TL;DR: My father in law (FIL) passed away recently. I visited him a few days before he died and he confessed to knowing where some bodies are buried and wanted me to help make it right.

Going back to the beginning: It was the mid 1970s and he was a young man struggling with work. He’d just trained as a digger/excavator operator and was trying to break into the construction industry but in the part of the country he lived in, it was more about who you knew rather than what you knew.

He’d applied to several different building firms for work but was getting nowhere, until one day, he received a phone call telling him to come to a construction site of a housing estate that was being built by a large British housing construction company. Relieved, he arrived early and was a very dedicated employee. For the next few months, he was praised and treated better than he’d ever been treated either at work or at home. The boss took him under his wing, taught him a lot about the trade and they developed a friendship.

One Saturday afternoon, his boss calls him. He tells him that he’s needed on site later that night and there were to be no questions asked. His boss also told him that after that night, he would invest in him and buy him a (used) digger so he could start his own company and rent himself and his digger to different building sites. This meant he could start his business, which is still ruining today and is now run by my brother-in-law.

He turned up to the site and was told to dig a trench of a specific size. When he had dug the trench, he waited for a short amount of time until people living on the completed part of the estate came out of a house across the road from this plot carrying black bags with something heavy in them. They were put in the trench and he was instructed to cover it back up again, which he did. FIL swears that they were dead bodies. Several of them.

When he tried to talk to his boss (who was also there), the boss reminded him of the no-questions and told him he would be getting his digger in a matter of days. He told him to never discuss this again and made some veiled threats. Within a short time he had his digger and built up his business over the years. He noted that that part of the housing estate was not being built on, but had tarmac laid on it. Eventually he moved to a different part of the country where there was more work, met my mother-in-law and moved on with his life and business.

He told me that the events of that night always played on his mind and was always at the back of his mind. He knew that he’d taken the digger as a hush payment and was afraid of his old boss.

Years later, shortly after I had married my wife, I showed him a new website: Google Street View. He was amazed by it. He told me that after I had left that day, he looked up that street on Google street view. The estate he had worked on was still standing. The plot he had dug a trench into had been left empty and still had tarmac laid on it. It wasn’t a park or a green-space, just a plot of tarmac. He told me the address and I was able to find it on Street View and the empty plot of tarmac is still there.

When I left, my mother-in-law (MIL) was at home, visiting my wife. She gave me a ring binder that FIL had kept. It was full of information about that estate, with land registry records, newspaper stories, housing sale information. There were also some missing persons stories from around the country from the same time, which were mainly kids. What was interesting were the numerous print-outs from local newspapers and from the planning department regarding that patch of land. The construction company that built that estate no longer existed and that plot of land had been purchased by a private developer. The developer had tried for years to build a house on that plot of land (as it was now a costly housing estate in a popular town). The developer had been stopped by the efforts of the people who lived directly opposite. I saw on the land registry that the house had stayed with the same owners since the mid 1970s and, as shown in local newspaper website printouts, they had called upon MPs, the planning department and even my FIL’s old boss (who became a local councillor). The last time there was an attempt to build on that land was 6 years ago. They had got it rejected on the grounds that it would destroy green-space, which was odd, because there was no green-space to be destroyed. It was just a patch of tarmac, now with some shoddy looking benches on it (to make it look more like a park, I suppose).

My FIL was convinced that they murdered several people, got away with it, and are still guarding the site where the bodies are buried. He tried to contact the police one one occasion, shortly after he was acquainted with street view. He left his phone number only to be called back by a councillor, who happened to be his old boss. This terrified my FIL. He believed his old boss was involved with organised crime and said that was part of the reason he moved to a different part of the country.

He asked me to help make it right. I’ve already tried calling the local police and was told in no uncertain terms to ‘fuck off’ and ‘stop wasting police time’. I’m not sure what to do. I don’t want to endanger myself and my family but I want to help FIL with his last wish. He was absolutely convinced that there were bodies buried there and the evidence in the amount of effort gone into protecting that plot of land seems to suggest he might be on to something.

Any ideas?

    • vlad@lemmy.sdf.org
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      1 year ago

      Since this is The Internet, I automatically assume that this story is made up until that happens. No disrespect to OP, I’m not saying that he is lying, but from my perspective it’s all just text in a box on a website. If he is that concerned by it and the “authorities” are turning a blind eye, then he should make this public.

    • musicmind333@mastodon.social
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      1 year ago

      @OsakaWilson @Ace_of_spades I think this is probably the way to go. If you inquire directly, they can easily find out who is calling and what your relationship to that area is. If a bunch of random internet snoopers start raising red flags, there might not be a whole lot that they can do against general public inquiry. (They being the people who own the land, and the organized crime, including, it sounds like, the local police and politicians as well)

      • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        If you inquire directly, they can easily find out who is calling and what your relationship to that area is.

        This already happened. They already know OP is interested because OP already inquired directly.

        If the coordinates suddenly become public they’re going to know where that came from. And in case anyone is forgotten, this is an organization capable of producing multiple bodybags in a single go.

          • Slacking@sh.itjust.works
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            1 year ago

            Go to the press, make it public. They will only hurt you to silence you, once it’s out there, it’s too late. The press would love this story too

          • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            How many voices saying “yes they will kill you” are necessary to balance against a multitude of voices saying “nah no problem”.

            There is nothing of substance to be gained here, and everything to lose.

            Perhaps the difference between me and these other people saying there will be no trouble is that I have experienced violence, and I know how far more important the possibility of violence is than a thousand days of peace.

            Please don’t be a rash fool. Please do not go looking for trouble in a world that is far more capable of providing trouble than sheltered people think it is.

          • Derproid@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            Don’t listen to that other commenter, go to 4chan, they will have people digging up the bodies in a week.

      • mothringer@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Way too late to be worrying about that now. You’ve already posted it, and nothing you can do at this point would noticeably mitigate those types of risks.

      • pips@lemmy.film
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        1 year ago

        Mate, good tip for internet use is knowing that law enforcement absolutely uses the same forums you do. There’s always a chance none of them sees your post or if they did, they won’t do anything, or if they do, their supervisors won’t move on it… But as much as people like to paint LE as a block completely removed from society, they’re really not. They routinely suck both at their jobs and as people, but that doesn’t mean they’re not still people with interests. And sites like Lemmy cater to pretty common interests, so naturally LE is going to be on them, especially the more tech inclined.

        Anyway, if you’ve filed a report with the local PD there, it’s possible to figure out this case and who you are for people with the right tools. Regarding your question in your post, if you think this case involves murders across state lines or where the locals clearly won’t do anything, contact the state police and the FBI (or your country’s equivalents, if they are safe authorities). Depending on the office, they can sometimes do a better job of keeping you anonymous, especially if you express that you’re afraid for your life. If that hits a dead end, start contacting the press. Reporters love this sort of thing.

        Frankly, I recommend pursuing this, but don’t contact the locals again. Go to the feds or state. Assuming this is real and you’re not just having fun with creative writing, it sounds like the community knows what’s up but is being blocked by the local government. Since you’re on the outside and essentially have a “deathbed confession,” you’re functionally a witness to what happened. I’m not strictly sure if you have an actual duty to report this, I don’t know you, but seems like it would be nice if you did.

          • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            If you want to help go to the FBI. But let them know about your failed attempt at resolving through the local police … actually you know what watch down mob movies first. You seem to have zero fucking clue what’s going on here and your ignorance is putting you in danger.

      • XpeeN@sopuli.xyz
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        1 year ago

        I’d say post it wayy in the future, at another platform, by a different, temp user over TOR. Just in case

      • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        The police are not going to ASK.

        You already contacted the police about this. They are going to KNOW it was you.

        Just stop, do nothing. Think of your family. Think about how nice it is to be alive. Think of all the things you could be doing other that going after literal skeletons from the past.