Detective novels are full of all kinds of bizarre and twisted murders, many of which are "perfect crimes" with strange modus operandi and impossible to find a way to solve the case.
These "perfect murders" are either disguised as suicides, or the investigation process is extremely difficult, or there is no evidence to convict the suspect, etc., which makes countless reasoning addictive.
Agatha Christie, Murder on the Orient Express
However, if the "perfect murder" in the novel takes place in real life, it is undoubtedly a sad and terrible disaster for the victims.
Australian suspense writer Arthur Upfield did not realize when he wrote the novel "Wendy's Sand" that the cruel content he depicted in the book would be staged in reality.
The Sands of Wendy
The novelist Upfield was born in England in 1890 and later moved to Australia.
His most famous work is a series of detective novels featuring mixed-race detective Bony, which has been published in 29 books.
Unlike some novelists, Upfield is not in a state of full-time writing, but will find other jobs to assist in life.
For example, in 1929, when he was writing his fourth novel, "The Sands of Wendy", he built a rabbit fence in Western Australia.
At a time when Australian hares were rampant, people needed to build fences to keep rabbits and other pests from entering the Western Australian pastoral areas from the east to wreak havoc.
2005 rabbit fence
Upfield was working as a border rider in a place called "Camel Inn", and his main job was to patrol regularly and check the status of the fence.
There he had free writing space, and he mingled well with his overseer, George Ritchie, and drank and chatted from time to time.
Camel Station
One day, Upfield hit a problem writing a novel because he wanted to write a "perfect murder" where the detective protagonist couldn't find the victim's body no matter how he looked for it.
In other words, the victim must be wiped out and dead, thus creating difficulties for the protagonist.
Upfield
The idea was very good, but the helpless brain hole was too big, he thought about it, and he couldn't think of a way to dispose of the body for half a day.
So Upfield approached Ritchie, the overseer, and complained to him about his creative problems.
Unexpectedly, after Ritchie listened, he immediately gave him an idea and taught him how to "destroy the body and destroy the traces":
The first step is to lure the victim into the bushes and then shoot the killer.
The second step is to shoot a few large animals like kangaroos.
The third step, the victims are burned along with the animal carcasses, and the ashes are sieved to sift out the metal and unburned bones.
The fourth step is to dissolve the metal with acid, and then crush the remaining bones into powder and throw them in the wind.
The camel caravanserai is now
From covert shooting to ashes, these four steps, but none of them constitute a "perfect crime."
Upfield felt very useful after listening to it, and inspiration came to him, incorporating Richie's method into the novel, and quickly completed "Wendy's Sand".
He then sent the manuscript to a publisher and published it, not expecting that upfield's novel, which took his colleague's murder advice, would become a hit in the near future and make his big name a household name.
Nor did he expect that the fire in the novel did not depend on his exquisite writing, but on a murder case that closely resembled the plot of the book.
Upfield
In 1930, a few months after Upfield sent the manuscript, Australian police received a report that a man named Louis Cuarón was missing.
Louis came from his hometown to work in Murchison, Australia, where camel inns are located.
He often corresponds with his family and friends, but strangely, people in his hometown have not waited for news of him for a long time. The more people thought about it, the more worried they became, so they called the police and asked the police to investigate.
Louis Cuarón
The police followed the clues to investigate the case, but they did not expect this investigation to even find two people in the area who were missing, and they disappeared for a long time.
They were James Ryan and George Lloyd, both local laborers who had worked at camel caravanserais.
At that time, there were a large floating population in the area, and the place was very large and the communication equipment was not perfect, so the appearance and disappearance of a certain person was not a particularly noteworthy thing.
If louis's family hadn't found out something was wrong, it would not have been known when the other two would have disappeared.
One of the missing persons, George Lloyd
The case escalated immediately, from one to three, and no trace has been found until now, which has forced the police to suspect another possibility - murder.
But even murder requires a corpse to be further convicted, and it is very strange that people like them do not see anyone dead or dead.
At this time, a newly published novel attracts the attention of the police, who find that the fictional plot in the book has an incredible coincidence with the real case.
They all take place at the station, the victims are all floating people, the detectives can't find the body, and more importantly, the murder methods in the book seem to be completely related to the real case.
There's something in the dark that connects the virtual to the real, and there's no doubt that this book is Upfield's The Sands of Wendy.
Upfield
The police approach Upfield by chance and investigate the murder techniques described in the book. After a period of searching, I actually found useful clues, and the victim died exactly the same as in the novel!
They found a burnt campfire in a hut 183 miles from the rabbit enclosure, and the ashes were full of charred bone fragments.
In addition to this, there is a tooth and a wedding ring, this wedding ring is more special, the jeweler accidentally made a mistake when creating it, resulting in two different colors on the same ring, which is absolutely unique.
After confirmation by his wife and jeweler, the owner of the ring was none other than the missing Louis.
Find the cabin with bone fragments
But what is even more shocking is that the police found that the murder should have occurred before the novel was published, and it is impossible for ordinary readers to imitate the methods in the book to commit crimes.
That is, the writer Upfield and Richie, who provided the material for the murder, one of them is the murderer!
Upfield
Seeing that the hat of murder was about to be put on his head, Upfield had to begin to defend himself, and it was at this time that he suddenly thought of a bet that had taken place in the camel caravanserai a few months earlier.
The bet was made by Upfield, and after Richie had finished talking about the ashes-crushing method of killing, Upfield challenged him, claiming that if he could crack the method, he would get 1 pound. However, Ritchie did not do it.
In order to create a more convincing work and perfect the details of the murder, Upfield discussed the plot of the book with others in the station more than once, inviting others to solve the case. So in fact, it's not just the two of them who know how to kill people with this method.
Upfield
Among them was Snowy, a recent worker.
Snowy arrived at Camel Inn in late 2018 when the 27-year-old rode a motorcycle to find a job as a breeder. Upfield later described Snowy as a well-proportioned man with light hair and blue eyes who looked better than the average person.
He is also a young man with strong business ability and a cheerful and charming personality.
But such a charming, usually harmless young man was turned over by the police.
It turned out that snowy's name was fake, and John Thomas Smith was his real name. Originally, there was nothing wrong with changing his name, but the police also found his criminal record, and Snowy turned out to be a fugitive thief who escaped from prison for theft.
Not only that, but when the police searched his belongings, they also found a watch belonging to the missing person Louis, and then looked down and found that Louis's salary check was also cashed by Snowy to buy alcohol.
Snowy
The murderer was beside me, an ordinary person among the masses.
Snowy is tired of the day-to-day work of building fences, he wants to have his own business, and it takes money to start a business, and he wants a car.
It just so happened that one of the missing people, James Ryan, had his truck in his hands, which Snowy said he bought for £80. Then James disappeared, which is too coincidental.
Snowy stood by James's car
For the sake of the so-called "cause", Snowy will not hesitate to murder others to get everything he wants, and Upfield's novel happens to provide him with a "perfect" solution.
But don't forget, the four steps in the "perfect crime" are indispensable, Snowy forgot to pick out the metal to dissolve with acid, which allows people to find out the true identity of the victim's ashes, so that the police can quickly solve the case, leaving no room for cover-up.
No one expected that a ring and a novel would become the key to solving the case.
Snowy
At this point, the police have fully determined that Snowy is the real culprit of this "perfect murder" and have taken him to court and sentenced to hanging.
The novelist Upfield became one of the prosecution's key witnesses, testifying to snowy's deep knowledge of the book's murder techniques.
And later commented on the criminals: summer is almost over, and snowy, for you, winter is coming.
Because the case was so dramatic that it was difficult to distinguish between falsehood and truth, it directly led to the trial sensationalizing australia.
At the same time, the novel "Wendy's Sand" became one of the best-selling books of the time, and Upfield entered the ranks of first-line suspense writers, leaving a name in history.
As for the other two missing, the police have not found their bodies and ashes. Maybe it really disappeared into the wind, as set by "Wendy's Sands"...