Patrice LeBlanc, Nederland. On March 8, 2019, the caretaker of the Tuff Shed, Brad Wickham, went to deliver the ice that keeps Bredo Morstoel frozen in his coffin above Nederland, when he noticed that the door had been left unlocked and the coffin was wide open. He immediately notified authorities about the disappearance of the corpse that has come to be known as the Frozen Dead Guy, for whom a famous festival is thrown each year.

The police were swift with their investigation and determined that the corpse of Bredo Morstoel had been kidnapped. Word spread quickly around the town of Ned and many rumors began to fly around about the mysterious disappearance.

Some speculated that the door on the Tuff Shed was accidentally left open and wild animals hauled off the corpse. Some local townspeople wondered if the whole spectacle had been a hoax all along and there never really was a Frozen Dead Guy. One fantastic theory was that Bredo himself came back from the dead and wandered around Nederland during the Frozen Dead Guy Festival, but no one took notice of him because so many people were dressed as a dead man.

The frenzy of the recent festival along with the uncertainty of the future of Frozen Dead Guy Days has left many residents with the question, “How can you have a Frozen Dead Guy Festival if there is no Frozen Dead Guy? The supporters of Bredo Morstoel and the festival are asking that anyone who has information regarding the whereabouts of the Frozen Dead Guy to contact the police immediately, and if you took the corpse, please put him back.

(Originally published in the March 28, 2019, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)