The Loch Ness Monster allegedly died in 1942 and the body buried in a schoolyard. Pic credit: Pixabay
A Scottish official reportedly made the stunning claim that a man found the carcass of the Loch Ness Monster in 1942. He incinerated the rotten carcass and buried it at a spot now the site of a Scottish elementary school.
The story led some to suggest that decades of fruitless search for the fabled lake monster could be because it died 81 years ago.
The latest sensational claims come after Paranormal Papers reported that a Texas woman found fossil remains of a Nessie-like creature on her property in Lamar County.
FOIA uncovered documents suggesting Nessie died in 1942
According to the Daily Star, Alba Party official Christopher McEleny claimed that documents he obtained after filing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the Inverclyde Council (a Scottish local government authority) suggested Nessie is dead.
[Note: The Alba Party, founded in 2021, is a nationalist organization advocating for the independence of Scotland.]
A gentleman called Charles Rankin was the Burgh Surveyor of Gourock in the 1940s. Rankin claimed that he and a companion found the rotten carcass of a sea monster on the shore of Gourock.
[Note: Gourock is a town on the eastern shore of the upper Firth of Clyde in Scotland.]
The carcass was rotten and smelly. So they cut it into small pieces, incinerated and buried it at a spot now the site of St Ninian’s school, a Catholic elementary school in Gourock.
According to the story, the Ministry of Defense (MoD) and the Royal Navy tried to cover up the incident. They prevented people from taking photographs of the carcass.
Rankin’s description of the creature was strikingly similar to popular depictions of Nessie as a sea monster resembling ancient plesiosaurs.
Nessie’s alleged death went unreported for decades
The bizarre story went unnoticed. Media outlets did not report on it until 1980 when a local newspaper, the Strathearn Herald, published a story about it.
The report claimed that Rankin and an unnamed person claimed they found the carcass of a strange sea monster and decided to burn and bury it because it was rotten and smelly. They burned it in a public incinerator and buried it nearby.
Rankin said he had planned to dig up the carcass and preserve the skeleton after the flesh had decomposed. However, he relocated from Gourock in 1946 and never had the opportunity to return to the burial site.
Nessie’s burial spot is now the site of St Ninian’s school
The site of the old town incinerator is now part of St Ninian’s elementary school. The creature’s description was similar to past and present eyewitness descriptions of Loch Ness.
It led to speculation that more than one monster lives in Loch Ness. One might have died in 1942, while others survived until today. A Loch Ness Monster hunter recently claimed to have spotted a baby Nessie in the famous lake.
Enthusiasts proposed locating the burial spot and exhuming the remains. However, officials argued there was no point digging up the incinerated carcass because not much would be left of it after more than 80 years.