A bad-tempered man who went to bed with a headache saying he must not be disturbed was found dead four years later. The 50-year-old’s brother and sister were too scared to knock on his bedroom door – and thought he was eating out at night. Workmen noticed the body as they measured up windows in Den Haag, Holland. D.Mirror, 26 June 2010.
Than Singh, 70, a dairy farmer in northeast India, was left aghast after receiving a bogus receipt for his own cremation service a week earlier. He complained of chest pains and was rushed to hospital, but suffered a massive heart attack and died. His body was then delivered to the same crematorium in Ghaziabad that was mentioned in the mysterious letter. In a further macabre twist, the body was issued with the same serial number – 89. Suspicious relatives called in police, who believe the death was the result of a prank rather than an administrative mistake. “The element of mischief is apparent and obvious,” said Raghubir Lal, senior superintendent of police in Ghaziabad. “What remains to be deciphered is if the person behind it wanted to shock the old man to the extent that he might collapse and if so then why, or if it was merely a prank that took a serious turn.” Newscore, via www.news.com.au, 26 June 2010.
Jenny Mitchell, a 19-year-old hairdresser, was driving to her parents’ house in Shaftsbury, Dorset, on 9 March when her Mini Cooper was engulfed in flames and she was killed. A bottle of hydrogen peroxide, used to bleach hair, had leaked in her passenger footwell. It appeared that, near Sturminster Newton, she lit a cigarette and opened the window to ventilate the car, causing a huge explosion. D.Mail, 26 Mar 2010.
Merike Engelbrecht, 25, from Tzaneen in South Africa, was kicked to death by a giraffe as she walked her dogs in a game park near Musina in the north of the country. She died instantly after one of her German shorthaired pointers startled the giraffe, which had a calf nearby. “It looks like she scooped up one of the dogs and tried to protect it,” said family friend William Smith. “That’s when the giraffe kicked her on the back of the neck.” Metro, 13 May 2010.
A computer-addicted couple from Suwon in South Korea let their three-month-old baby starve to death in September 2009 while raising a virtual daughter online. The jobless pair fed their premature baby powdered milk once a day and then spent 12 hours at an Internet café nurturing virtual girl Anima through their avatars on a Second Life-style game called Prius Online. The 45-year-old man and his wife, 25, met through a chat website. They were sentenced to two years’ jail in May. The wife’s term was suspended because she is pregnant with a second child. Guardian, 6 Mar; Irish Independent, 29 May 2010.
A couple and their granddaughter were found dead in the basement of their house in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, on 19 June. It transpired that in an effort to exterminate rats in the basement, the grandfather, 71, had attached a hosepipe to his car’s exhaust, put the other end through the basement window, and started the engine. After retiring upstairs for some time, he went to see whether any rats had died, but the concentration of carbon monoxide caused him to pass out. When he failed to return, his wife, 77, investigated and also fainted. The same later happened with their 29-year-old granddaughter. The three bodies were found when a second granddaughter went to investigate. Authorities said she was herself lucky to survive. Pravda, via D.Record, 22 June, and D.Telegraph, 29 Jun 2010.
An Indian man was killed when his cell phone exploded in his face. Gopal Gujjar, 23, was found dead on 17 August with burns to his left ear, neck and shoulders, near a farm in Bandha village close to the city of Kota in Rajasthan. He had apparently gone to the forest to graze cattle about noon and was believed to be talking on the phone when it exploded. Pieces of the Nokia 1209 handset, a basic model released in August 2008, were scattered nearby. In January 2010, a 27-year-old woman in Andhra Pradesh was killed while talking to her husband on a charging phone. (Sydney) D.Telegraph, 18 Aug 2010. See also FT172:10, 181:8 for non-lethal mobile explosions.
A man searching for a legendary ghost train was killed when a real locomotive came down the tracks and hit him. Christopher Kaiser, 29, of Charlotte had gathered with around 12 others on the anniversary of a crash that happened near Statesville, North Carolina, at 3am on 27 August 1891, when seven carriages fell off the Bostian Bridge into a ravine and 30 people died. According to local legend, the sounds of the accident, including the train whistle, screeching wheels, and the screams of passengers, can be heard again on the anniversary and each year people go to listen. It is also claimed that people have seen a uniformed man with a gold watch. On the centenary of the crash in 1991, more than 150 people turned up.
Kaiser was waiting on a trestle, near the site of the old Bostian Bridge, off Buffalo Shoals Road, at 2.45am when the real train came round a bend. The ghost-hunters began running along the trestle and most of them made it the 45m to safety. Kaiser pushed a woman with him to safety. She fell at least 9m and was being treated for injuries. Kaiser’s body was found under the trestle in a deep ravine. WCNC.com, 27 Aug; Dailymail.co.uk, 29 Aug; Telegraph.co.uk, 30 Aug 2010.
Last May, jurors were considering the case of a New York City man who received a donor kidney and died in what experts said may be the only known case of uterine cancer transmitted by transplant. The widow of Vincent Liew sued NYU Langone Medical Center over his 2002 death. Mr Liew was told six weeks after the transplant that the female donor had uterine cancer, but decided to keep the kidney after his doctor said the risk of getting the disease was small. He had the kidney removed about six months later, but within weeks he died of cancer that his autopsy said had come from the donor. (Sydney) D.Telegraph, 29 May 2010.
Cage fighter Jarrod Wyatt, 26, ripped out the heart of his training partner, Taylor Powell, 21, while he was still alive. He also cut out his tongue and tore off most of his face. The gory attack took place in Klamath, California, in March 2010. Police found Wyatt standing naked over his dead friend surrounded by body parts. He said he had drunk a cup of tea made from hallucinogenic mushrooms and became convinced Powell was possessed by the Devil. He was charged with first-degree murder, aggravated mayhem and torture. Powell’s cause of death was recorded as blood loss due to having his heart removed while still alive. Sun, 31 May; Metro, 3 June 2010.
A wedding photographer in Sicily was accidentally shot dead after he asked the happy couple to pose with hunting rifles on their big day. Calogero Scimea (or Scimeca), 45, was hit in the head after a .22 rifle went off, and died instantly in front of horrified bride Valentina Anitra, 22, groom Ignazio Licodia, 25, and their parents. It happened just before the couple, who had been teenage sweethearts, set off for their local church in Altofonte, near Palermo, on 24 July. Scimea had been standing in for the official photographer, who had been taken ill. The ceremony was cancelled. MX News (Sydney), Sun, 28 July; D.Telegraph, 29 July 2010.
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