This story centers around a woman named Lynn Amos. Lynn Amos worked as a financial consultant when she was 38 years old. She worked for a management firm in Washington DC. This required her to move to the area in August of 1995. As a part of her job, Lynn was required to go to Mexico frequently. While she was there, her job expected her to look into the lending practices of the Mexican banks. For a while, Lynn was able to perform her job without any issues.
Then, things took a deadly turn.
On December 11, 1995, firefighters were called to Lynn’s townhouse in Georgetown. The house contained a fire. When the firefighters made their way inside, they found Lynn in her bed unconscious. Curiously, her bed was the only thing that was on fire. The firefighters were able to put out the blaze and get Lynn to the hospital. She arrived with third-degree burns over more than 75% of her body. Sadly, Lynn Amos died from her injuries just 10 days later. Before she passed, a nurse at the hospital asked Lynn if she knew what happened to her.
Lynn Amos shook her head no.
The police immediately began their investigation into Lynn’s death. They were of the initial belief that her death was the result of a horrible accident. The reason for this was what they found in the area of the fire. A cigarette butt was found near her bed. The police also learned from the autopsy that Lynn’s blood alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit in Washington, DC. From that, they drew the conclusion that Lynn accidentally set herself on fire while having a drink and a smoke in bed.
Her family and friends disagree.
Their disagreement would soon be supported. Just a few days after the fire took place, insurance investigators looked into the circumstances on their own. They were shocked to discover the presence of an accelerant on the mattress, floor, and pillow of Lynn’s townhouse. The accelerants were a mixture of kerosene, gasoline, and turpentine. This was enough to convince all the parties involved that Lynn’s death was no accident. The fire was set on purpose. Her cause of death would be changed from “accidental” to “homicide” just one month later.
The investigators initially had a very difficult time finding a motive for Lynn’s murder. Then, they began to find a connection to her job — more specifically, the banks she was tasked with looking into.
The police learned that, one month before the fire occurred, Lynn had lunch with a friend named Emily Smith. Emily recalled that Lynn was investigating what she referred to as the “Mexican equivalent of the Federal Reserve”. While looking into crediting issues going on with the bank, Lynn found that there were very shady lending practices being implemented. According to her friends, she even said that she had found some “dangerous” things while conducting her investigation in Mexico. She was in the midst of writing up a report that was going to be significantly damaging to the banks she was looking into.
The night of the fire, Lynn called the office of the consulting firm where she worked. She was calling them to let her bosses know that she would be coming in late to work the next day. That was the last time that she was ever heard from again. Her reports on the Mexican banks’ lending practices were never finished. To this day, her murder remains unsolved.
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