sometimes the truth is Stranger Than Fiction and today's story definitely demonstrates that but before we get into that story if you're a fan of the strange dark and mysterious delivered in story format and you've come to the right place because that's all we do and we upload once a week so if that's an interest to you please offer to make the like button a nice fresh batch of donuts but instead of filling them with custard fill them with mayonnaise also please subscribe to our Channel and turn on all notifications so you don't miss any of
our weekly uploads okay let's get into today's [Music] story on the afternoon of July 18th 1997 a man was driving down a road surrounded on both sides by trees and a rural part of Wisconsin called Douglas County there were no other cars on the road and so this guy was driving pretty fast and as he rounded this Bend in the road something out the passenger side window on the side of the road in the grass caught his eye he couldn't tell what it was but it was a pretty big object and after he drove right
past it he just couldn't stop thinking about it like whatever it was it it just seemed out of place and so for whatever reason this man felt compelled to actually stop and go see what it was and so he slowed down and parked on the shoulder he got out and began walking along the road back in the direction of this object and as he got closer you know he began to see this object again in the shoulder of the road and it was sort of obscured by grass and other things so he couldn't see what
it was but as he got closer he saw the object was pretty big and it was all white and as he took a few more steps and got within maybe 20 or 30 ft he finally got a better look at this object and he just froze because the object was a man a man wearing all white a white suit a white belt white shoes all white and he was laying on the side of the road just totally Motionless and for a second the driver thought you know maybe this guy is sleeping but after taking only
a few more steps and getting a totally unobstructed View at this guy he saw there was a gaping hole in this man's chest he was obviously dead and so the driver turned around ran back to his car sped to the nearest house and called 911 the next morning A Douglas County detective named Steven long was sitting at his desk looking at the photos of the dead man in white this murder case was less than 24 hours old but already this was one of the weirder cases that this detective had ever been assigned to the victim
had pretty much immediately been identified because he was carrying on his person his wallet and in his wallet was his driver's license and so they knew who he was but the man in White's identity actually made the whole case more confusing not less and Mark had no obvious ties to the area so what was this rich guy doing 3 hours from home dressed all in white getting shot to death on the side of the road like it didn't add up the dead man was a 45-year-old millionaire named Mark Foster and Mark lived 3 hours away
in Minneapolis Minnesota and had no discernable ties to Douglas County and so the detective was thinking like what is this rich guy doing here dressed head to toe all in white getting murdered on the side of some local random backroad but things only got more confusing from there after the medical examiner did Mark's autopsy he told detective long that he had discovered a note inside of Mark's Shoe and the note just said Jack Frasier isn't here but it's Jimmy Bailey or a lookalike I hope I'm okay now nobody including detective long had any idea what
this note meant it was far too cryptic but when they ran Jack Frasier and Jimmy Bailey's names through their database the police discovered that both of those men one existed and two they lived in Minnesota same as Mark Foster and so naturally detective long began to suspect that maybe those two those two men were connected in some way to Mark Foster you know maybe they were involved in his murder or maybe they were actually his killer or Killers he didn't know but it was his best lead so detective long decided he would just have to
go to Minneapolis to try to find out more a few hours later detective long parked his car at the Minneapolis Police Station he got out and walked inside the building waiting for him inside was the local detective who Mark had already spoken to and so after meeting this detective the two of them went into an interview room where Mark Foster's wife was waiting for them and right away detective long noticed that she was very pregnant and at least 15 or 20 years younger than mark But despite that she seemed very composed it would turn out
she had already been told about her husband's death and she was basically resigned to the fact that she was here to try to answer questions to figure out what happened and so the detective sat down and they began to interview her and then when they brought up the note that was found in Mark Shu specifically when they said the two names that were on that note Jack Frasier and Jimmy Bailey when they said that it triggered something in Mark Foster's wife she she immediately began to cry and then in between sobs she would tell the
detectives that she knew who those two men were she told them that she had previously had relationships with both of them before marrying Mark and she said after she married Mark Jack and Jimmy became very jealous they didn't like the idea that she had chosen Mark over them and so she had always felt like those two Jack and Jimmy sort of had it out for Mark as a result of this romantic rivalry after the interview with Mark's wife ended detective long began to think that you know despite this case appearing on the surface to be
very odd and confusing that perhaps in reality it was quite simple maybe Jimmy and Jack were so jealous of Mark that they killed Mark I mean based on what Mark's wife had just told them in the interview about them being romantic Rivals of Mark and also the fact that that note was in Mark shoe and named those two men it certainly seemed very possible but over the next couple of days that detective long began digging into this theory that Theory fell apart because it would turn out Jack Frasier and Jimmy Bailey had absolutely airtight aliis
they simply couldn't have been The Killers now detective long was obviously frustrated he felt like he really had it here but he was not deterred he decided his next move would be to try to better understand his victim to this point he had already interviewed a lot of Mark's friends and family but something he had not done yet was simply go to Mark's house and have a look around so detective long got a search warrant and on July 29th roughly a week after Mark was killed detective long along with another detective pulled up in front
of Mark Foster's large two-story home in the middle of a quiet Suburban neighborhood now from the outside the home looked totally ordinary relative to its neighbors but once they got inside the house it was anything but the detectives made their way up to the front door and knocked and a few seconds later Mark Foster's wife opened up the door and let them inside and right away detective long is looking around and he's seeing all over the walls on the first floor of the house are these graphic pictures and paintings of naked people and then in
addition to that on some of the coffee tables and various surfaces on the first floor right when you walk in are all these pornographic magazines and books everywhere and Mark's wife didn't acknowledge any of it she acted like it was completely normal to have all this stuff right in the front part of your house and so the two detectives are looking at each other as you know Mark's wife is leading them on this tour through the first floor and at some point detective long just said hey you know Mrs Foster why don't you have a
seat on the couch and you just let us take a look around your house on our own and so she said okay she sat down on the couch and then the two detectives they left the living room went back to the front of the house and made their way upstairs and once they got upstairs they found the master suite and there was all this bondage gear inside there were leather straps attached to the bed post there was whips and handcuffs there was also additional pornographic material in there but I mean considering what the detectives had
seen downstairs this sort of felt on par for this house and so after searching the other bedrooms and other rooms on the second floor and finding more pornographic material basically everywhere the detectives found their way back to the hallway in the second floor and they noticed there was a rope hanging down from the ceiling and it was attached to the pull door that led to the attic and so the two detectives they walked over they pulled the Rope down it revealed this fold out set of stairs that came down from the attic and once those
were in place the two detectives began climbing up and once they got up there they discovered that this attic was not not a storage space like many attics are in American Homes Instead This attic was a fully functional room that sort of resembled like a satanic dungeon of sorts all the walls were totally jet black and there were all these burned out candles all over the place and Tarot cards littering the floor and on the back of the attic basically all the way on the other side there was what appeared to be an altar that
sort of overlooked the entire room and on the altar were more candles and there was a voodoo doll I mean it's totally creepy and the two detectives are looking at each other like what's going on here and so the detectives they climbed all the way into the attic and then slowly began walking across towards the Altar and when they got close enough to actually see the altar up close they just froze because sitting on the altar in addition to the candles and the voodoo doll were two business cards their own business cards hey it's Mr
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listen ad free right now by joining Wonder Plus in the wondery app or on [Music] Spotify detective long and his partner immediately went downstairs and confronted Mark's wife about the attic like what's going on up there why are our business cards on your altar but Mark's wife the second that attic was mentioned went silent she refused to speak about anything to do with the attic and so after a minute realizing this conversation was going nowhere detective long and his partner called for backup and as they waited for backup the two of them stepped away from
Mark's wife and began speculating like is this a cult was Mark a part of a cult that like ran it out of his attic like what's going on here and are we being targeted by the cult is that why our names are on the altar a few minutes later backup arrived and they would do a much more extensive search of the property but other than finding more pornographic materials and you know bondage gear there really wasn't anything else substantive that connected Mark or his wife to what happened to Mark or what Mark was even doing
in this house was he in a cult they didn't know and so ultimately detective long and his partner told Mark's wife who still is being quiet at this point that she should not leave town because they were going to follow up with her soon now In fairness detective long couldn't tell tell if Mark's wife was being silent and not talking about what was going on in her house because you know she was complicit in some way and what happened to Mark or if she was maybe being threatened by somebody and she was afraid to talk
they didn't know but either way after leaving the property after the search was over detective long and his partner felt like their next move was to try to learn more about cults they needed a a cult expert and it just so happened there was an occult bookstore very close to Mark's house and so they decided they would start there and right away their decision to go to that bookstore paid dividends but not how the detectives expected it would turn out the owner of that bookstore was indeed a cult expert but much more importantly and relevant
to this case was that the owner happened to personally know Mark Foster and he told the detectives that Mark came to his bookstore all the time and also the owner said he knew a bunch of Mark's friends and so by the time the detectives left the bookstore they had learned a little bit about cults but more importantly they left with a list of names the owner had given them of known associates of Mark Foster who maybe were involved in whatever was going on in Mark's house and so maybe they had information about what happened to
Mark the detectives were able to track down everybody on this list very quickly and they were all young people in their 20s and in each of the interviews they conducted each of these young people were very open about being in what they called a religious group that they said Mark was a part of as well now the detectives theorized that this religious group was very likely a cult like they believed but they didn't call it a cult they called it a group but the detectives didn't let up they kept pressing these people until eventually a
new name surfaced Greg frner now none of these people said Greg was in charge of the cult instead they just sort of said well talk to Greg if you want more information about our group The Detectives naturally began to wonder if this Greg person was the cult leader or maybe he was Mark's killer or maybe he was both but regardless it seemed pretty apparent that they needed to talk to Greg because he might have more information about what happened to Mark it took a few days but the detectives were able to track Greg down and
they brought him in for an interview and boy oh boy did Greg have a story to tell based on what Greg told the detectives here is what happened to Mark on the day that he died on July 18th 1997 on that day Greg frner met Mark Foster at Mark's home and when Mark came outside he was dressed head to toe in white something he would do for special ceremonies and so Mark he came down the steps didn't say a word to Greg they went to Greg's car Greg hopped in the driver's seat and Mark climbed
into the back seat and before long they took off and began driving Northeast and for hours these two just drove in total silence Mark just stared out the window and Greg focused on driving the only thing that happened during this multi-hour long drive was at some point mark pulled out a piece of piece of paper from his coat pocket and he wrote something on it and then after staring at it he kind of smiled and tucked it into his shoe and then a little bit later Greg pulled over on the side of the road in
Douglas County Wisconsin on this random Backcountry Road and as soon as they pulled over again without saying anything Greg and Mark got out of the car and they went around to the back of the car where the trunk was and the two men are kind of stretching you know it's been a long drive taking in the scenery and then before long Greg pops open the trunk and in the trunk is a rifle neither men have any strong reaction to this Greg just reaches down pulls the rifle out and Mark commas can be just begins walking
over to the side of the road to the shoulder and then once he got to the shoulder Greg came over and stood right in front of him and just looked intently into Mark's eyes looking for the signal and at some point after Mark kind of composed himself he nodded at Greg at which point Greg raised that rifle placed the barrel directly on Mark's chest and fired Mark crumpled to the ground ground and he laid there for a second just moaning horribly and Greg just stood over him watching until finally Mark went silent and died at
which point Greg casually went back to his car got inside and drove home the only time he stopped was to throw his rifle into a nearby River but once Greg got home he was overjoyed because he knew the sacred ritual he had just carried out with Mark had been a total success it had gone exactly to plan it would turn out Mark Foster was was absolutely a member of that religious group The Cult if you will except he was not just a member he was the cult's leader and Mark is the one who orchestrated his
own death however Mark did not view his death as him actually dying quite the opposite we celebrate Life as we celebrate death death is nothing to be afraid of death is a great cross Crossroads a change in Attitude a change in longitude a change in the way that we perceive our spirit when we reach that portal they'll ring some golden BS he believed that what he and Greg his most devout follower were going to do this sacred ritual was after Greg fires the shot into his chest and ends this body's life that his soul his
Consciousness and his power will be transferred into Greg basically his soul will go into Greg and Mark believed once this transfer happened that basically he would be immortal that his soul would never die it would stay in Greg and then maybe at some point get transferred to somebody else but basically he would be here forever the bizarre note that was found in Mark Shu the note that he wrote and stuffed in there that note was designed to throw police off the trail he knew that he was having Greg murder him again for this ritual but
he wanted to make sure Greg didn't get caught and so he wrote on the Note very specifically Jack Frasier and Jimmy Bailey those two people he hated he hated that they had been in past relationships with his wife and they hated him and so he figured if he was going to create a scapegoat for his murder who better than his romantic Rivals they had nothing to do with it he just named them in that cryptic note to get them in trouble as for all the pornography and bondage gear that was found inside of Mark's home
well that all played a role in Mark's cult as well he was a firm believer that the more sex he had with his followers often multiple followers at the same time the more powerful he would become as for the detective's business cards found on the altar up in the attic those were very likely placed there by followers of Mark so members of the cult in an effort to potentially you know thwart their efforts to solve the case they might have believed that by placing those on there and Performing various rituals that that somehow would prevent
them from solving the case we don't know for sure that's the theory around why they were there uh but obviously that didn't work because the detectives solved the case Greg frner would ultimately be found guilty for playing a role in Mark's death he obviously was the trigger man and so he was sentenced to 10 years in prison as for Mark's wife although she definitely knew about the cult and may have been a participant there was never any evidence that actually connected her to Mark's murder and so she was never charged with any crime an American
submarine L2 was hurrying to assist a Portuguese freighter which had been torpedoed near padto when she had encountered UB 65 sitting motionless on the surface as Lieutenant Augustine Grant prepared to give the order to sink the unsuspecting enemy vessel he paused momentarily through his binoculars he could see that the German submarine was already listing heavily to one side in the water he could also make out the shape of a solitary officer standing up on the ship's deck apparently staring out to sea before his excited men had even f finished loading their submarines torpedo tubes Grant
observed u65 suddenly Shake violently as if she had been hit by a huge explosion before she sank beneath the waves for the next hour the American vessel sailed back and forth searching for survivors but there were none the haunted submarine had taken her entire crew down with her to her grave and almost 90 years would pass before she was ever seen again so that's going to do it if you enjoyed today's story and you're looking for more strange dark and mysterious content well check out all of our Ballin Studios podcasts we have the Mr Ballin
podcast Mr ballin's medical Mysteries bedtime stories wartime stories run fo and our newest show redacted all you have to do is look up Ballin Studios on whichever podcast platform you prefer and there you go you have hundreds of hours of strange dark and mysterious content to bench thank you all very much until next time see you
