Bizarre Death Stories

Death of course can happen at any time. No one could function if they spent their time worrying about it. Hence we learn to ignore this ugly possibility as much as possible. However, the following stories include some the most unusual ways of dying imaginable. Some were just plain bad luck and others were the result of incredible stupidity. Several of the incidents sound like scenes from an over-imaginative script writer, but in one bizarre twist, a movie scene actually inspired several young men to try a dangerous stunt. I know for a fact that several of these incidents are absolutely true and I am fairly sure several more are true as well. However, I might add that a couple are too far-fetched even for me.

Decide for yourself.

Bad Night at the Ski Resort

Stratton, VT – In a tragic case of bad luck, two college students spending a night outdoors were killed in the collapse of their snow cave, apparently after a piece of heavy machinery dumped snow their shelter while they slept. Jake Shumway, 19, and Robert Carr, 18, freshmen on spring break from Plymouth State College in New Hampshire were found buried in the collapsed cave by friends early Saturday morning at the Stratton Mountain ski resort.

Avid outdoorsmen, Carr and Shumway had gone to Stratton to watch the US Open Snowboarding competition. To save money, they dug a cave at the edge of their parking lot while the rest of their group spent the night in cars, campers, and a motel.

Dan Davis, a county official, said the tragedy was caused when a bucket-loader dumped snow directly on top of the cave. Crews from the ski resort had been sanding the parking lot and moving snow around trying to clear the area for more parking spaces.

Bad Day at the Circus

A circus act in Romania ended in tragedy on 23 January when fire-eater Vlad Cazacu, 43, belched in mid-performance and was blown to bits. Incredibly no one came to his rescue as stunned onlookers assumed this was part of an amazing illusion. Consequently this unfortunate man, who probably could have been saved, was allowed to just lie there and die.

"In the first part of the performance," said fellow circus performer Nicole Antosu, "Vlad held a flammable cocktail in his mouth to spit fire at a burning torch. Somehow, he must have swallowed some of the liquid, because when he burped he triggered an explosion." The Parrot (Accra, Ghana) - 2-8 June 1998
Bad Day in the Forest

Khandal Tripura, 35, of Chinchharipara village in Ramgararh district, Bangaldesh, caught a cobra on 20 July and started playing with it. The snake bit him on the hand, and in his anger he bit the snake's head. He died in hospital the next day. The snake also died. No word on whether they were buried together. Independant - 22 July 1998

Bad Day of Scuba Diving

Arroyo Grande, CA - Fire Authorities in California found a corpse in a burned-out section of forest while assessing the damage done by a forest fire in the Los Padres National Forest. The deceased male was dressed in a full wet suit, complete with a dive tank, flippers, and face mask. A post mortem examination revealed that the person died not from burns but from massive internal injuries.

Dental records provided a positive identification of Henry Williams from nearby Santa Barbara. Investigators then set about determining how a fully-clad diver ended up in the middle of a forest fire.

It was revealed that, on the day of the fire, Mr. Williams went for a diving trip off the Pacific coast - some 20 miles away from the forest. At the same time, firefighters seeking to control the fire as quickly as possible had called in a fleet of helicopters with very large buckets.

The buckets were dropped into the ocean for rapid filling, then flown to the forest fire and emptied. Apparently one helicopter, against regulations, fetched its water too close to the shoreline.

Bad Day at the Zoo

Paderborn, Germany - Zookeeper Friedrich Riesfeldt fed his constipated elephant 22 doses of animal laxative and more than a bushel of berries, figs and prunes. The plugged-up pachyderm finally let fly. Standing next to his elephant, Mr. Riesfeldt suffocated under 200 pounds of elephant manure. Investigators say Riesfeldt, 46, was attempting to give the ailing elephant an enema when the beast unloaded on him.

“The sheer force of the elephant’s unexpected defecation knocked Mr. Riesfeldt to the ground, where he struck his head on a rock and lay unconscious as the elephant continued to evacuate his bowels on top of him,” said flabbergasted police detective Erik Dern. With no one there to help him, he lay under all that dung for at least an hour before a watchman came along, and during that time he suffocated. It seems to be just one of those freak accidents.

Bad Day at the Zoo, Part Two

Bordeaux, France - A French zoo director was crushed to death on 1 November by a frightened hippopotamus. Jean Ducing was cycling around the park in Pessac, near Bordeaux, when Komir, a seven-year-old male hippo, charged through an electrified fence after an employee driving a tractor stopped to distribute food. M Ducing, aged in his 60s, had trained Komir. Posters for the zoo feature a picture of Komir with M Ducing's head in his mouth. Investigators concluded the animal had fled to Ducing for protection. AFP – 2 November; International Herald tribune - 3 November

Bad Day on the Road

Detroit, MI – A 41-year-old man got stuck and drowned in two feet of water after squeezing headfirst through an 18-inch-wide sewer grate to retrieve his car keys. Unable to remove his head, the man drowned when the continuous downfall eventually raised the water level in the sewer.

Bad Day at the Junkyard

A German couple in their 50s took their old car to a scrap yard. They parked, completed the paperwork, but got back in the car to shelter from a sudden squall of rain. "The driver of the crane was told to process their car", said a police investigator. "He did so without realizing that the couple were sitting inside again." The car was grabbed by the crane's steel claws and dropped in the crusher, which normally reduces cars to a small cube. It was stopped when the crane driver heard the woman's screams, but it was too late to save her husband. The crane driver was hospitalized for shock, but was expected to be charged with "negligent manslaughter". Daily Mail – 14 April 1997

Bad Day for Stripping

Consenza, Italy - Stag party friends were curious when a stripper failed to jump out of a huge cake. Assuming she was no longer in there, they received a nasty surprise when they found her dead inside it. Gina Lalapola, 23, had suffocated after waiting for an hour inside the sealed cake. Daily Record - 30 August 1997

Bad Day at the Pyramid

Cairo, Egypt - Adam Gotz, 34, from Baden Wurttemberg, Germany, threw himself to his death off the 613ft (187m) Cairo Tower on 28 July to demonstrate to his friend, Sarah Klimer, his Pharaonic belief that the dead return to life. Gotz, a student of Egyptology, the study of ancient Egyptian history, had told her he was a "spiritual psychiatrist" who believed the Giza pyramids provided spiritual energy to enable believers to transcend humanity. Ms Klimer has not reported any further contact to date. Reuters, Associated Press - 31 July 1998

Bad Day at the Ice Pond

Akeley, Minnesota – Jerry, a Labrador Retriever, died in a freak accident that also cost Harry Jenkins his new Ford truck. It seems Mr. Jenkins and his two buddies went ice fishing one day at nearby Ten Mile Lake which was completely iced over. In an attempt to create a large hole for fishing quickly, Mr. Jenkins first lit, then tossed a stick of illegally obtained dynamite across the ice. To his horror, his pet dog raced across the ice in an attempt to retrieve the dynamite. The dog fetched the dynamite despite screams from the men to come back, but then they realized they were in worse danger than they thought when the dog began to return to them with the stick in his mouth. Now the three men began to run in the opposite direction for their lives with the dog chasing them. The men narrowly escaped death in this way, but the explosion damaged the ice near the truck, which then plunged to the bottom of the lake. In addition to losing his dog, Mr. Jenkins was a double loser when the insurance company refused to pay on his claim for the sunken truck.

Bad Day at the Magic Charm School

Abidjan, Ivory Coast - Pascal Gbah,49, a colonel and electronics engineer in the Ivory Coast army, was fatally wounded by gunfire on 24 August as he tested a "magic" belt supposedly with powers to protect him from bullets. He died on the spot near the western town of Aboisso after being hit by a bullet fired from his own service pistol by a 20-year-old son of the magic belt's maker. Gbah's cousin Andre Gondo, who made the belt, insisted that its protective powers were real, provided one abstained from sex while wearing it. Gbah is survived by a wife and six children. An army spokesman said Gondo had been arrested, but that his son was on the run. Reuters - 26 August 1998.

Bad Day at the Military Academy

Dahonega, GA - According to police, ROTC cadet Jeffrey Hoffman, 23, fatally stabbed to death fellow cadet Nick Berrena, 20, in a tragic accident. In a case of very poor judgment, Berrena died when he dared his roommate to stab him in an attempt to prove that a knife could not penetrate the Kevlar flak vest that Berrena had just purchased from a mail-order catalogue. According to the catalogue, the flak jacket guaranteed complete safety from bullets, knives, and hand grenade fragments. No mention whether it was manufactured in the Ivory Coast.

Bad Day for Messages

Johannesburg, South Africa - A young Saudi man, camping with two friends on top of a mountain, was killed instantly when he took a call from a friend on his mobile phone during a storm and the phone was struck by lightning. Johannesburg Citizen – 4 September 1998

Bad Night at the Beach

Darwin, Australia - Christopher Sean Payne, 34, and an un-named woman of 25 drank 11 bottles of beer and then went on a sexual romp in the sea near Darwin in Australia. They had intercourse in the water when the woman decided to go underwater for a different activity. Payne became excited, put his hands on her head and kept her submerged. Micheal Carey, prosecuting at Payne's trial in the Northern Territories Supreme Court a year later, said Payne told police that when the woman stopped sucking, he wondered what was going on, so he let her up. She had not tried to get up and wasn't kicking or splashing. When he realized she was dead, he "freaked out", dressed and drove away. He was arrested two days later and during his year in prison had constant nightmares and was treated 12 times for outbreaks of boils. Payne's counsel pointed out that the woman might have passed out from drink: she had consumed six times the legal driving limit. Sydney Daily Telegraph - 3 October 1997

Bad Day Watching the TV Football Game

St Louis, Missouri - James Shivers, 60, fired a pistol at his 26-year-old son Tony for standing in front of the television during a Holiday Bowl football game between the University of Missouri and Colorado State. He missed (later he told police he did not mean to hit his son), but the son grabbed the pistol and began beating his father until the gun broke apart. The elder Shivers then got a shotgun from a cupboard and fired twice into his son, killing him. Reuters - 30 December 1997

Bad Day in the Back Yard

Los Angeles, CA. Ani Saduki, 33, and his brother decided to remove a bees’ nest from a shed on their property with the aid of a “pineapple grenade”. A “pineapple” is an illegal firecracker which is the explosive equivalent of one-half stick of dynamite. They ignited the fuse and retreated to watch from inside their home, behind a window some 10 feet away from the hive/shed. The concussion of the explosion shattered the window inwards, seriously lacerating Ani. Deciding Mr. Saduki needed stitches, the brothers headed out to go to a nearby hospital. While walking towards their car, Ani was stung three times by the surviving bees. Unbeknownst to either brother, Ani was allergic to bee venom, and died of suffocation en-route to the hospital.

Bad Day at the Amusement Park

Santa Clara, California - A 25-year-old man died on 7 September after being struck on the head by a woman’s outstretched foot as she whizzed by on a roller coaster at Paramount's Great America Theme Park. He jumped over a fence into a resticted area to retrieve a hat blown off his wife's head while she was riding "Top Gun". A woman accidentally kicked the man when her car passed him and was treated for leg injuries. The man was initially identified as Hector Mendoza, 25; but it later appeared that he had taken over the identity of the real Hector Mendoza, who was alive in Mexico, and whose driver's license and social security number had apparently been stolen. The dead man's identity was a mystery. Associated Press - 7 September; San Francisco Chronicle - 12 September 1998.

Bad Day at Suicide Rock

Normandy, France - Jacques LeFevrier left nothing to chance when he decided to commit suicide. He stood at the top of a tall cliff and tied a noose around his neck. He tied the other end of the rope to a large rock. He drank some poison and set fire to his clothes. He even tried to shoot himself at the last moment. He jumped and fired the pistol. The bullet missed him completely, but cut through the hanging rope instead. Freed of the threat of hanging, Mr. LeFevrier plunged into the sea. The sudden plunge into the freezing waters extinguished the flames and apparently made him vomit the poison as well. He was dragged out of the water by witnesses on the beach below the cliff and was taken to a hospital, where he died of hypothermia.

Bad Day in the Bed

Newton, NC - Kenneth Charles Barger, 47, accidentally shot himself to death during the night. Awakening to the sudden sound of a ringing telephone beside his bed, he reached for the phone but grabbed instead his Smith & Wesson .38 Special which he kept on the bedside table next to the phone. The gun apparently discharged as he drew it to his ear thinking it was the phone.

Bad Day at Seaworld

The naked body of Daniel O Dukes, a 27-year-old drifter from South Carolina, was found draped across the back of a killer whale in a tank behind Shamu Stadium at Seaworld Orlando on the morning of 6 July. He had apparently hidden in the Florida theme park after closing time and drowned in the cold, salty water of the 26ft (8m) tank.

The 14-year-old whale, named Tillikum after the Chinook Indian word for friend, and at 11,000lbs (4,990kg) the largest in captivity, may have played with Dukes' 180lb (82kg) body as if it were a toy. The post mortem showed one bite - in Dukes' groin - which occurred after death when Tillikum ripped of his green shorts. The shorts were found at the bottom of the tank. Killer whales, also called orcas, are not naturally aggressive to humans. Reuters - 6 July; AP, Knight Ridder - 8 July 1999

Killer Whale Lawsuit Dropped

Orlando, Florida - The parents of a man found naked and dead on the back of a killer whale at Sea World Orlando have dropped a lawsuit alleging Sea World caused his death by portraying the dangerous orca as safe and huggable.

“They voluntarily dismissed the lawsuit,” Sea World executive vice president and general manager Vic Abbey said. “This was a very tragic accident that occurred, but as we’ve said all along we felt the lawsuit had no merit.”

Patricia and Michael Dukes of Columbia, South Carolina, had filed suit on September 10 seeking several million dollars fro pain and suffering at the loss of their only son, Daniel, 27, a drifter who was found drowned to death in July in the whale tank. Heavy intoxication apparently contributed to this untimely event. Tuesday, October 5, 1999

Bad Day at Law School

Toronto, Canada - Police said a lawyer demonstrating the safety of windows in a downtown Toronto skyscraper crashed through a pane with his shoulder and plunged 24 floors to his death. A police spokesman said Garry Hoy, 39, fell into the courtyard of the Toronto Dominion Bank Tower early Friday evening as he was explaining the strength of the building’s windows to visiting law students. Hoy previously had conducted demonstrations of window strength many times according to police reports. Peter Lauwers, managing partner of the firm Holden Day Wilson, told the Toronto Sun newspaper that Hoy was “one of the best and brightest” members in the 200-man association.

Bad Day Imitating William Tell (Not Quite Dead, but Close Enough)

Portland, OR - Doctors at Portland’s University Hospital said Wednesday an Oregon man shot through the skull by a hunting arrow is lucky to be alive, and will be released soon from the hospital.

Tony Roberts, 25, lost his right eye during an initiation into a men’s rafting club, Mountain Men Anonymous, in Grants Pass, OR. A friend tried to shoot a beer can off his head, but the arrow entered Roberts’ right eye instead. Doctors said had the arrow gone 1 millimeter to the left, a major blood vessel would have cut and Roberts would have died instantly.

Neurosurgeon Dr. Johnny Delashaw at the University Hospital in Portland said the arrow went through 8 to 10 inches of brain, with the tip protruding at the rear of his skull, yet somehow managed to miss all major blood vessels. Delashaw also said that if Robert had tried to pull the arrow out he surely would have killed himself. Roberts admitted afterwards he and his friends had been drinking that afternoon. Said Roberts, “I feel so dumb about this.”

Bad Day at the River

Kiev, Ukraine - A fisherman in Kiev, Ukraine, electrocuted himself while fishing in the river Tereblya. The 43-year-old man connected cables to the main power supply of his home, and trailed the end into the river. The electric shock killed the fish, which floated belly-up to the top of the water. The man then waded in to collect his catch, neglecting to remove the live wire, and tragically suffered the same fate as the fish. In an ironic twist, the man was fishing for a mourning meal to commemorate the first anniversary of his mother-in-law's death.

Bad Night at the Ski Run

Mammoth Lakes, CA - A San Anselmo man died early yesterday morning (at 3am) when he hit a lift tower at the Mammoth Mountain ski area while riding down the slope on a makeshift sledge of yellow foam. Authorities said Matthew David Hubal, 22, was pronounced dead at Centinela Mammoth Hospital.

The accident occurred about 3 a.m., the Mono County Sheriff’s Department said. Hubal and his friends apparently had hiked up a ski run called Stump Alley and undid some yellow foam protectors from the lift towers, said Lieutenant Mike Donnelly of the Mammoth Lakes Police Department. The pads are used to protect skiers who might hit the towers. The group apparently used the pads to slide down the ski slope and Hubal crashed into a tower. The lift towers are meant to be cushioned by this foam, and the tower he hit was discovered to be the same one from which he had stolen his sledge. As the report said "There's a moral in there somewhere". The Guardian - 6 February 1998

Bad Day at Church

Melvyn Nurse, 35, a clergyman, used a .357 calibre Magnum revolver loaded with one blank round to dramatize his sermon before a packed congregation at Livingway Christian Fellowship Church International in Jacksonville, Florida on 26 September. He illustrated each of the seven deadly sins by playing Russian roulette, spinning the chamber and holding the gun to his head. After one spin, the gun fired and the cardboard wadding in the blank pierced his temple, inflicting fatal brain injuries.

He fell out of sight and the congregation of 250, including his wife Debra and their four daughters, waited, thinking Mr Nurse would resume his sermon. He was eventually rushed to University Medical Center, where he died five days later. Blanks contain a hard cardboard-like wad that shoots several feet from the barrel when fired. It seemed likely that Nurse didn't realize they could cause injury. AP, Reuters - 2 October, Daily Telegraph - 3 October 1998

Bad Day at the Homemade Bungee Jump

Reston, VA - A 22 year old Reston man, Jeff Lucas, was found dead after he tried to use Occy straps (those stretchy ropes with hooks on each end) to bungee jump off a 70 foot railroad trestle. Fairfax, VA police said Eric A. Barcia, a fast food worker, taped a bunch of these straps together, wrapped an end around one foot, anchored the other end to the trestle, jumped and hit the pavement.

Bad Day at the Movies

Harrisburg, PA – Apparently inspired by a scene from the movie “The Program”, which contained a famous scene where three drunk college athletes lie prostrate on a major highway in order to prove their manliness, two high school freshman were seriously injured and a third was killed when an 18-wheeler ran them over. In the movie, the truck was able to veer off and narrowly miss injuring anyone, but in real life two of the boys had their legs amputated while the unlucky third boy was unable to move fast enough to avoid being crushed to death. The driver said he never even saw the boys. After this tragic event, the scene was removed from the movie. Director David Ward said he never dreamed anyone would have trouble distinguishing fantasy from reality.

Beware the Barking Dog : Bad Night for Walking the Dog

A Russian woman took her dog for a walk after it started barking late at night and then apparently left it in her yard tied to a post, still barking. Annoyed neighbors called the police. According to Izvestia, the Russian daily: "The policemen, without any reason, decided to shot the dog."

The first nine shots from their pistols missed, bit one of them broke the leash, sending the animal running frantically around the yard. "The policemen ran after the dog, shooting at the silhoutte in the dark. The 13th bullet hit the owner, who was trying to catch the animal, in the heart." This incompetent manslaughter landed them in Yekaterinburg court. Reuter - 27 May 1998

Bad Days at the Dance Studio

Lisbon, Portugal - Dance teacher Alberto Fargo tangoed to his death straight out of a fifth-floor window. Police in Lisbon said Fargo was showing his dance class how to keep the head high by looking at the ceiling. Sunday Independant (Dublin) - 15 November 1998

Barcelona, Spain – Rogelio Pena died in a fall from Mr. Pena’s third-floor dance studio. Other instructors said Mr. Pena was demonstrating a difficult Pasa Doble maneuver to his student Francesca Olivera and never even noticed the open window.

Bad Day on the Island

Gumilid Lantod was alone in the jungle catching bats on Mindoro Island in the Philippines when a 23ft (7m) python bit him on the foot and squeezed him to death. Pythons can tell when their victims are dead when they can no longer feel a pulse. Then the monster swallowed the 154lb (60kg) man. Friends later found the snake and slit it open, finding the father of six already half digested. Express (Germany) 3 April; [AFP] 7 April 1998

Bad Day for the Terrorists

Hebron, Israel – A switch away from daylight savings time turned the tables on a group of Palestinian terrorists who had neglected to note that Israel had made a premature switch from daylight savings time to standard time due to a religious holiday.

The bombs had been prepared in a Palestine-controlled area by explosives experts and set on Daylight Savings time. The drivers in Israel had already switched their watches to standard time and failed to note the time difference. They were in their car still en-route to their destination when the explosives detonated an hour earlier than they expected.

Death Really Stinks

Jonathan Capewell, 16, was so obsessed with smelling fresh that he would cover his entire body with deodorant at least twice a day. When his parents told him he was using too much and they could taste the stuff downstairs in the kitchen, he laughed it off. He was found dead after spraying himself with anti-perspirant in his bedroom in Oldham, Greater Manchester. Three empty deodorant canisters were found. A post mortem showed that his body contained 0.37mg of butane per litre of blood and a similar amount of propane. Only 0.1mg of either gas can kill. It is believed the gases built up in his body after six months of intensive spraying. The death was thought to be the first from accidental inhalation in the country and there was no evidence to suggest that he was a solvent abuser. Manchester Eve. News - 28 October; Guardian, Daily Telegraph, Independant, Northern Echo - 29 October 1998

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