Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction, and today's story definitely demonstrates that. But before we get into that story, if you're a fan of the Strange, dark, and mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right place because that's all we do, and we upload once a week. If that's of interest to you, please offer to make the like button a nice fresh batch of donuts, but instead of filling them with mustard, fill them with mayonnaise. Also, please subscribe to our channel and turn on all notifications so you don't miss any of our weekly uploads. Okay, let's get into today's story. On the afternoon of July 18, 1997, a man was driving down a road, surrounded on both sides by trees in a rural part of Wisconsin called Douglas County. There were no other cars on the road, and so this guy was driving pretty fast. And as he rounded this bend in the road, something out the passenger side window on the side of the road in the grass caught his eye. He couldn't tell what it was, but it was a pretty big object. And after he drove right past it, he just couldn't stop thinking about it.

Like, whatever it was, it just seemed out of place. For whatever reason, this man felt compelled to actually stop and go see what it was. He slowed down and parked on the shoulder. He got out and began walking along the road back in the direction of this object. As he got closer, he began to see this object again in the shoulder of the road, and it was obscured by grass and other things, so he couldn't see what it was. But as he got closer, he saw the object was pretty big and it was all white. As he took a few more steps and got within maybe 20 or 30 feet, he finally got a better look at this object, and he just froze because the object was a man, a man wearing all white, a white suit, a white belt, white shoes, all white, and he was laying on the side of the road, just totally motionless. For a second, the driver thought, Maybe this guy is sleeping. But after taking only a few more steps and getting a totally unobstructed view at this guy, he saw there was a gaping hole in this man's chest.

He was obviously dead. The driver turned around, ran back to his car, sped to the nearest house, and called 911. The next morning, a Douglas County detective named Stephen Long was sitting at his desk looking at the photos of the dead man in white. This murder case was less than 24 hours old, but already this was one of the weirder cases that this detective had ever been assigned to. The victim had pretty much immediately been identified because he was carrying on his person his wallet, and in his wallet was his driver's license, and so they knew who he was. But the man in white's identity actually made the whole case more confusing, not less. Mark had no obvious ties to the area. What was this rich guy doing three hours from home dressed all in white, getting shot to death on the side of the road? It didn't add up. The dead man was a 45-year-old millionaire named Mark Foster. Mark lived three hours away in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and had no discernible ties to Douglas County. So the detective was thinking like, What is this rich guy doing here dressed head to toe, all in white, getting murdered on the side of some local random back road.

But things only got more confusing from there. After the medical examiner did Mark's autopsy, he told Detective Long that he had discovered a note inside of Mark's shoe, and the note just said, Jack Frazier isn't here, but it's Jimmy Bailey or a lookalike? I hope I'm okay. Now, nobody, including Detective Long, had any idea what this note meant. It was far too cryptic. But when they ran Jack Frazier and Jimmy Bailey's names through their database, the police discovered that both of those men, one, existed, and two, they lived in Minnesota, same as Mark Foster. And so naturally, Detective Long began to suspect that maybe those two, those two men, were connected in some way to Mark Foster. Maybe they were involved in his murder, or maybe they were actually his killer or killers. He didn't know, but it was his best lead. So, Detective Long decided he would just have to go to Minneapolis to try to find out more. A few hours later, Detective Long parked his car at the Minneapolis police station. He got out and walked inside the building. Waiting for him inside was the local detective who Mark had already spoken to.

And so after meeting this detective, the two of them went into an interview room where Mark Foster's wife was waiting for them. Right away, Detective Long noticed that she was very pregnant and at least 15 or 20 years younger than Mark. But despite that, she seemed very composed. It would turn out she had already been told about her husband's death, and she was basically resigned to the fact that she was here to try to answer questions to figure out what happened. The detective sat down and they began to interview her. Then when they brought up the note that was found in Mark's shoe, specifically when they said the two names that were on that note, Jack Frazier and Jimmy Bailey. When they said that, it triggered something in Mark Foster's wife. She immediately began to cry. Then in between sobs, she would tell the detectives that she knew who those two men were. She told them that she had previously had relationships with both of them before marrying Mark. She said after she married Mark, Jack and Jimmy became very jealous. They didn't like the idea that she had chosen Mark over them. She had always felt like those two, Jack and Jimmy, had it out for Mark as a result of this romantic rivalry.

After the interview with Mark's wife ended, Detective Long began to think that despite this case appearing on the surface to be very odd and confusing, that perhaps in reality, it was quite simple. Maybe Jimmy and Jack were so jealous of Mark that they killed Mark. I mean, based on what Mark's wife had just told them in the interview about them being romantic rivals of Mark, and also the fact that that note was in Mark's shoe and named those two men, it certainly seemed very possible. But over the next couple of days that Detective Long began digging into this theory, that theory apart. Because it would turn out Jack Frazier and Jimmy Bailey had absolutely air-tight alibis. They simply couldn't have been the killers. Now, Detective Long was obviously frustrated. He felt like he really had it here, but he was not deterred. He decided his next move would be to try to better understand his victim. To this point, he had already interviewed a lot of Mark's friends and family, but something he had not done yet was simply go to Mark's house and have a look around. So Detective Long got a search warrant, and on July 29th, roughly a week after Mark was killed, Detective Long, along with another detective, pulled up in front of Mark Foster's large two-story home in the middle of a quiet suburban neighborhood.

Now, from the outside, the home looked totally ordinary relative to its neighbors, but Once they got inside the house, it was anything but. The detectives made their way up to the front door and knocked. A few seconds later, Mark Foster's wife opened up the door and let them inside. Right away, Detective Long is looking around, and he's seeing all over the walls on the first floor of the house are these graphic pictures and paintings of naked people. Then in addition to that, on some of the coffee tables and various surfaces on the first floor, right when you walk in, are all these pornographic magazines and books everywhere. Mark's wife didn't acknowledge any of it. She acted like it was completely normal to have all this stuff right in the front part of your house. The two detectives are looking at each other as Mark's wife is leading them on this tour through the first floor. At some point, Detective Long just said, Hey, Mrs Foster, why don't you have a seat on the couch and you just let us take a look around your house on our own? She said, Okay. She sat down on the couch, and then the two detectives, they left the living room, went back to the front of the house, and made their way upstairs.

Once they got upstairs, they found the master suite, and there was all this bondage gear inside. There were leather straps attached to the bedpost. There was whips and handcuffs. There was also additional pornographic material in there. But, I mean, considering what the detectives had seen downstairs, this felt on par this house. And so after searching the other bedrooms and other rooms on the second floor and finding more pornographic material basically everywhere, the detectives found their way back to the hallway in the second floor, and they noticed there was a rope hanging down from the ceiling, and it was attached to the pull door that led to the attic. And so the two detectives, they walked over, they pulled the rope down. It revealed this fold-out set of stairs that came down from the attic. And once those were in place, the two detectives began climbing up. And once they got up there, they discovered that this attic was not a storage space like many addicts are in American homes. Instead, this attic was a fully functional room that resembled like a Satanic dungeon of sorts. All the walls were totally jet black, and there were all these burned-out candles all over the place and tarot cards littering the floor.

And on the back of the attic, basically all the way on the other side, there was what appeared to be an altar that overlooked the entire room. And on the altar were more candles and there was a voodoo doll. I mean, it's totally creepy. And the two detectives are looking at each other like, What's going on here? And so the detectives, they climbed all the way into the attic and then slowly began walking across towards the altar. And when they got close enough to actually see the altar up close, they just froze. Because sitting on the altar, in addition to the candles and the voodoo doll, were two business cards, their own business cards.

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Detective Long and his partner immediately went downstairs and confronted Mark's wife about the attic. Like, what's going on up there? Why There are business cards on your altar. But Mark's wife, the second that attic was mentioned, went silent. She refused to speak about anything to do with the attic. And so after a minute, realizing this conversation was going nowhere, Detective Long and his partner called for backup. And as they waited for backup, the two of them stepped away from Mark's wife and began speculating like, Is this a cult? Was Mark a part of a cult that ran it out of his attic? What's going on here? And are we being targeted by the cult? Is that why our names are on the altar? A few minutes backup arrived, and they would do a much more extensive search of the property. But other than finding more pornographic materials and bondage gear, there really wasn't anything else substantive that connected Mark or his wife to what happened to Mark or what Mark was even doing in this house. Was he in a cult? They didn't know. And so ultimately, Detective Long and his partner told Mark's wife, who still is being quiet at this point, that she should not leave town because they were going to follow up with her soon.

Now, in fairness, Detective Long couldn't tell if If Mark's wife was being silent and not talking about what was going on in her house because she was complicit in some way in what happened to Mark, or if she was maybe being threatened by somebody and she was afraid to talk. They didn't know. But either way, after leaving the property, after the search was over, Detective Long and his partner felt like their next move was to try to learn more about cults. They needed a cult expert. It just so happened there was an occult bookstore very close to Mark's house, and so they decided they would start there. Right away, their decision to go to that bookstore paid dividends, but not how the detectives expected. It would turn out the owner of that bookstore was indeed a cult expert. But much more importantly, and relevant to this case, was that the owner happened to personally know Mark Foster. And he told the detectives that Mark came to his bookstore all the time. And also, the owner said he knew a bunch of Mark's friends. And so by the time the detectives left the bookstore, they had learned a little bit about cults.

But more importantly, they left with a list of names the owner had given them of known associates of Mark Foster who maybe were involved in whatever was going on in Mark's house, and so maybe they had information about what happened to Mark. The detectives were able to track down everybody on this list very quickly, and they were all young people in their 20s. In each of the interviews they conducted, each of these young people were very open about being in what they called a religious group that they said Mark was a part of as well. Now, the detectives theorized that this religious group was very likely a cult, like they believed, but they didn't call it a cult. They called it a group. But the detectives didn't let up. They kept pressing these people until eventually a new name surfaced, Greg Friesner. Now, none of these people said Greg was in charge of the cult. Instead, they just said, Well, talk to Greg if you want more information about our group. The detectives naturally began to wonder if this Greg person was the cult leader, or maybe he was Mark's killer, or maybe he was both.

But regardless, it seemed pretty apparent that they needed to talk to Greg because he might have more information about what happened to Mark. It took a few days, but the detectives were able to track Greg down, and they brought him in for an interview. And boy, oh, boy, did Greg have a story to tell. Based on what Greg told the detectives, here is what happened to Mark on the day that he died, on July 18, 1997. On that day, Greg Friesner met Mark Foster at Mark's home. And when Mark When Mark came outside, he was dressed head to toe in white, something he would do for special ceremonies. And so Mark, he came down the steps, didn't say a word to Greg. They went to Greg's car, Greg hopped in the driver's seat, and Mark climbed into the back seat. And before long, they took off and began driving northeast. And for hours, these two just drove in total silence. Mark just stared out the window and Greg focused on driving. The only thing that happened during this multi-hour long drive was at some point, Mark pulled out a piece of paper from his coat pocket and he wrote something on it.

Then after staring at it, he smiled and tucked it into his shoe. Then a little bit later, Greg pulled over on the side of the road in Douglas County, Wisconsin, on this random backcountry road. As soon as they pulled over, again, without saying anything, Greg and Mark got out of the car, and they went around to the back of the car where the trunk was. The two men are stretching. It's been a long drive, taking in the scenery. Then before long, Greg pops open the trunk, and in the trunk is a rifle. Neither men have strong reaction to this. Greg just reaches down, pulls the rifle out, and Mark, calm as can be, just begins walking over to the side of the road, to the shoulder. Then once he got to the shoulder, Greg came over and stood right in front of him and just looked intently into Mark's eyes, looking for the signal. At some point, after Mark composed himself, he nodded at Greg, at which point Greg raised that rifle, placed the barrel directly on Mark's chest, and fired. Mark crumpled to the ground, and he He stayed there for a second, just moaning horribly, and Greg just stood over him, watching until finally, Mark went silent and died.

At which point, Greg casually went back to his car, got inside, and drove home. The only time he stopped was to throw his rifle into a nearby river. But once Greg got home, he was overjoyed because he knew the sacred ritual he had just carried out with Mark had been a total success. It had gone exactly to plan. It would turn out Mark Foster was absolutely a member of that religious group, the cult, if you will, except he was not just a member. He was the cult's leader, and Mark is the one who orchestrated his own death. However, Mark did not view his death as him actually dying. Quite the opposite. We celebrate life as we celebrate death. Death is nothing to be afraid of.

Death is a great crossroads, a change in attitude, a change in longitude, a change in the way that we perceive our spirit.

When we reach that portal, they'll ring some golden bells. He believed that what he and Greg, his most devout follower, were going to do, this sacred ritual, was after Greg fires the shot into his chest and ends this body's life, that his soul, his consciousness, and his power will be transferred into Greg. Basically, his soul will go into Greg. And Mark believed once this transfer happened, that basically he would be immortal, that his soul would never die. It would stay in Greg and then maybe at some point get transferred to somebody else. But basically, he would be here forever. The bizarre note that was found in Mark Shuh, the note that he wrote and stuffed in there, that note was designed to throw police off the trail. He knew that he was having Greg murder him, again, for this ritual, but he wanted to make sure Greg didn't get caught. And so he wrote on the note, very specifically, Jack Frazier and Jimmy Bailey. Those two people he hated. He hated that they had been in past relationships with his wife, and they hated him. And so he figured if he was going to create a scapegoat for his murder, who better than his romantic rivals?

They had nothing to do with it. He just named them in that cryptic note to get them in trouble. As for all the pornography and bondage gear that was found inside of Mark's home, well, that all played a role in Mark's cult as well. He was a firm believer that the more sex he had with his followers, often multiple followers at the same time, the more powerful he would become. As for the detective's business cards found on the altar up in the attic, those were very likely placed there by followers of Mark, so members of the cult, in an effort to potentially thwart their efforts to solve the case. They might have believed that by placing those on there and performing various rituals, that that somehow would prevent them from solving the case. We don't know for sure. That's the theory around why they were there. But obviously, that didn't work because the detectives solved the case. Greg Friesner would ultimately be found guilty for playing a role in Mark's death. He obviously was the trigger man, and so he was sentenced to 10 years in prison. As for Mark's wife, although she definitely knew about the cult and may have been a participant, there was never any evidence that actually connected her to Mark's murder, and so she was never charged with any crime.

An American submarine, L2, was hurrying to assist a Portuguese freighter which had been torpedoed near Padsto when she had encountered UB 65 sitting motionless on the surface. As Lieutenant Augustine Grant prepared to give the order to sink the unsuspecting enemy vessel, he paused momentarily. Through his binoculars, he could see that the German submarine was already listing heavily to one side in the water. He could also make out the shape of a solitary officer standing up on the ship's deck, apparently staring out to sea. Before his excited men had even finished loading their submarine's torpedo tubes, Grant observed UB 65 suddenly shake, violently, as if she had been hit by a huge explosion before she sank beneath the waves. For the next hour, the American vessel sailed back and forth searching for survivors, but there were none. The haunted submarine had taken her entire crew down with her to her grave, and almost 90 years would pass before she was ever seen again.

So that's going to do it. If you enjoyed today's story and you're looking for more Strange, dark, and mysterious content, well, check out all of our Balin Studio's podcasts. We have the Mr. Balin podcast, Mr. Balin's Medical mysteries, Bedtime Stories, Wartime Stories, Run Full, and our newest show, Redacted. All you have to do is look up Balin Studios on whichever podcast platform you prefer, and there you go. You have hundreds of hours of Strange, Dark, and Mysterious content to binge. Thank you all very much. Until next time. See you.