In 1959, portrait artist and travel enthusiast Malika de Fernandez met the man who would become her killer.
Within two hours, airline employee Peter Rain-Bert asked her to marry him – and she said yes. They got married within four days. A few months later, the marriage broke down and Fernandez now resumed world travel using her new husband’s airline travel discount. Rain-Bardt is in his cottage in Cheshire, England.
Two years later, Fernandez disappeared altogether, and the Rain- Bardt suspect became number one, including digging his garden in search of his property – after searching his property book, police found no evidence of ownership or any wrongdoing. The incident remained unresolved for decades, when events took an odd turn: a body part discovered in a pit bug near Ryan-Bert’s cottage home. At this point, Reyn-Bert’s lack of knowledge of Pete Boggs came back to bite him and ended his conviction to kill him.
Peat formed through the decomposition of organic matter, mainly from plant material such as sorghum. When sphagnum algae, in particular, accumulate enough to form debris in wetlands, the layers of peat form acids are incredibly good at preserving the body. Fall into one of these – or are killed or sacrifice yourself and be thrown into one of these – and when you discover centuries later, you find very well someone who went to play after dressing up as a 400 BCE farmer killed yesterday. If Reyn-Bardt had known this, he probably would not have been so quick to confess to killing his wife.
After the head of an unidentified woman found in Lindo Moss Pete Bug, forensics initially believed it was 30-50 years old and confronted Rain-Bert with his evidence, believing it was relate to Fernandez’s disappearance decades ago. “It’s been so long, I thought I would never find it again,” Reyn- Bardt told police during questioning. He claimed that Fernandez returned to his cottage in the early 60s and threatened that he was gay – which was still a crime in England – if he did not pay him. Without any money, he said, they fought.
