Who is Peter Bergmann? Mystery about the man who appeared with no past records in 2009 explained amid resurfaced tweet

The mystery of Peter Bergmann, a man with no past records, resurfaced after a tweet from the X user @ItsWalterEgo went viral. On March 20, the X user created a thread about the unidentified man, using footage from the 2013 documentary short film The Last Days of Peter Bergmann. The X thread has now gone viral, with over 330,000 likes and 24,000 reposts.

According to Vice's October 2019 report, in June 2009, a middle-aged man named Peter Bergmann came to Sligo, a small coastal town in Ireland. He boarded at the Sligo City Hotel. Three days later, on June 16, 2009, his body was found dead at Rosses Point Beach.

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More details on Peter Bergmann

Per Vice's report, investigators checked the hotel's CCTV footage and nearby surveillance cameras and discovered that the man provided a fake address while checking in. In three days, Bergmann went outside the hotel 13 times, often with a purple plastic bag, roaming the streets of Sligo.

It was unclear what was inside the bags, but the investigators speculated he was disposing of personal items. Bergmann's ID and passport weren't found, so it remained unclear where he came from. On his second day at the hotel, he bought stamps and airmail stickers. Then, on June 15, 2009, he checked out of the hotel and took a bus to Rosses Point Beach.

The following day, his dead body was found on the shore by a father-son duo. The autopsy report revealed the cause of death was cardiac arrest. It was further discovered that Peter Bergmann had advanced prostate cancer and bone tumors. He was also missing a kidney and had suffered heart attacks in the past.

Peter Bergmann in the Sligo City Hotel. (Image via X/@ItsWalterEgo)

In September 2019, Ray Mulderrig, the third detective inspector in charge of the Bergmann case, sat down for an interview with Vice. Mulderrig stated he believed Bergmann came to Sligo with a purpose, as he tried so hard to hide his real identity. The detective said:

"Everything he did seemed to have had a purpose, from cutting the labels of his clothes and all the rest of it. The question you have to ask is: why Sligo?"

He continued:

"If you want a scenic place to die, you’re spoilt for choice across the west coast of Ireland, or even Scotland for that matter. Something must have brought him here, even if we’ve never been able to say what that was."

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What did the people who saw Bergmann say about him?

Peter Bergmann at the Sligo City Hotel. (Image via X/@ItsWalterEgo)

According to Irish Central in July 2023, the locals of Sligo noticed Bergmann. In the 2013 documentary The Last Days of Peter Bergmann, a woman shared that she saw him on the beach on June 15, 2009, the day before his death. She said:

"He looked almost out of place and out of time. He had his trousers rolled up to his knees. And he was walking parallel to the water with his bare feet, he was ankle-deep in the water, and he just seemed to be kind of stooped with his hands behind his back, as if he was in another world."

A couple who saw him at the beach recalled that it looked like he walked into the sunlight.

"He was highlighted by virtue of the fact that he was walking across the sunbeam parallel to the beach, but right through his beam of sunlight – and it was amazing because when he actually walked into the light of the sunbeam, he turned to gold as well," they said.

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According to The Irish Times in August 2023, Bergmann was buried in an unmarked grave at Sligo cemetery. Six people attended his funeral, which was held on September 18, 2009.

As per Irish Central, The Last Days of Peter Bergmann was shown at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, and it won Best Documentary Short Film at the 2014 Melbourne International Film Festival.