PERCHED on top of a pile of coal with his face frozen in “absolute terror”, the death of Zigmund Adamski left police baffled.
The 56-year-old miner – known as “Ziggy” to his pals – had popped out to buy groceries never to be seen alive again.
His body was found five days later on top of a 10ft high coal pile in Todmorden – 30 miles from his home in Tingley, West Yorkshire.
The circumstances behind the tragic discovery in June 1980 were strange enough but chilling details soon emerged that left the nation gripped.
Zigmund was wearing a suit that was “improperly” fastened but his shirt was missing along with his watch and wallet.
His hair had been chopped in a “roughly cut” way and he only had one day of beard growth despite being missing for five days.
Even more peculiar, he was covered in burns that appeared to have been treated with a strange ointment that scientists could not identify.
Police launched a probe into in the horror and found the miner had not been treated in hospital before the discovery.
James Turnbull, the coroner who dealt with Zigmund’s death, said it was the biggest mystery of his career.
Due to the bizarre way in which he was found, conspiracy theorists offered their own explanations – ranging from a secret KGB hit to an alien abduction.
Some even believed Zigmund may have been struck by “ball lightning” – a rare and unexplained phenomenon.
Todmorden became a supposed UFO hotspot after cop Alan Godfrey claimed he had an encounter of the third kind less than a mile from the coal yard where the body was found.
The respected officer was coming to the end of a night shift around five months after Zigmund was discovered when he received a call about a herd of cows that had escaped from a field.
As he made his way to the scene, he saw what he at first believed was a bus blocking his way.
When PC Godfrey got closer, he realised the “bus” was actually a “diamond-shaped object, about 20ft wide and 14ft high, literally hanging in the air about 5ft off the road”.
He previously said: “It was spinning slowly, and the leaves on the road underneath were spinning in the opposite direction.
“It looked very real; real enough that if I’d got out of my car and thrown a brick at it, it would have made a clang.”
The quick-thinking cop drew a sketch of the floating object but was suddenly blinded by a “brilliant white flash” that left him driving back in the opposite direction.
PC Godfrey, who had investigated Zigmund’s death, later told how he lost 30 minutes that he could not account for.
Under hypnosis, he told an astonishing tale of being carried inside the object where he met a strange “Biblical” man.
He added: “With him was a group of child-sized, large-headed ‘creatures’ working alongside the bearded ‘human’.”
The officer later poured doubt on his own revelations made while he was under but remained convinced by what he saw that night – despite being ridiculed.
He also believed Zigmund could have been taken by aliens, saying: “I am open minded. I can’t rule it out.”
The officer added: “Those eyes were staring up at me. I was looking down on him from a foot away. Those eyes sent a shudder down my spine. They were wide open. He had a look of someone who had seen something or someone that had scared him to death.
“Something or someone put him on top of that pile of coal. And something scared him to death.”
But for others, the reason behind the miner’s death was much more clear-cut.
His wife Lottie feared Zigmund had been kidnapped, which tied into some police officers believing he was murdered.
There were also rumours he had been feuding with a family member who had moved in with him and his wife before the horror.
The coroner said: “The question of where he was before he died and what led to his death just could not be answered.”
He recorded an open verdict, ruling that Zigmund had died of a heart attack.
This however did not explain the strange substance found on his body that was never identified.
It also didn’t help shed any light on where Zigmund had been before he died and what led to his sudden death.
Whether it was a contract killing, a fatal medical episode or aliens, it is unlikely the mystery will ever be sold.
