Australia is a big country with even bigger mysteries, many of which remain unsolved. Of the many strange happenings that have happened Down Under over the years, there are few that boggle the mind more than the creepy unsolved murder of “Rack Man”.
In 1994, Mark Peterson was out fishing on the Hawkesbury River in Sydney and hoping for a good catch. The sun was shining and conditions were ripe for a great day.
After feeling a heavy tug on his fishing net, Mark thought he struck gold. But it turns out his catch wasn’t the school of fish he had hoped. Instead, it was a crude steel crucifix with the remains of a human body, which was wrapped in plastic and arranged accordingly, tied to it.
Needless to say that Mark’s day went from great to horrible in record time.
After calling the police immediately (and presumably retiring from fishing immediately), the body was retrieved for examination.
Once forensic pathologists did their magic on the body, they found that the body belonged to a Caucasian male with dark hair aged between 21 to 41 who had died from a big blow to the head. Beyond establishing a basic description and confirmation that the dude was pretty short (a mere 163cm tall, give or take a bit), the police were immediately stumped.
Since the body was so eroded by the water, identifying features like fingerprints and DNA samples were impossible to use meaning that the identity of the deceased man remains a mystery.
With Rack Man unable to be identified, it also meant that figuring out his killer and the circumstances that led to his watery discovery was next-to-impossible for the police since they literally have nothing to go off.
After attempts at figuring out Rack Man’s identity using the clothes off his body failed, the police reconstructed the man’s face using computers and spread the word out to the public in hopes of getting the lead that’s evaded then.
But despite many tips, false rumours and initial promising leads into Rack Man’s identity, the case remains as one of Australia’s most notorious unsolved murders even today as police have yet to close it.
At the time of writing, the remains of Rack Man lie in a morgue somewhere, waiting for someone to come and hopefully shed some light on who this mysterious person is.