File:Carl Tanzler (1877-1952) in the Springfield News-Sun on 15 August 1952 by the Associated Press.jpg

Man's Love For Beautiful Girl Discovered After Death. Zephyrhills, Florida; August 15, 1952 (AP) A romantic old man who believed his love for a young woman was stronger than death itself lay in a simple grave today near a life-size replica of the girt. Even at 83 Karl Tanzler, who liked to be called Dr. Karl Tanzler von Cosel, did everything he could to keep alive his love for the beautiful Elena Mesa. Officers searching the cluttered little house where the old German X-ray technician was found dead Wednesday, discovered a wax replica of Elena's body and a wax image of her head. Both were skillfully made and the features were faithful reproductions of pictures of the girl found in albums bearing such titles as "The Secret of the Tomb" and "Elena in the Battle of Life". Not far from the house a handful of neighbors watched yesterday while Tanzler was buried beside his daughter Crystal who died in her teens. Tanzler's wife Doris, a nurse in Huntington Woods, Michigan was unable to attend. The bearded white-haired old man took with him to the grave the secret of what really did happen to Elena’s body. Tanzler fell in love with the girl while working in a hospital at Key West. When she died of tuberculosis at 19 he obtained permission from her family to build a vault for her in the city cemetery. Eight years later in 1940 the body was found in Tanzler's shack dressed in a negligee adorned with jewels resting in a canopied bed. There were fresh flowers in her hair Tanzler told deputies he serenaded her nightly with a pipe organ he constructed and planned to fly away with her in an airplane he was building when she returned to life. The romantic technician was tried for disturbing a grave, acquitted and left town. As he drove away from Key West an explosion destroyed the vault in which Elena had first been interred. No one knew where Elena was finally buried. Her family, now dead, kept it secret and Tanzler never told anyone.

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