In July 1977, a hiker was found dead in the woods adjacent to the priory. Fendelman asked Stael to "get on to London" and tell Hartman that he wanted a security team present within two hours. He also asked Stael to perform a post-mortem on the hiker's body. Stael discovered that the body was rapidly decomposing, as if the energy had been removed. He told Fendelman "all the binding force has gone and all that remains is a husk".