Casefile Extra: Elena Milagro Hoyos

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It was around 2am on a dreary night in 1899 when 22-year-old Carl Tanzler was awoken by the feeling that he was being watched. A budding young scientist, Carl lived in his family's estate, the Villa Kosel, just outside Dresden, Germany. According to his mother, the estate had previously belonged to their ancestor, Countess Sanna Constantia von Kosel, a German noblewoman and mistress of Augustus the Strong, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. Although the Countess died in 1765, several members of the Tanzler family had reported seeing her ghost roaming the halls at night, her long hair glowing white in the darkness. Carl didn't believe in the supernatural, choosing instead to focus on the scientific. He often stayed up until all hours tinkering in his laboratory. But over the past few nights, he'd observed several strange phenomena. The first happened while he was working at his desk. Just outside of his field of vision, he saw a pencil levitating. When he turned to look at it, the pencil dropped suddenly to the ground. This was soon followed by furniture that slid across the room as if pushed by invisible hands and glass plates that shattered without so much as a touch. Carl was intrigued but not frightened, believing it was some kind of prank or that there was a thief or prowler in the house. But all that changed when he opened his eyes that night to find the figures of two women standing at the foot of his bed, their skin translucent like water. He immediately recognized one of them as his ancestor, the Countess Anna Constantia von Kosel. Beside her stood a younger woman, her face hidden behind what appeared to be a bridal veil. Carl sat motionless as the Countess grabbed the younger woman by the hand and presented her to him. I've been trying to get your attention for some time, the Countess said. Look here, Carl, I have brought you the bride whom someday you will meet. Carl opened his mouth to reply, but no words came out. For a fleeting second the young dark-haired beauty smiled at him. Then, just as quickly as she and her ghostly companion had appeared, they vanished, leaving him alone in his bed.

Carl was mystified, but not disturbed by the encounter. On the contrary, he found it to be wonderful. He noted the time and then fell back into a sound sleep.

Although Carl Tanzler got on with his life, he never forgot this otherworldly encounter. He eventually got married, had two daughters, and took on the surname Von Kozell before immigrating to the United States in 1926 Carl and his family moved in with his sister in the Florida city of Zephyrhills, where he struggled to find work in the dwindling job market. Practically destitute, Carl moved 445 miles south, seeking employment at the Marine Hospital in Key West. The three-story facility featured specialized wards for infectious diseases and was the only hospital for several miles. For that reason, it was open to the general public, not just military personnel.

As a young man growing up in Germany, Carl had been fascinated by the various sciences and claimed to have nine degrees from the University of Leipzig, one of the country's oldest and most respected medical institutions. These apparently included a Master of Arts in Medicine, as well as additional degrees in philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, physics, engineering and chemistry. Carl accepted a job as an attendant, which involved cleaning up after surgeries. But it didn't take long for him to distinguish himself, and eventually he was allowed to operate medical machinery and deal with patients. By 1930, 53-year-old Carl was working as a radiology technician. Every month, he sent a small stipend back to his wife and daughters in Zephyrhills.

The morning of Tuesday, April 22, 1930 started out like any other for Carl. He was informed by the head office that there was a young woman waiting to have some blood samples and x-rays taken. The patient was Elena Milagro Hoyos, a 20-year-old who had recently been diagnosed with tuberculosis. The deadliest disease in human history, tuberculosis, also known as consumption or the white plague, is a bacterial infection that attacks the lungs, causing chest pain, persistent cough, fever, weight loss and fatigue. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, it was the leading cause of death among young people in the United States, accounting for roughly 11% of all fatalities. The year Elena Milagro Hoyos was diagnosed, nearly 85,000 Americans died of the disease. Today, tuberculosis is largely curable, but in the 1920s and 30s it ravaged Florida's immigrant communities. Elena's parents had immigrated to the United States from Cuba decades earlier, hoping to build a better life for themselves and their three daughters. Her father worked in a cigar factory where the dense, crowded conditions, coupled with the close-knit nature of immigrant housing, facilitated the rapid spread of the disease. When Elena first started showing symptoms of tuberculosis, her family didn't realise the signs. Elena was one of three sisters in a boisterous Cuban-American household and she'd grown up surrounded by good food and lively conversation. With raven-black hair and deep brown eyes, many thought she looked like a movie star. Throughout her teenage years, Elena was inundated with soozers, yet she only had eyes for one man– Luis Massa.