Death of Max Spiers
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 9
| Person | Maxwell "Max" Bates-Spiers (1976–2016), of Canterbury, Kent |
|---|---|
| Died | 16 July 2016, Warsaw, Poland, aged 39 |
| Place | Home of Monika Duval, whom he met at the Earth Project conference |
| Polish finding | Natural causes; "participation of further persons" excluded |
| British inquest | Sandwich, Kent, January 2019: "pneumonia and intoxication by drugs" |
| Drugs found | Oxycodone at potentially fatal levels; a Turkish equivalent of Xanax at twice the therapeutic dose |
| Coroner | Christopher Sutton-Mattocks, who called the first Polish inquiry "wholly incompetent" |
| Date | 16 July 2016 |
| People | Max Spiers |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 185 |
| Year | 2016 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 2016 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 7 |
Max Spiers (1976–2016), also known as Maxwell Bates-Spiers, was a British UFO and conspiracy researcher who claimed he had been altered as a child to become a "super soldier".[1][4] He died on 16 July 2016 in Warsaw, Poland, and his death became the subject of intense speculation.[1][2] A British inquest in January 2019 found that he died from "pneumonia and intoxication by drugs". The coroner sharply criticized the original Polish police investigation.[3][6][7]
Background
Spiers, from Canterbury, had been interested in conspiracy theories from a young age. He spoke at conferences about UFOs, secret programs and alleged government cover-ups.[1][2] He recalled out-of-body experiences. He said he had been given supernatural abilities at birth and had been part of a secret military program as a child, altered to become a "super soldier".[1] His credibility was doubted even among conspiracy researchers. Adam Borowski of Radio Paranormalium, a Polish independent journalist who knew him, said Spiers "seemed to collect the research of other people and present it as his own". Borowski also said he had never proven his claimed abilities.[1] Polish prosecutors later described him as a journalist "dealing with the topics of conspiracy theories and paranormal phenomena".[7]
Spiers suffered from severe anxiety, which sometimes left him completely debilitated. After cracking his pelvis in the United States, he was prescribed strong opioids and developed an addiction. When he could no longer get prescription opioids, he turned to heroin.[1] His GP told the inquest he had been addicted to "a variety of medications". In July 2015 he told a drug and alcohol service that he injected "two bags each of heroin and crack cocaine daily".[7]
In Poland
Spiers travelled to Poland in April 2016 to speak at the Earth Project conference in Warsaw. One BBC report instead placed the conference in July 2016.[2][3][7] Events from there, as described at the inquest:[2][3][7]
- He met the writer Monika Duval at the conference. She agreed to let him stay at her home instead of using his return ticket, and the inquest heard they had an "informal relationship".
- Duval took him to a doctor and bought him medication worth more than 1,500 złoty.
- He often felt ill while staying with her. "Sometimes he felt weak and sometimes he had problems with focus and attention", her statement said.
- He complained that "satanic groups" were after him.
- From 27 June to 11 July 2016 the two holidayed in Cyprus, where he bought "eight to 10" boxes of a Turkish equivalent of the anti-anxiety drug Xanax, available there without prescription.
Days before he died, he messaged his mother: "If anything happens to me, look into it, investigate." She told the inquest that "he even said, 'I think I might be murdered'".[6] His girlfriend, Sarah Adams, said in 2016 that he had rung her secretly, "terrified" and wanting to leave.[3]
His death
On 16 July 2016, according to Polish prosecutors, Spiers "probably took 10 tablets of Turkish Xanax". He told Duval this was an adequate dose because the Turkish version had a different dosage.[7] He fell asleep on her sofa. Several hours later she noticed he had stopped breathing. When she tried to resuscitate him, she said, "gastric fluids" poured out, "brown liquid, like somewhat tea coloured". Press reports described it as a dark fluid.[2][3][7] He was declared dead at the scene.[3][7]
His mother, Vanessa Bates, said she had been worried about his mental health and that he had got involved with "the wrong crowd". She said a final video of him showed signs of intoxication like those she had seen when he used heroin.[1] His body was returned to Britain six days after his death, and the family was advised not to view it because of its condition.[1]
Investigations
The investigations, in order:[1][2][3][6][7]
- The first police response. After a doctor said the death was from natural causes, the prosecutor's office ruled out "participation of further persons". One of the two officers called said: "After the doctor said the death was due to natural causes, we somehow didn't delve into it."
- 30 August 2016. Polish prosecutors opened an investigation that included possible involuntary manslaughter.
- December 2016. A British inquest was opened. It was adjourned while the coroner waited for a Polish report, at first until February 2017.
- 7 January 2019. The three-day inquest began in Sandwich, Kent.
The pathologist and assistant coroner Christopher Sutton-Mattocks gave the cause of death as complications from "pneumonia and intoxication by drugs", which had "caused aspiration of gastric contents".[3][6][7] The findings:[2][7]
- "A rather widespread pneumonia".
- Oxycodone at "potentially fatal" levels, which the British toxicologist David Rose said could be fatal in an inexperienced user.
- Xanax-type drug at twice the therapeutic dose.
Sutton-Mattocks criticized the Polish police: "Max was a conspiracy theorist, and a well-known one at that. If there was anything that was bound to excite the interest of other conspiracy theorists, it was the wholly incompetent initial investigation into his death."[6]
Speculation
His death attracted intense speculation in conspiracy circles, some of whom claimed he had been silenced. The BBC made a multi-part short documentary series about it.[1][5] His mother told The Daily Telegraph in October 2016: "I think Max had been digging in some dark places and I fear that somebody wanted him dead."[2][3] She raised several concerns:[2][3]
- His laptop had been wiped and his phone's SIM card was missing when his belongings came back.
- He may have been researching an organization he believed ran a paedophile ring.
- She suspected occult involvement, citing a book Duval had sent her and what she described as "ritualistic stuff" in the background of a phone call after his death.
Another conspiracy theorist close to Spiers suggested his drug use was controlled by extraterrestrials.[1] His mother also said Polish authorities would not release the paperwork on his death without her written consent.[1] There is no evidence his death was connected to his claims. The inquest attributed it to drugs and pneumonia.[1][6][7]
People and topics
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- Max Spiers — British conspiracy researcher who died in Poland in 2016.
On the Timeline
- Christopher Mellon goes public (2016) (9 May 2016) — Former Pentagon intelligence official Christopher Mellon speaks publicly about UAP for the first time.
- DeLonge's research groups (2016) (31 August 2016) — Tom DeLonge says he became involved with groups studying crashed craft and biology.
See every 2016 event on the UAP Timeline →
Further reading
- Andrew Basiago — RationalWiki · rationalwiki.org · archived copy
References
- Death of Max Spiers — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- "What happened to conspiracy theorist Max Spiers?", The Week · theweek.com · archived copy
- "Inquest finds conspiracy theorist Max Spiers died due to overdose", Singular Fortean (Jan 2019) · singularfortean.com · archived copy
- en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- bitchute.com · bitchute.com · archived copy
- "Maxwell Bates-Spiers inquest: Polish police probe criticised", BBC News (9 Jan 2019) · bbc.com
- "Conspiracy theorist Max Spiers 'died after taking anxiety drug'", The Guardian (7 Jan 2019) · theguardian.com
Facts in this article are drawn in part from the Wikipedia articles “Death of Max Spiers”, “en.wikipedia.org”, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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