Hotel Mysteries: Sligo City Hotel and Peter Bergmann
**TRIGGER WARNING** The article mentions suicide. Please proceed with caution.
This October, I thought it would be fun to discuss hotel mysteries. From haunted hotels with a past to “unidentified” persons, I am bringing you a different hotel mystery every Monday during the month of October; and, on Halloween I have an old, mysterious case (not involving a hotel) to share. This is the third hotel mystery- the Sligo City Hotel and Peter Bergmann. Enjoy!
Sligo City Hotel does not have a mysterious past, but I wanted to include it because much of what we know about Peter Bergmann centers around his stay at this hotel. In fact, I couldn’t even find a basic informational page for this hotel. It was built in 1995 and has 61 guest rooms and four conference/meeting rooms. The hotel is four stories high and contains a bar/restaurant. It is located in the heart of Sligo City surrounded by sightseeing attractions and recreational activities. Today, it would cost between $79-$221 U.S. dollars per night for a room here. Upon suggestion, Peter chose this hotel to live out his last few days and this is his story.
On June 16, 2009, the body of a man was found on Rosses Point Beach in County Sligo, Ireland. The man was initially identified as Peter Bergmann because that’s the name he used during a hotel stay at Sligo City Hotel in the days prior to his death. Peter Bergmann was found by a man and his son around 6:45am when they arrived at the beach for some athletic training. Peter was lying face down in the sand and, at first glance, appeared to have drowned. The man thought Peter looked to be around 65 years old. Peter was found wearing a t-shirt tucked into a pair of underpants worn over top of swim trunks. He was seemingly overdressed for a swim. His other clothes were found folded up on top of a rock in a different area of the beach; these included: shoes, socks, pants, and a jacket. The labels were cut out of his clothes and there was no ID or wallet. The placement of the clothes appeared to be organized and deliberate, not like he was in panic or crisis mode.
An autopsy on Peter Bergmann revealed that he did not, in fact, have any signs of drowning and his cause of death was listed as a heart attack. There were cancer cells in his prostate tissue, indicating he had prostate cancer. There was a tumor that had spread to his bones, chest, and lungs. There was no evidence of any kind of treatment for the cancer, including the most basic form of pain reliever, aspirin. The medical examiner determined that Peter likely only had weeks to live and probably knew about the cancer, as he would’ve had bone pain and difficulty breathing, at the least. A toxicology screening would show that he had no drugs or alcohol in his system.
Since his body wasn’t claimed within the days following his death, investigators attempted to find out Peter’s real identity by tracking his movements in the days leading up to his death. They ran his face through facial recognition software programs for the British airports and received no hits. There is no known record of Peter being in Ireland prior to June 12, but investigators believe he probably arrived by boat. On this day at 4pm, he was seen on surveillance from the Derry Bus Station boarding a bus to Sligo. At 6:28pm, he was picked up getting off the bus in Sligo Bus Station. He was wearing all black with a black leather jacket, carrying two black bags-one a duffel bag and the other an over-the-shoulder bag, like a laptop bag. He appeared to be unfamiliar with the area, as he took a taxi to a hotel that he hadn’t made prior reservations for. In fact, when getting in the taxi, he asked the driver for a cheap hotel. He arrived at the Sligo City Hotel and paid 65€ per night for a three night stay, cash up front. He gave his name as Peter Bergmann and provided an address in Austria, which turned out to be nonexistent. He was never asked to provide any form of identification such as a passport or credit card. Witnesses say that he had a German or Austrian accent and spoke good English. Authorities were able to determine (though I don’t know how) that Peter knew the address he provided was false, implying he was familiar with Austria.
During his four day stay at the hotel, he was recorded leaving no less than thirteen times with a plastic, grocery-like, purple bag. However, each time he returned, he returned empty handed. There was no name brand on the bag, though it was clearly full. Either the bag was emptied out each day and brought back hidden away in his jacket pocket or he had several purple bags and was disposing of both the bag and its contents. Local dumpsters, trash dumps, and bins were searched for the purple bags or anything that might help lead to Peter Bergmann’s true identity. But, neither the bag(s) nor its contents were ever located. It seems that he came to Sligo to disappear and die, not wanting to be identified.
On June 13, Peter went to the post office and bought ten (or eight depending on the source) 82-cent stamps and airmail stickers. Eighty-two cents was the international postage rate at the time. However, there is no CCTV footage of Peter mailing anything out. Whether anything was sent remains a mystery, but no mailing supplies were found and no one has come forward saying that they received any letters.
On Sunday, June 14 at 11am, Peter Bergmann took a cab to Rosses Point. By the cab driver’s account, Peter Bergmann inquired about a good beach for swimming. He also asked about buses going to and from the beaches nearby. The cab driver remembered Peter as polite and well-dressed. When they arrived at Rosses Point, Peter didn’t get out of the car. Instead, he asked to be taken to the bus station. He had no bags with him, but mentioned that he was from Austria.
That evening, Peter asked for a late checkout. The next day, he checked out around 1pm wearing a long sleeve blue shirt with a black tank over it and a black jacket with dark colored pants. He was carrying the two black bags that he checked in with and a purple bag. He showed up at the Sligo Bus Station at 1:32pm carrying only two bags-the laptop bag and the purple bag. By all accounts, it seems he walked from the hotel to the bus station, which would’ve taken around fifteen minutes. At the bus station, he can be seen sitting at a table with other people drinking coffee and eating a sandwich. He didn’t speak and at one point he took out a small notebook, wrote something down, studied it for a few moments, then tore it up and left it on the table. This is the extent of the information available regarding that piece of paper and the notebook.
Peter got on the 2:40pm bus to Rosses Point. A police officer remembers having a conversation with Peter at the bus station and said he seemed stressed or uptight about making the bus to Rosses Point, like he was afraid he was going to miss it. He also asked the officer which bay the bus departed from. The officer described Peter as dressed for business, not like he was going for a swim.
The sightings of Peter Bergmann on June 15 at Rosses Point are as follows:
- 3pm- bus arrived, Peter is seen carrying a black and purple bag.
- 4pm- seen on the beach with just the black shoulder bag.
- 5pm- seen near the Art Club.
- Sunset- a couple saw Peter walking into the water with his pants rolled up around his knees taking strange, deliberate steps. He was wearing a black jacket with his shoulders slumped, hands clasped behind his back.
- Shortly after 9pm- seen on the beach carrying something unidentified.
- 9:30pm, 9:45pm, and 10:20pm- no information on these sightings
- 10:30pm- seen on a path near the beach wearing glasses, carrying a purple bag.
- 11pm- seen with the purple bag.
- Shortly after 11pm- seen sitting on a bench, overlooking the beach, wearing glasses.
- 11:10pm- seen standing on the beach.
- 11:50pm- the last known sighting of Peter Bergmann, carrying a purple bag, walking along the water’s edge, fully dressed.
The long sleeve shirt that Peter was seen wearing when he left the hotel was never found. It is unknown whether he arrived at Rosses Point wearing the shirt or not. His glasses were also never found, though he is seen wearing them in all CCTV footage. The only thing authorities were able to determine was that the shoes found on the beach were manufactured in Germany. The contents of his pockets included: a wrist watch, tissues, a small bar of unwrapped soap not from any hotel in Ireland, 140€ in cash, and aspirin tablets. Police theorized that Peter deliberately got rid of all of his belongings during his thirteen trips from the hotel.
In all the CCTV footage of Peter Bergmann, he is always seen alone, never talking to anyone. On his last day, numerous witnesses reported that he appeared to be out of place or in his own little world. While Peter’s death itself is no mystery, his true identity remains unknown. After obtaining a full DNA profile for Peter Bergmann, he was buried in Sligo Cemetery in September 2009.
My thoughts:
The death of Peter Bergmann is probably one of the strangest deaths I’ve come across. He had a heart attack and his manner of death is natural causes, so what is the big mystery here? Well, it started when he was found without identification. Authorities were able to track him back to the Sligo City Hotel where they discovered the identity and address he provided were false. This led to a scrutinization of every movement Peter made, tracking back as far as they could. A fake identity coupled with days of strange behavior all caught on CCTV footage made the mystery.
First and foremost, what was up with the purple bag? The theory that makes the most sense here is that Peter was disposing of all of his belongings before his death. Whether he had one purple bag or multiple, he had to have been disposing of the contents prior to each trip back to the hotel. If not all of his personal belongings, what could have been in that bag? Were the two black bags full of stuff that he was disposing of? He didn’t have the duffel bag when he left the hotel for the final time, yet he was never seen leaving the hotel with it after he checked in. Did he empty the contents of the duffel bag and fold it up and put it in another one of the bags for disposal? If he was disposing of items, was he intentional about not being seen doing so? How so if he didn’t know the area? In the footage, he doesn’t appear to be looking around for cameras. Could it have been luck or chance that he isn’t seen? Surely not every movement of his has been uncovered, so maybe there were cameras, but this is in footage that wasn’t ever seen. Although authorities searched trash bins and dumpsters for this man’s belongings, other than looking for the three bags specifically, how would they have known what they were looking for? I believe it is entirely possible they came across his stuff and didn’t know it had any connection to him. How would they be able to connect common things, such as toiletries, clothes, or books, to a specific person whose identity is unknown?
If Peter was disposing of all his personal belongings, this would suggest that Peter knew when he was going to die. Typically, this is only true in suicides. Given that he didn’t have much longer left to live, it would be understandable that he would want to end his suffering early or go out on his own terms. However, Peter died of a heart attack. So did he induce his own heart attack? While not completely impossible, it would’ve been very hard, especially given that no drugs were found in his system. But if Peter were a medical professional or worked in a medical setting, he could have had access to medications that would induce a heart attack and such medications may not have shown up on a toxicology screen. If this is the case, he would have to have had some medical knowledge higher than the average person. A heart attack seems like a rough and painful way to die and would be an unusual choice for suicide; however, when someone makes the decision to end their own life, we can’t always know their mindset or the logic behind their choices. Suicide would be the only way that Peter Begmann could have known he was definitely going to die on a specific date. If Peter had ingested some sort of poison to stop his heart, it wouldn’t have shown up on the toxicology report either and we may never know. To me, the theory that he committed suicide makes the most sense when looking at all the facts.
And what about the letters? Did he send letters to his loved ones explaining his wishes to remain anonymous? Or was he living a lonely life and no one who knew him knows or cares that he is missing? Well, either of those things could’ve happened. Just because there was no CCTV footage located of Peter mailing the letters doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. The logical assumption would be that he did mail something to someone, but it could’ve been anything, not just a letter. Just because he bought ten stamps doesn’t necessarily mean he sent ten letters. He could’ve sent one or two packages and used multiple stamps per package. I would be more inclined to believe they were letters because we know that any standard letter only requires one stamp; but if you’re mailing a package, you have to determine weight to determine how much shipping would cost. If he sent out a package without returning to the post office, how could he have known that he used the right amount of postage and that it would get to its destination? It is entirely possible that he did write family members or close friends to let them know that he was planning on ending his own life (because again, suicide is the only way he could’ve known exactly when he was dying) and to say that he wanted to remain an unidentified person in a foreign country. That also assumes that everyone who received a letter would be okay with and/or respect his wishes and not attempt to claim his body. I can only speak for myself, but it would be incredibly difficult for me to know that someone I loved died in another country and not bring their body back home.
Although the alternative is sad, it is also possible that he lived a lonely life and no one notices or cares about his absence. Perhaps he came from a family where both of his parents and himself were only children and they both passed, leaving him alone. Maybe he never married or had children. That essentially leaves no family to miss him. But then that begs the question-who did he or was he planning on sending the letters to? Despite all the CCTV footage of Peter Bergmann and very clear images of him, this case is not well known outside of Ireland. If anyone is looking for him, it is probable they haven’t seen those photos.
One more thing I want to mention is the semi-popular theory that Peter Bergmann was a spy. Tags being cut out of clothes is definitely an indication that someone is a spy; however, that alone doesn’t mean much to me. I have known several people who cut the tags out of their clothes simply because they are uncomfortable. There is no other evidence that suggests he was a spy. Granted, we don’t know what happened to all of his stuff, I don’t put any stock in this theory.
Could Peter have been intending on drowning himself in the water and he was simply waiting for the right time, under the cover of darkness with no one to rescue him, but then naturally had a heart attack before he was able to do so? He was not wet, so if that was his plan, we know he never even made it into the water. Perhaps the stress of the situation or the pain of his physical ailments caused his heart to suddenly give out. He appeared to do everything with purpose, suggesting this was a well and long thought out suicide plan. We can’t begin to understand his actions without knowing who Peter Bergmann was. It’s been thirteen years since he died, yet his identity still remains a mystery.
Feel free to leave your comments and theories below about who you think Peter Bergmann might be and what may have happened to him.
Resources:
- Podcast: Atlantic by The Irish Times- three part podcast exploring the death of Peter Bergmann, includes interviews with investigating officers, the cab driver who took Peter to Rosses Point beach, and the Medical Examiner.
- Podcast: The Trail Went Cold- Episode 226-Peter Bergmann
- Documentary: The Last Days of Peter Bergmann https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5H3N34gMp1g
- Information on Sligo City Hotel: https://mitmagazine.co.uk/Meeting-Event-Venues/Sligo-Ireland/Convention-Hotel/Sligo-City-Hotel-p57734032
