A Strange Mystery
Most of us like a good mystery story. Let me share a real-life, but widely unknown mystery story. In order to make it better, I’m going to tell you how the story ends. In our story there is an English businessman who attained the rank of Colonel in the British military in the early 1900’s. After a whirlwind romance, the Colonel married a young woman from a wealthy background. After a few years the Colonel fell for another woman. The Colonel soon planned to divorce his wife in favor of the new mistress. Well, this is where the story gets interesting. Hurting and enraged, the wife decides to do away with her husband. She plots the perfect crime. She will make it appear as though her husband, the Colonel, has murdered her.
Here are the details. One frigid night in December of 1926, the wife turned up missing and her car was found at Newlands Corner in Surrey (a county in southeast England). It was parked above a chalk quarry with the wife’s fur coat and her driver’s license in the front seat. This young woman was well-known to many. The police expected foul-play. The Colonel was questioned. He was asked where he had been when his wife disappeared. The Colonel explained he had been at a dinner party. When the police asked about the purpose of the dinner party, the Colonel was in a tight spot. The party was for the Colonel and his mistress. They were going to announce their relationship (and the Colonel’s upcoming divorce of his wife). When the Colonel was asked if he had been at the party the whole evening, he confessed he had not. The truth was that he had received a phone call from his wife. She had heard what the party was about, and she said she was going to come to the party to make a scene. Obviously, the Colonel had to return home and calm down his angry, frustrated wife. The problem was, when he returned home, she was not there. Not being able to find his wife, the Colonel returned to his party. So, when the police asked if there were problems between the Colonel and his wife, he looked guilty. He was the prime suspect for her disappearance and likely murder.
The police judged the Colonel guilty, and you would have to agree that the circumstances did not look good. A search force was organized. One thousand police officers and over 15,000 volunteers searched the countryside for the Colonel’s missing wife. Authorities dragged a nearby lake for her body. Bloodhounds and airplanes joined the search. A reward was offered for information. Even Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (the author of the Sherlock Holmes stories) got involved. He gave a glove from the wife to a spirit medium, hoping for a lead. This alleged murder made national and international headlines. It made the front page of the New York Times newspaper. The extensive search went on for nearly two weeks. Here is the interesting part of the story. While the angry wife had staged a perfect plan to frame her husband, she had no place to hide. You see, she was famous. There was no place she could go and remain hidden. She was the famous British mystery writer, Agatha Christie.
I share this story to illustrate that we can “have it all” and miss the meaning of life. Agatha Christie had wealth, she had fame, she had standing in society. Yet, she had nothing that really mattered. That is why I titled this story “A Strange Mystery.” People in our world desperately search for purpose and meaning in life. They are told that “stuff” will make them happy and satisfied. Sadly, it does not. The only thing that really works is knowing who made us - God. Fulfilment comes from doing what we were made to do - have a relationship with God. People feverishly search for the “secret sauce” of life and so often fail to find it. Take a moment, do some reflection. Ponder what life is about. The message of Christianity is the answer to the “mystery” of the ages. Keep looking up!