The skeleton of a German retiree who tied himself to the top of a tree and shot himself to death nearly 30 years ago has been found by a hiker.
German police in the southern town of Landshut said on Monday the 69-year-old man disappeared in 1980 and had been classified as missing.
An 18-year-old hiker discovered a bone in the forest last week and brought it to police. They searched the area and spotted the skeleton hanging about 11 meters up, near the top of the spruce tree.
“After searching the area we found the skeleton up in the tree with the pistol hanging on a rope next to it,” police spokesman Leonard Mayer said. Police were able to identify the man through DNA testing and an artificial hip.
Kind of gives new meaning to “hanging out in the woods”, eh?
The poor fella had to attach the gun to a rope because, it probaly took all day to climb the tree (with his dodgy hip too) and bind himself to the tree. It would have seriously narked him, if after all that he’d dropped the gun before he had a chance to shoot himself. He would have been hanging up there for days before he died.