Chapter 136

Doctor Walter, Elder Maxwell is here to see you;

He had been waiting for him, he was to go with them to the place where Joseph was to be buried, but maybe, just maybe there was a chance, he flashed back to his conversation with him.

(FLASH BACK)

"I know you have been told to kill my brother" he said and Walter had felt somehow, he thought he was the only one that knew about it, he didn't even want to think of the possibility of him becoming a murderer. His silence answered his question.

"I also know that you have refused and your daughter have been taken hostage"

Now Walter had to look up at him, how would he know so much? Maybe he was sent by Me Anderson, Maybe he wants him to know he was serious.

"What do you want, I cannot kill him, he is my friend, if he sent you to convince me, tell him I would never betray a friend.

"Soon you will give in, he will kill your daughter, you know how crazy that man is, but..

Walter was about to cut h off when he heard the conjunction in the statement made, he paused to listen to the condition he was about to give.

Have you heard of pseudocide?

Walter have surely heard of it, he was a doctor after all, but not knowing what he was getting at, he nodded his head in the negative and allowed him pride himself to explaining to a doctor.

"Pseudocide, “the act of faking one’s own death,” has existed and been committed for centuries. There are many scenarios that might come to mind about why and how someone would concoct and attempt to carry out this type of fraud. Some reasons that, to some people, are obvious and others that are beyond fathomable.

Often, people who attempt pseudocide lack a true comprehension of the potential consequences of their actions and, in most cases, knowledge of how best to plan for and successfully execute their escapades. Those who attempt this façade come from all walks of life, from ordinary, everyday citizens to notable authors to those in the corporate hierarchy.

I woke with the government and most times to cover tracks and all we do this thing, we fake people's death, usually they are aware and they know they have not really left the world of the living, unless something goes wrong.

I know Joseph, he is like a brother to me, I have been following the news of what he did to the Anderson, if I don't come now, they will definitely kill him, that would be a waste, when my community needs someone like him.

He erred, we know, but he shouldn't be killed and since you really don't want him dead let it be one of the many reasons why people endulge in pseudocism.

Walter looked interestingly at him, why had he not thought of it, he decided to listen more to what this elder Maxwell knew about it.

So what are the reasons why people fake deaths.

Why Do They Do It? He asked again and Walter answered"yes"

It could be to change identity and leave behind an unhappy life? To escape conviction of a crime? To profess affection? Or is it to escape an undesirable personal situation? Yes, it is. All of these are reasons why people fake (or have faked) their deaths. Of course there are other reasons, some of which might cause one to question the rationale — even mental stability — of the perpetrators, or liken their stunts to juvenile pranks rather than fraud. But financial woes and avoiding incarceration take the top spots.

 Some even fake their own death to Collect Life Insurance. Just like John Darwin and his wife, Anne, wanted to use his life insurance to pay off their €130,000 mortgage (approximately USD 144,000). To do so, the couple staged a canoeing accident in which Darwin allegedly disappeared. Because his body was never found, the insurance company paid Anne only half of the policy amount. After his “demise,” Darwin lived in a one-room apartment next door to the couple’s home and later moved back in with Anne, only to be recognized by a tenant who asked, “Aren’t you supposed to be dead?” The tenant never approached authorities, but four years later, a photo of the Darwins taken in Panama surfaced on the Internet and later in the British daily newspaper, Daily Mail. Anne Darwin confessed that John was indeed the man in the photo, and the Darwins were sentenced to more than six years in prison for multiple counts of fraud and deception.

Walter laughed at how low people could really sunk.

Others do it to Avoid Paying Student Loans

If you read this book, he showed her a book he was holding. In this her book Playing Dead: A Journey Through the World of Death Fraud, Elizabeth Greenwood exposes how she put serious thought into how to escape repayment of the hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loans she accumulated, but pseudocide never entered her mind. Her plan was to evanesce without a trace to a white-sand beach somewhere in the Caribbean — that is until a friend raised the notion of faking her death. Fraught with the pressures of debt and life corralling her, the scheme became more appealing. After hours of research on the Internet, she went to the Philippines, where she obtained a black-market death certificate, indicating her cause of death as a “car accident.” Having held in her hand what appeared to be realistic, legitimate and startling proof of her demise, Greenwood realized that she “didn’t want to jump.” This experience, however, made her more intrigued with the idea of the deed rather than carrying it out, which led her to research the topic further and interview people who did follow through with their fraudulent plan and others who can help “make it happen” — for a price.

Others engage in it to Avoid Incarceration

The word incarceration does not have pleasant connotations for anyone, especially white-collar fraudsters like Samuel Israel III, a former hedge fund manager who ran a $450 million Ponzi scheme. Israel’s failure to show up for his 20-year incarceration prompted a manhunt during which police found his SUV on an upstate New York bridge with “suicide is painless” scribbled in the dust on the hood. Having no witnesses and finding no body in the river, authorities became skeptical. They learned that he told his girlfriend that morning that he was going (driving himself) to jail, which police thought was odd. “What, do they have valet parking? It’s 20 years. What’s he going to do, park it?” said State Police Investigator Bruce Cuccia. After a month of staying off police radar, and after seeing his picture on America’s Most Wanted, he turned himself in. As of 2016, Israel has 14 more years to go on his 22-year prison sentence — a judge added two years for bail jumping to his original punishment — and he’s in good company, serving his time in the same correctional facility as fellow Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff.

Others do it to Find Out Whether They Are Liked, can you imagine, people want to know if they are loved, because probably when they were in this world, they are sceptical about the love professes to them so knowing that absence makes the heart grow fonder, they want to know by faking their own death.

An eighteenth-century wealthy and self-proclaimed “Lord,” Timothy Dexter, had more than enough money to throw away, but his peers shunned him because of his illiteracy, lack of education and eccentricities, leaving him with a ruptured ego and feelings of disrespect. To find out whether his peers’ disdain was mirrored by the public, Dexter contrived an elaborate plan to commit pseudocide, which included organizing his ostentatious funeral. Approximately 3,000 attended, including his family, who was in on the hoax. He died — for real — six years later, never receiving the respect he coveted.

 Some even do it To Propose Marriage

And then there’s Alexey Bykov who went all out to fake his death — to propose to his girlfriend. A make-up artist, screenwriter and director helped him stage what appeared to be a horrifying car accident, complete with a bloodied Bykov lying in the road. When his girlfriend arrived on the scene, she was told by “paramedics” that he was dead, and she began sobbing. That was Bykov’s cue to miraculously rejoin the living, and with flowers and balloons, he asked for her hand in marriage. He said the reason behind his unorthodox profession of love was to make her “realize how empty her life would be without me.” Surprisingly, she accepted his proposal, but not before expressing her ire. “I was so cross I almost killed him again, but for real this time.”

I can go on and on, he said.

"What will be our reason for doing this? Doctor Walter asked.

"Doctor Walter, you know the reason we are doing this, let us give him another chance to life, he deserves it.

"How do you know about all this?

Like I said earlier, he is my brother, I have been following him and since I started hearing the news and what he did, I decided to watch closely, I knew you were really closed to him, I ran a background check on you and you came out clean, but when they approached you, I knew something was up, I don't need to give you the details of what I did, I just came here to negotiate, let us help each other.

"Help each other, how? Walter asked surprised.

"You know you will not be able to live with yourself, knowing you killed a vunerable man, you will be depressed, but why not save him, let him run away and then if he is caught later, let that be his fault and his death, not you.

I also know a letter of transfer have been given to you but you are declining because of your daughter's education" Walter was shocked to hear him say that, he knows just way too much.

"You can even decide to take that transfer seriously, you know, you are not really safe here, wether you kill him or not.

He made sense, he knew he was right, they might never stop threatening him, even if he did their biddings, still he just couldn't trust this man.

"What is your plan? He asked not sure if he really wanted to hear his plan, not if he would go along with it.

"Mr Anderson wants his death to look natural, since he is a doctor, he probably killed himself or something, so you are yo inject him right? He asked searching his face to get confirmation. Walter Nodded, not able to find his voice to say yes.

"Then I will give you a potion that you will use instead, it will kill him for three days, he is supposed to be dead, according to the world and even if you take him to the best hospital in the world, he would still be seen as a dead person, the potion I will give you, will destroy him and rebuild him, after two days on the thrid day he should be awake.

Walter was surprised at how people could actually invent and create things, he wondered where this man got his potion from, he was also scared, trusting this strange man was more like, trusting the Anderson himself.

"How can I trust you, you have never shown your fave around here, you have never visited this your so called brother and here you are, claiming heis your brother"

"People are always funny, wether you agree or not, he is going to die anyway, so what difference does it make if you trust me or not, deep within you, you know I speak the truth.

Let us not waste anyore time, call him tonight, sound normal, tell him you want him to release your child, he would listen to you, tell him you will do what he wants, he will have his daughters there to confirm him dead, the papers will say he is dead and every body will know he is dead except you and I.

"But you said something could go wrong before".Maxwell didn't want to answer that.

"Let us pray nothing goes wrong.