The Cold Room: Did SIN Soda Freeze Its Founder?

Two-page historical magazine editorial titled “The Research That Started It All,” exploring the origins of SIN Soda’s experimental refrigeration program. Circa 1980, founder Joseph Shue stands with three SIN Soda scientists and engineers inside the company’s industrial research laboratory in Riverside, Ohio. Shue, dressed in a gray business suit and tie, watches attentively as researchers in white lab coats examine stainless-steel refrigeration equipment surrounded by insulated pipes, pressure gauges, valves, and analog control panels. The accompanying text explains that SIN Soda invested heavily in technology designed to keep its beverages colder for longer without sacrificing carbonation or flavor, noting that these seemingly ordinary experiments would later become the foundation of one of the strangest stories in company history. The archival corporate photography, muted period colors, subtle film texture, vintage typography, and “SIN Soda: A Legacy of Innovation” branding create the appearance of an authentic retrospective feature about the beverage company.
Two-page historical magazine editorial titled “The Death of Joseph Shue,” documenting the 1981 death of SIN Soda founder Joseph Shue. The centerpiece is an aged issue of the Riverside Daily Chronicle with the headline “SIN Soda Founder Joseph Shue Dies” and subheadline “Riverside businessman founded beverage company in 1956,” accompanied by a black-and-white portrait of Shue and an article describing his rise from small-town cobbler to founder of the Riverside, Ohio beverage company. The spread also features a SIN Soda internal memorandum announcing Shue’s death to employees and a memorial program. Editorial text describes the extraordinary grief among employees and notes Shue’s continued involvement with SIN Soda’s experimental refrigeration research during his final years. A final ominous caption states that what happened inside the Riverside research division immediately following Shue’s death would become considerably harder to document. Aged paper, archival typography, muted colors, and period corporate materials give the SIN Soda history the appearance of an authentic historical investigation.
Two-page investigative magazine editorial titled “The Experiment,” revealing a supposed confidential chapter in the history of SIN Soda. The spread centers on an aged SIN Soda Research Division document dated May 19, 1981, only weeks after founder Joseph Shue’s death. Marked “Confidential” and “Eyes Only,” the Cold Stability Program Phase II report describes adapting the company’s advanced beverage refrigeration technology for the controlled preservation of biological material and cellular tissue at sub-zero temperatures. Several lines of preliminary results are heavily blacked out, while handwritten notes include the mysterious question “J.S. protocol?” and a warning that the next phase will require extended hold testing. A yellow note states “Page 3 is missing.” Surrounding evidence includes a confidential R&D folder, an archival photograph of industrial refrigeration equipment, and period technical diagrams. Editorial text notes that SIN Soda has never acknowledged conducting biological preservation research and that the authenticity of the alleged internal document has never been confirmed, adding mystery to the corporate legend surrounding Joseph Shue and SIN Soda’s Riverside, Ohio research facility.
Dark two-page investigative magazine editorial titled “The Cold Room,” exploring the mystery surrounding SIN Soda’s original Riverside, Ohio facility. A contemporary photograph shows a worn industrial basement corridor filled with aging pipes, insulated refrigeration lines, electrical controls, and a heavy steel door labeled “Cold Room — Authorized Personnel Only — R-17.” A nearby warning sign states that the area requires 24-hour refrigeration system operation. Below the photograph, a circa-1981 facility floor plan places the restricted R-17 Cold Room beside SIN Soda’s former Research Division, while an official company statement claims the room contains only legacy equipment and temperature-sensitive archival materials. An archival exterior photograph shows the old SIN Soda Bottling Company building and water tower. Editorial text explains that former employees claim the refrigerated area has never been taken out of service and was once used for something more unusual, while SIN Soda continues to prohibit access. The realistic industrial photography, aged documents, corporate records, and restrained magazine design create an ominous but believable piece of evidence in the Joseph Shue and SIN Soda Cold Room mystery.
Two-page investigative magazine editorial titled “The Evidence,” presenting the most provocative alleged evidence in the SIN Soda Cold Room mystery. A grainy black-and-white photograph dated February 17, 1983, supposedly taken inside restricted Room R-17 at SIN Soda’s Riverside, Ohio facility, shows a heavily frost-covered industrial refrigeration chamber surrounded by frozen pipes, valves, gauges, and icicles. Behind the chamber’s small fogged and ice-covered window is the dark, obscured silhouette of what appears to be a human head. A confidential sworn statement attributed to former maintenance technician Thomas J. Merrick claims he entered the Cold Room without authorization and was later told that the chamber contained the preserved remains of SIN Soda founder Joseph Shue. Handwritten notes record an estimated chamber temperature of -10°F, continuous power, and the absence of maintenance logs, while a clipping from the Riverside Daily Chronicle reports a former employee’s allegations about the facility. SIN Soda calls the claims baseless and disputes the photograph’s authenticity. The aged documents, mysterious photograph, frost-covered machinery, and unresolved testimony create an ominous piece of supposed evidence without definitively confirming the legend that Joseph Shue was cryogenically preserved.
Two-page investigative magazine editorial titled “SIN Soda Responds,” concluding the mystery surrounding founder Joseph Shue and the restricted Cold Room at SIN Soda’s Riverside, Ohio facility. The centerpiece is an official May 24, 2024 statement from the SIN Soda Bottling Company’s Office of Corporate Communications addressing renewed speculation about Room R-17. The company rejects allegations of concealed illegal research and says the continuously refrigerated room contains only legacy equipment and temperature-sensitive archival materials, but notably states that SIN Soda “does not comment on questions concerning the disposition, preservation, or location of the remains of deceased current or former employees.” A follow-up letter directly asks whether any portion of Joseph Shue’s remains is preserved inside Room R-17 or elsewhere at the Riverside facility and is prominently stamped “No Response Received.” A dark contemporary photograph shows the historic SIN Soda Bottling Company building and water tower at night. Editorial text notes that R-17 remains off-limits and refrigerated 24 hours a day, ending the unresolved corporate legend with the lines, “Some legends never die. Some never thaw,” and “For more than forty years, Room R-17 has remained cold. What it preserves depends entirely on whom you believe.”

For more than four decades, a refrigeration system has reportedly operated around the clock inside a restricted section of SIN Soda’s original facility in Riverside, Ohio.

The company has an explanation. Room R-17, it says, contains legacy equipment and temperature-sensitive archival materials. There is nothing unusual about the continuous refrigeration, and access is restricted for ordinary operational and safety reasons.

Former employees have another name for R-17.

The Cold Room.

And according to one of the strangest legends in SIN Soda history, what the company has been keeping cold all these years isn’t equipment or paperwork.

It’s Joseph Shue.

Or, more specifically, his head.

Before There Was a Cold Room

The story begins innocently enough.

By the late 1970s, SIN Soda was investing heavily in experimental commercial refrigeration. The goal was straightforward: develop better ways to rapidly chill, store and transport SIN Soda while preserving carbonation and flavor.

Company founder Joseph Shue took a personal interest in the program. Although decades had passed since the former small-town cobbler founded SIN Soda in Riverside in 1956, Shue remained closely involved with the company and regularly visited its research facilities.

Archival photographs from around 1980 show Shue alongside company scientists and refrigeration engineers examining experimental cooling equipment.

At the time, there was nothing particularly mysterious about any of it.

That changed in 1981.

The Death of Joseph Shue

Joseph Shue died in the spring of 1981 at the age of 69.

Contemporary accounts describe an extraordinary reaction among SIN Soda employees. To many of the people who had spent years working beside him, Shue wasn’t simply the founder whose name appeared in company histories. He was a mentor, colleague and friend.

That included employees within the Riverside research division.

Shue’s death came while the experimental refrigeration program was still active. In the weeks that followed, records concerning the research division become considerably more difficult to follow.

And then there is the document.

An Experiment That Had Nothing to Do With Soda

Dated May 19, 1981, an alleged confidential SIN Soda Research Division report describes Phase II of the Cold Stability Program.

Its subject is startling:

“Application of Low-Temperature Systems to Biological Tissue Preservation.”

According to the document, refrigeration systems originally developed for beverage applications were being evaluated for the controlled preservation of biological material. The report discusses maintaining cellular tissue samples at sub-zero temperatures, long-term stability and the effects of rapid temperature transitions on tissue integrity.

Parts of the surviving document are obscured. One page is apparently missing.

Written in the margin beside the technical material are three characters:

“J.S. protocol?”

The authenticity of the document has never been independently established, and SIN Soda has never acknowledged conducting biological-preservation research.

But if the document is genuine, the timing is difficult to ignore.

It was dated just weeks after Joseph Shue died.

Room R-17

Deep within the original Riverside facility is a restricted refrigerated area designated Room R-17.

Former employees call it the Cold Room.

Facility records from the early 1980s place R-17 adjacent to the research division involved in SIN Soda’s experimental refrigeration work. More remarkably, former employees claim that the room has remained continuously refrigerated even as the surrounding portions of the facility have aged or fallen out of regular use.

The refrigeration system reportedly operates 24 hours a day.

SIN Soda doesn’t dispute that.

The company’s explanation is considerably less dramatic: R-17 houses legacy equipment and temperature-sensitive archival materials.

That could be the entire story.

Except for a photograph allegedly taken inside the room.

The Photograph

The grainy black-and-white image is believed to date from February 17, 1983.

According to the story surrounding it, a maintenance technician entered R-17 without authorization while servicing equipment and photographed a large refrigeration chamber hidden inside.

The photograph shows an industrial chamber covered in heavy frost. Frozen pipes and valves surround it. Through a small ice-covered window, something is visible.

It resembles the silhouette of a human head.

A sworn statement attributed to former maintenance technician Thomas J. Merrick goes considerably further. Merrick claimed that after entering the Cold Room, a supervisor told him the chamber contained the preserved remains of SIN Soda’s founder, Joseph Shue.

The photograph proves very little on its own. Its origins cannot be independently verified. The object behind the frozen glass is too obscured to identify, and the authenticity of Merrick’s alleged statement remains disputed.

SIN Soda has called allegations concerning the Riverside facility baseless.

But that still leaves one remarkably simple question.

Is Joseph Shue inside Room R-17?

SIN Soda Responds

In May 2024, as questions surrounding the Cold Room intensified, SIN Soda issued an official statement.

The company rejected allegations that it had concealed illegal research, misled authorities or endangered employees or the public. It reiterated that R-17 contains legacy equipment and temperature-sensitive archival materials and explained that access remains restricted for operational, safety and preservation reasons.

Then came one particularly interesting sentence:

“SIN Soda does not comment on questions concerning the disposition, preservation, or location of the remains of deceased current or former employees.”

The company considered the matter closed.

A subsequent request asked SIN Soda a much more direct question:

Does SIN Soda deny that any portion of Joseph Shue’s remains is currently preserved within Room R-17 or elsewhere at the Riverside facility?

No response was received.

And that is where the story remains today.

There is no verified evidence proving that SIN Soda preserved Joseph Shue after his death. The confidential research document may not be authentic. The photograph may show something entirely different. The testimony attributed to a former employee may be unreliable. And a continuously refrigerated room inside the historic home of a beverage company certainly isn’t remarkable by itself.

Every piece of the story has another possible explanation.

Yet more than forty years after Joseph Shue’s death, Room R-17 reportedly remains cold.

The refrigeration system continues to run. The door remains closed. And SIN Soda still hasn’t answered the simplest question of all.

Does that room contain Joseph Shue?

Learn More About the History of SIN Soda and Joseph Shue.

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