Brian Dahl attended Oxford University School when he was 11 years old.
Teacher Martha Burnett gave the students the task of writing notes and throwing them into “The Big Muddy,” which floated in bottles with corks and wax seals.
Brian’s message was discovered over 33 years later, 295 miles away from where it was dropped!
The story of his message in a bottle and what it meant to his family all those years is inspiring in itself.
The thrill of finding the bottle prompted Billy and Brad to search for the author of the letter on social media.
Eric often didn’t pay attention to a ringing phone. But he decided to answer the call as he was expected to be on call that evening.
He called it “divine intervention.”
For Eric, Melanie, and Chris, the discovery was more than just a fascinating story of a message in a bottle.
Eric and Melanie’s son and Chris’s brother, Brian Dahl, wrote the faded, jagged note in the bottle.
In 2007, an accident at Brian’s house led to his death at the age of 29. Brian, an avid horse rider, had already beaten cancer at that time.
Undoubtedly, Billy and Brad had no idea how much their detective work would mean to the Dahl family.
Billy said, “He’s still among them. I think this will let his parents know that he’s been watching them too.”
