(RNN) - The death of Alan Jay Abrahamson on Jan. 25 had been considered the first homicide of 2018 for Palm Beach Gardens, FL.
But investigators have now concluded that his death was actually an elaborate suicide disguised as a murder. Police say Abrahamson tied a handgun to a weather balloon and fatally shot himself, according to USA Today.
The balloon carried the weapon away from the scene, leaving investigators with few clues as to what happened. The only thing they found at the scene was a small pair of scissors.
Investigators offered $3,000 in reward money, but they still ended up with no leads.
Surveillance video showed Abrahamson’s last moments. Thirty-seven minutes after he walked out of view from the camera, a gunshot was heard.
He was found dead on the beach by a dog just before 7 a.m., according to the Tampa Bay Times.
Detectives said Abrahamson’s sweatshirt had a pool of blood around the bullet hole in his chest. There was also a thin trail of blood, about the width of a piece of string, that traveled from the gunshot wound upward, indicating something had been dragged across his torso.
Since investigators had no murder weapon and saw no signs of struggle, initially, their investigation led nowhere. But in February, authorities started to question if the murder was actually a suicide.
Abrahamson’s wife helped police unlock his phone where they were able to dive into his search history and emails.
They learned that he had been searching for methods of suicide and guns. According to The Palm Beach Post, reports indicate Abrahamson had several life insurance policies and he'd also searched the internet about whether those policies would pay off in case of suicide.
His email revealed that he had purchased a weather balloon on Christmas Day last year. He’d also come into possession of a 40-cubic-foot helium tank just two days before his death.
Searching for similar cases, detectives discovered a 2003 episode of “CSI” in which a character tied a handgun to a weather balloon and made their suicide look like a murder. They also found a case in New Mexico from 2008 where someone did the same thing, except their balloons became tangled in a cactus.
Copyright 2018 Raycom News Network. All rights reserved.
