News story #3

World-famous author died in his own safe

By Kajsa Dalsten

04-09-2015. J.D. Salinger found dead in Cornish, New Hampshire. Investigators discovered his decaying corpse in his own safe among pieces of paper.

On Monday last week, the worldwide celebrated author Jerome David Salinger's death was declared. His body was found all rotten in his own safe.

"Bill"[1], a close friend to the American author had gone to visit him around 10 a.m. that day, and after no reply from calling out Salinger's name, he went inside all of the rooms in the house. As soon as he opened the door to Salinger’s office, the smell of death made him flinch. When he couldn’t find Salinger in the room, he reckoned he had to be inside the huge safe. Immediately he called the police and looked around in the office for hidden codes to the safe, with no result. When the police came around 25-30 minutes later, they had to call ILT[2] to get the safe open. The ILT arrived in a helicopter 15 minutes later and they opened the safe with a laser tool.

“I hadn’t heard from Jerome in seven to eight years, so I went to see him. I know he wants privacy and I thought that maybe he was busy writing a novel or something so I didn’t want to disturb him. I would never have guessed that he was dead”, said Bill after the safe had been opened.

Salinger’s body was lying on the floor in the safe with pieces of paper around him. After an investigation made by LE[3] on the pieces of paper, it was stated that it was Salinger’s own texts.

“We found a huge lump of paper in Salinger’s stomach which indicates that Salinger ate his own texts, maybe to stay alive. The paper is coming from the same factory as the pieces of paper that laid beside Salinger in the safe. Another theory to why he ate his own texts is that he didn’t want anyone to read them if he was found” said Lou Andrews, forensic doctor.

There was also a note from Salinger in the safe. It was dated 16-04-2007 and said:
“I’m locked up. I’d really need a catcher in the rye right now. Hope you got that one. Whoever finds me, make sure only my family and relatives can come to my funeral. That’s my final wish. Tell them I love them. My will is in my desk, in the second drawer to the right. If you find me before I pass: See you again. If not: Good bye.”

On top of the note was a pen with Salinger’s fingerprints on and there were no other fingerprints to be found at any place on the safe.

Jerome David Salinger was most famous for his novel The Catcher in the Rye, which was published in 1951. Even to this day, the book is very popular and many readers all over the world’ve been grieving the death of the author, according to The World's Best Book Magazine.

[1] The name Bill is fictitous, the friend wants to be anonymous.
[2] The Institute of Laser Tools
[3] The Laboratory of Evidence

(I couldn't use the footnotes from the text on the blog, it got all messed up. I had to make them myself)