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Woman in the Mist - Dian Fossey
Interactive Storytelling
December, 2022
Imagine a group of people who come together every week to discuss murders. They are a group with an intense interest in murder mysteries, and they fulfil their life with the missing thrill through talking about all these solved and unsolved murders. It was another week of their meeting when they decided to talk about Dian Fossey, a scientist who was found brutally murdered in her cabin at the Karisoke Research Centre just before she turned 54.
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It was just another day in Harper’s Hill Town. The morning wind blew lightly across the small houses on the east side of the church. Only a few souls brave the weather and put on their track shoes for an early jog. A small black cat lazed around the neighbourhood absorbing the warm Autumn sun. The soothing rays of the sun beautify the green leaves of trees. Birds chirp from tree to tree, trucks idle, and newspapers land with a thud from house to house. The light traffic is slowly rising with the sun.
Some wake to face the day rested and full of energy, while others dread it. The quiet gets consumed by activity as the morning rush is on. Sally, owner of ‘Sally’s’ walks out of the café with enthusiasm for a new fresh day. She places her blackboard to the left of the entrance and carefully writes down the special menu. She anticipated the customers for the day, just like she does every week.
Otto Hans is a man in his forties with as many sons as daughters. He is a short, kind man who loves spending time with his grandkids whenever possible. He wakes up as the sun rises and after his morning tea, he gets dressed for this week’s meet.
Agnes Jones is the town secretary. She has her desk full on the weekdays, but it is the weekends that she looks forward to. Just like last Saturday, the one before, and the one before that; she eagerly grabs her black diary and marches out of her house.
Rufus Brown is a man who is well-known in Harper’s Hill. He has been the mayor three times and has had the opportunity to experience those good but hectic days. Now he is retired and lives with his dog in the western part of the town. His days are very relaxing; thus, the thrill of the weekends excites him more than anything.
Gustave Adler, commonly known as Gus around town is another person who comes to be loved by everyone. He lives with his wife and daughter on the street right opposite the church. All the love he receives originates due to his kind behaviour and active involvement in the community. There isn’t a single person in the town who hasn’t asked Gus for repairing or repainting help. Though he is a still in his thirties and quite young compared to the others, the weekly meets are something he looks forward to just as much.
Debra Miller lives in a house right opposite Mr. Hans. She is just as sweet on the inside as she’s scary on the outside. Since she lives alone and has a pretty peculiar personality, the children around town seem to avoid her out of fear. To them, she seems like a scary old woman living in a big, dark house. If it wasn’t for her amazing piano skills, she wouldn’t have even a little bit of the social life she has now. She grabs her usual maroon scarf and wraps it around her neck as she locks the door behind her.
…
As the sun reached above their heads, all five of them walked into the café one by one. The whole town knows that ‘Sally’s’ is closed every Saturday for two hours in the afternoon. Sally comes to the entrance and peeps out the glass door. Not seeing signs of anyone, she turns the welcome board around as it reads out, ‘Closed’.
Agnes: “Get off my mountain!”
Debra: “They want a witch; I’ll give them a witch.”
Rufus: So, Dian Fossey. We will discuss this courageous lady’s brutal murder today.
Gus: Are you all ready for this mystery to unfold? Shall we proceed with our findings? Let’s start with who exactly she was. Otto, do you mind?
Otto: Sure. Our today’s subject was an exemplary scientist. Many don’t know her contributions and sacrifices for the mountain Gorillas because of her brutal murder that took place on the evening of December 27th, 1985.
She was found in her cabin on the mountain of Karisoke Research Centre in Rwanda. Her body was discovered by her colleague, her head busted with a machete and her both hands clenching a tuft of different hair.
Her cabin was muddled, seeming like someone had conducted a thorough search. In her investigation reports, there is also mention of her firearm that was stolen from her in Africa, it is assumed to have been taken by the assailant.
Debra: What all factors do you think played a part in her murder?
Gus: In her entire life, not just her murder, she has experienced different forms of injustice. Yesterday, I saw a documentary based on her murder and all the other smaller factors and things that built up to it-
Debra: What is this documentary called?
Gus: It is named ‘Secrets in the Mist: Murder on the Mountain'. This is where you can find it.
Gus: As I was saying, Fossey faced discrimination at various points in her life. It wasn’t just because she was a female scientist, but she faced a lot of racism in terms of her skin colour as well. These various factors in her life came in the form of gender and racial discrimination, sexism, and dirty politics resulting also from a patriarchal society.
Rufus: Did she not write a book about her life, her explorations, findings, and research? I think it was called ‘Gorillas in the Mountain’ or something.
Agnes: Yes, it is named, ‘Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey’.
Debra: Agnes and I researched the same through a movie. Before her death, Fossey had given rights to convert her book into a movie. And thus, on September 23rd, 1988, this movie was released to the world.
Agnes: The movie shows a great deal about the suffering and tough decisions Fossey had to make throughout her research journey. She was a woman with a great deal of courage and determination. The day she heard about the mountain gorillas, she made it her life mission to do whatever she can for them.
In the movie upon reaching Rwanda, she had to cross the mountain to reach her final camping place and her determination led her to do it in one day, even though it takes buffalos four days to cross as well. Later during her search for gorillas, having wandered for six weeks, she still didn’t give up. Then all it took was for her to take a fall and land on gorilla poop to find her first gorilla.
Since then, her journey flourished quite a bit. She would find new ways to interact with the gorillas every day enacting them to become friends. Pretending to eat leaves, sit like them and bend her head whenever the big silver back comes close were some of the few things she did. She wanted to study them, understand them and befriend them. She kept track of every gorilla by drawing out their nose imprints, which were just as unique as human fingerprints.
Over time, she created a wholesome friendship with one of the gorillas named Digit.
She also formed an intimate relationship with the photographer from the national geographic who had come to photograph her research and findings.
Debra: Apart from these, the movie also showed the brutal parts of her life. After being stuck in a civil war in her previous research base, she was thrown out on grounds of her race.
“British people out.”
“But I’m not British.”
“We don’t want any foreign spies in our country.”
Even back in Rwanda, she dealt with major animal cruelty issues like poaching and dirty politics. She lost a lot of her gorillas to poaching, either by the tribal groups or by the government. This was one of the major things she stood up against during her research phase.
Rufus: Did she not lose Digit to one of the poachers as well?
Debra: Yes, during one of her fights against the poachers, Digit lost his life protecting his family. He succeeded in letting his family escape, but as result got caught by the poachers. It was a little later that Dian found out, but it was too late. Digit had already lost his head and his hands to those men and his body lay under a tree for Dian to see.
There was also a slight mention of Dian discovering an illegal gold smuggling ring in the mountains, but it never came to light since she lost her life before she could bring it out to the public.
Gus: This discrimination and politics did not leave her even after her death. Her murder investigation faced a lot of turmoil. Even after all the evidence was sent for testing and review, not much came out of it. Not just the fact that the results of the testing came out later than expected, but it didn’t give any significant answers to lead the direction of the investigation. It was almost as if someone did not want her murderer to be exposed. At that moment some innocent people were blamed and one of them died in confinement. Still to this date, no one knows who killed her. A few years later, when the investigation could take a new turn, a civil war took place in Rwanda. The bombs and the fire destroyed the courthouse along with all the evidence in it. Now there was no way to even restart the investigation.
Otto: So, in conclusion, her murderer was never really found out.
…
The same question ponders in all their heads as they disperse that day’s meet, ‘At the end, who killed Dian Fossey?'
Dian Fossey
Dian Fossey, also known as Nyiramachabelli — The woman who lives alone on the mountain, was an American primatologist and conservationist. She was born in San Francisco, California on January 16, 1932. She devoted and sacrificed her entire life to studying mountain gorillas. She wanted to study them, understand them and befriend them. She kept track of every gorilla by drawing out their nose imprints, which were just as unique as human fingerprints. Even with all this, her life sadly came to a brutal end on December 27th 1985. Just a few days before her 54th birthday, she was found brutally murdered in her cabin at the Karisoke Research Center.