Kolchak Cold Cases: The Case of the Burning Lady


*Another installment of an unexplained para case presented in Kolchak-esque style. Links to the true case are below. *




(Intro to "Kolchak: The Night Stalker")

It was 1964, in a quaint township in Pennsylvania. Helen Conway was in for the evening and comfortably set in her bedroom for the evening. Nothing was out of place and she was in her usual pleasant spirits.

In fact, her granddaughter came by with a new book of matches for her. Only 6 minutes after that, firemen were standing around a pile of ashes in Mrs. Conway's room along with her intact legs.



"Spontaneous human combustion," the fire chief sighed. 

The granddaughter made the fire alarm call only 3 minutes after handing her grandmother the matches. 

Skeptics will say that the "wick effect" could create spontaneous human combustion. This is a condition in which the very fat within a person's body could be fueled to burn very hot, sort of like a whale oil lantern.

In the case of Mrs. Conway; however, she was not found 7 hours later (which is how long a wick effect burn would take). She was found within minutes of the last time she was alive and talking.

How does a living breathing human being, made up of a large percentage of water, manage to burn hotter than a cremation incinerator, leaving behind untouched surroundings and even intact limbs? 

To this day, her case remains unexplained and terrifying to know that a person can just go up in smoke in a few minutes' time.

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