STRANGE DEATHS

UNUSUAL WAYS OF SHUFFLING OFF THIS MORTAL COIL

A couple from Meolo, near Venice, and their 11-yearold son Lorenzo died on 12 September when they fell into a 10ft (3m) hole that suddenly opened up in a highly active volcanic area near Naples. Lorenzo wandered beyond the safety barriers and was swallowed up by the pit, plunging into boiling hot mud at the Solfatara Crater in Pozzuoli, part of a huge volcanic area known as the Campi Flegrei or Phlegræan Fields. His father Massimiliano Carrer, 45, rushed to his rescue but also fell into the sinkhole, followed by his mother, Tiziana Zampella, 42. All three died after being overcome by mud and sulphurous gases. Lorenzo’s brother, aged seven, survived. Solfatara is a dormant volcano that last erupted in 1198. Ancient Romans believed the area held the entrance to the Underworld. BBC News, 12 Sept; D.Mail, D.Telegraph, 13 Sept 2017. A man died on 16 September in a haunted house attraction called “Buried Alive” at Hong Kong’s largest amusement park. The 21-year-old, surnamed Cheung, was hit by a coffin and found unconscious after becoming disoriented. He was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead. The tragedy happened at an event for invited guests ahead of Hallowe’en festivities at Ocean Park. The attraction’s website says visitors enter a coffin and “experience being buried alive alone, before fighting their way out of their dark and eerie grave.” The coffin descends into a dimly lit “rocky maze filled with dreadful ghouls.” Visitors then navigate their way out past numerous scares. A government statement said Cheung was “believed to have entered into an area for mechanical operations that was not open to visitors. He was hit by a mechanical part.” D.Telegraph, (Sydney) D.Telegraph, Sun, 18 Sept; Times, 20 Sept 2017. Devoted Christian Lidia Dragescu, a 23-year-old biomedical student, died on 11 October after climbing a shoulder-high barrier and launching herself backwards from the Whispering Gallery in St Paul’s Cathedral in London, falling 100ft (30m) to the marble floor below while holding two suicide notes in her native Romanian. One note was to her mother; the other apologised to churchgoers who watched her fall from her “favourite place”. The talented figure skater and aspiring brain surgeon, who lived with her family in Romford, visited the cathedral at least once a week and often climbed the 257 steps to the Whispering Gallery. Her mother said she had been researching the San Francisco Zodiac killer and had been reading a lot of Dan Brown novels because she was “fascinated by criminal minds”. She said Lidia picked the cathedral to die in “because she needed to fly into God’s arms”. Vlad, Lidia’s twin, vowed never to celebrate his birthday again. Sun, 12+17+19 Oct; D.Telegraph, 17 Oct 2017. A woman from New Zealand died after being thrown to the ground by a jet engine blast on Maho beach, next to Princess Juliana International Airport on the Caribbean island of Sint Maarten. The 57-year-old woman was standing by a chainlink fence along with several other tourists watching a Trinidad-bound Boeing 737 take off before being knocked to the ground with her head hitting the concrete footpath. She was treated in hospital for serious head injuries, but died a short while later. <i> (Sydney) D.Telegraph, D.Mail, 14 July 2017. On 19 March, a falling tree at a waterfall beauty spot near the town of Kintampo in Ghana killed at least 18 swimmers, crushed by heavy branches, and injured a further 20. Then in August, 13 people, including two children, died after a tree came crashing down on crowds at a famous religious festival, the Festa da Senhora do Monte (Our Lady of the Mountain), on the Portuguese island of Madeira. Another 49 people were injured after the 200-year-old oak fell on tourists and local worshippers buying candles to take part in a street procession. Eve. Standard, 20 Mar; D.Telegraph, 21 Mar; Metro, 16 Aug; (Queensland) Courier Mail, 17 Aug 2017. Takahiro Shiraishi, 27, was arrested after body parts of eight females and one male, including two severed heads, were found at his small apartment in Zama, Kanagawa prefecture, south of Tokyo. The remains were concealed under cat litter inside coolboxes. The police had been investigating the disappearance of a 23-year-old woman who vanished in Hachioji, western Tokyo, on 21 October when the horrific discoveries were made. Shiraishi had moved into the apartment in late August, and was reported to be a ‘scout’, recruiting women for the sex industry. The woman from Hachioji had met him online after he responded to a message she posted on a suicide website stating that she wanted to kill herself. BBC News, 31 Oct; D.Telegraph, D.Mail, 1 Nov 2017.