This Day in History: On this day in 1966, a young boy was flying a kite on Vintém Hill in Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, when he came upon the bodies of two deceased Brazilian electronic technicians, Manoel Pereira da Cruz and Miguel José Viana. When a small team of police and firefighters arrived, they encountered an odd scene: the bodies rested next to each other, partly covered by grass. Each body wore a formal suit, a lead eye mask, and a waterproof coat. There were no signs of major trauma or any evidence of a struggle. Next to the corpses, police found an empty water bottle and a packet containing two wet towels. A small notebook was also identified, on which were written the cryptic instructions, "16:30 estar no local determinado. 18:30 ingerir cápsulas, após efeito proteger metais aguardar sinal mascara" ('16:30 be at the specified location. 18:30 ingest capsules, after the effect protect metals await signal mask').
No obvious injuries were discovered at the scene, nor later at the autopsy. A search for toxic substances did not occur. The coroner's office was very busy at the time and, when the autopsy was finally conducted, the internal organs of the two victims were too badly decomposed for reliable testing.
There are multiple theories that have been proposed to explain this case, ranging from foul play to UFOs. One theory revolves around the testimony of a friend of the two men, who claimed that they were members of a group of "scientific spiritualists". The men were apparently attempting to contact extraterrestrials or spirits using psychedelic drugs. Believing that such an encounter would be accompanied by blinding light, the men cut metal masks to shield their eyes and may have died of drug overdoses. This account is corroborated by the esoteric diary entry found at the scene and by mask-making materials and literature concerning spirits found at the men's homes.
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