The question of what happened to the British man Max Victor Wenner on a winter’s day in 1937 over the skies of Belgium remains largely unanswered even after 85 years of mystery.
Wenner has been visiting his fiancée in Cologne (Germany) and was flying back to Haren, then the site of Brussels Airport, when for some reason he fell out of the aircraft, his body being recovered in woods between Genk and Zutendaal in the Belgian province of Limburg.
The case has remained a mystery until now.
Wenner was a wealthy industrialist with German roots based in Manchester, England. The plane was carrying him from Cologne to Haren, where he was expected to take a connecting flight to England. However, his journey ended in the woods at Terboekt, between Genk and Zutendaal.
Lack of investigation
Wenner was found to be missing when the plane landed at Haren, suggesting none of the ten passengers onboard had noticed he was gone.
Days later, his body was found in the woods in Zutendaal. According to VRT NWS, Wenner was fully dressed, down to his shoes, lying on his back at the foot of a pine tree, based on testimonies from people who were aware of the find at the time.
The incident made news in the local area, with papers reporting a medical examiner had officially reported the dead man had suffered no bodily injuries but had died from suffocation, presumably during his fall — a conclusion that seems unlikely following such a fall.
Investigators now looking into the case explained that the science of the time was less exhaustive than it is now. DNA was virtually unheard of in police circles at the time, and unusual death wasn't always considered a possible criminal act.
Case files from those days are not archived, especially when no suspect was identified, and there no one witnessed exactly what happened to Wenner.
Not only were there few passengers on board at the fatal moment, but conditions on the plane would reportedly have made it difficult for other passengers to detect anything suspicious.
Question marks remain
The investigation of the death finally turned to the Nazis, of whom the pilot of the plane itself was a supporter. The brothers of Wenner’s new girlfriend were fervent Nazi supporters, while Wenner was found to have been under surveillance by the Gestapo.
It is possible the siblings of his new girlfriend, who stood to inherit his fortune, were behind the incident. According to pathologist Wim Van de Voorde, there are two possible explanations.
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"Either it was an accident, but then the man would have been sitting at that door that opened accidentally. Or it was done on purpose, but then there must be traces of a skirmish. Or maybe Wenner was already dead or unconscious on the plane, but even then you can't simply get him off that plane."
He added that it was not possible to make the distinction between accident and murder on the basis of this data.
