Posted on 09/15/2010 4:35:12 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Elvia Martinez-Montez always sensed there was something fishy about her father's death. Sixty years and an exhumation later, she and her son are sure of it. And while they can't name a suspect, they think it has something to do with a hidden cache of Nazi gold.
It helps that both of them happen to be paranormal investigators. They live in San Antonio but on a visit to the Rio Grande Valley, the two unveiled their theory Tuesday and shared a forensic examiner's report on the dug-up remains of Adam G. Martinez.
He had returned from World War II with a spring in his step; he'd been part of Patton's Third Army and found himself something of a war hero. He ran a bar-café and started up a taxi company, one of the first in the Valley. At 35, some six years after his return, he was prosperous enough to sport a new car — a 1950 Dodge sedan in a handsome shade of blue.
It was beside that car (or under it, depending on the news account) that his body was found on the morning of Dec. 18, 1950. That the car was unscathed seemed a little odd to Benito Garza, who was 17 when it happened and still lives in the home with the circular driveway where the car and body were found.
He offered a written statement to that effect a few weeks ago when the ghost hunters approached him. But it wasn't just Garza.
“I was constantly being told that my father died under mysterious circumstances and that when I grew up I should look into it,” Martinez-Montez said.Now 64, she poked around in the 1980s but gave up after too many doors slammed in her face and she began to feel threatened.
A plastic bag of her father's belongings discovered during a 2007 family reunion gave her a jump start. It contained war maps, marked up in her father's distinctive handwriting.
The maps took on significance following a 2008 visit to her father's grave. On a whim, her son Rocky Montez had set down a small audio recorder.
When he listened to it weeks later, he heard what ghost hunters call “electronic voice phenomenon.”
“Go back to the grave,” the voice said. “It's in France, Mitz-Metz. Gold in it.”
Montez replayed the recording Tuesday, mouthing the words as he picked them out through the scratchy garble of wind and road sounds.
Thirteen words, the two said, is a heck of a feat for a spirit, especially in the crowded soul-sphere of a cemetery.
“We believe spirits react on different frequencies that we can hear audibly. They use sound frequency waves to manifest a voice,” Montez explained.
“In the paranormal world, 13 words is a lot,” Martinez-Montez added. “My dad's spirit was ON. He really wanted us to know this.”
It took about $8,000 for the exhumation and examiner's report focusing on the skull, still blood-stained and about the only body part that hadn't disintegrated. The doctor surmised the death could have been caused only by trauma, such as Adam's head going through the windshield or the car overturning.
“He could have been beaten up before,” Montez said. “What I believe is they cut him off, he got out, they pulled up and beat him up.”
Who “they” are is less clear, as is why. But Adam's war service did place him along a key Nazi rail route, Montez-Martinez learned during a research trip to the National Archives, and Hitler's forces were known to pillage gold.
Adam's home life wasn't so grand. His first wife had left with the two kids, and his second wife opted to walk home from the nightclub across the border where they'd gone the night before his death. Perhaps his secret made him distant, Martinez-Montez said, or acquaintances were envious of what he thought he had.
“Perhaps Adam's secret was not as well kept as he thought, making him a prime target and this causing him to be attacked,” she said.
Going to a former theater of war in France with a shovel just isn't done, and the gold at this point in history wouldn't belong to the Martinezes anyway. His descendants just want the truth.
“Ultimately he was taken away from us,” Martinez-Montez said.
Sorry Ms. Montez but the SyFy channel already has a bogus “Ghost Hunter” program currently being aired..........
Or...perhaps she’s a loon and her dad was a drunk who got into a fight with his 2nd wife, she walked home, he got his tail beat down and died in stranger’s driveway.
Horrible show.
I enjoy Ghost Adventures way more. Might be all bogus, but it is way more entertaining.
She may be (probably is) a loon, but I don’t think we should jump to some conclusion about the demise of this veteran...
If the is Nazi gold it will taken away to try to find who it was stolen form.
For a few dollars more.
Wait until she finds out he was done in by the ghosts of departed jews who wanted their fillings back.
This sounds just a little bit similar to the plot of the 1963 movie Charade starring Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn.
Who “they” are is less clear, as is why.
Thanks for the story about your dad, Ms. Marinez. The above about sums it up.
Thanks nick, pretty cool story, regardless of how the treasure hunt goes. Clive Cussler could even, uh, adapt it for his next novel.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.