear every year, I know the following scenario could be work: I’d push my $100,000 Hummer (might as well dream big) over a cliff, making sure it burst into flames on impact, and hike out. Make my way to Idaho. Live off the grid. Gone, baby, gone. Whoa! You made me use my imagination!
chicaderock says
An unfortunate accident at a pig farm….
Kirsten says
How fun!
I think I’d go for lost at sea. I’d provision my sailboat with everything I need, including my beloved husband, and just disappear–maybe coincidentally on the day of a big storm. We could stop at remote islands for supplies, eat fish and coconuts, get really tan, and make money playing gigs at beach bars. 🙂
kirstyes says
I like this idea – thanks for having it.
I think I’d fake my own murder just to get revenge on someone ;o) – maybe do a Horace Slughorn in Half-Blood Prince – mess the house up and splash some blood around (having got a friend to take blood with a needle – don’t fancy cutting anything). Then I would study Dexter to better understand blood spatter analysis and then call on Hodgins to design a contraption that would spatter the blood in the right way.
But thinking about this it would be very upsetting to those not in the know and does that Double Jeopardy thing apply in the UK?? If so I’d do a Juliet!!
Melissa Sugar says
What an interesting and thought provoking question. I think that I would pretend to drown at sea, but have a nearby boat and haul ass to some really cool tropical island. I don’t know what I would do for money and in the techno world we live in, I would have to be willing to give up all techno gadgets. I love your blog . I am a mystery/suspense and thriller writer. I will definitely be back this month.
diannegray says
My mother was flying over the pacific on a light aircraft a few years back when a fellow jumped out of the plane (an apparent suicide) but she has always been sure he faked his own death. I think I’ll just let her keep believing that! 😉