STRANGE DEATHS
UNUSUAL WAYS OF SHUFFLING OFF THIS MORTAL COIL
A 15-year-old girl jumped off the rooftop of a 25-storey building in Sichuan, China, landing on her 42-year-old father who was trying to catch her. Rescue workers were setting up an inflatable mattress at the foot of the building when the girl jumped. She died along with her father as he attempted to break her fall. According to her mother, the 15-year-old had been suffering from depression and had been receiving treatment at hospital after her parents found cuts on her arms. nextshark.com, 27 Aug 2020.
A Brazilian shop worker’s dead body was left concealed on the shop floor while customers continued to come in and out.
Sales manager Manoel Moisés Cavalcante, 59, suffered a heart attack at the Recife branch of the Carrefour Brasil chain on 14 August. Despite an ambulance being called and first aid administered, he could not be saved. Instead of closing the store, staff continued to welcome customers, covering the body with three umbrellas and a number of cardboard boxes.
The company, one of Brazil’s largest retail chains, was forced to apologise after photos of the incident went viral. In a statement, they admitted the action had been “disrespectful”, but insisted staff had “followed guidelines to not remove the body from its place”, adding that they had now updated their guidelines to include mandatory closure of stores in future instances of staff or customer deaths, aiming to treat “rare situations like this” with “more sensitivity and respect”. metro.co.uk, 20 Aug 2020.
A 29-year-old man was shot dead in Union Springs, Alabama, for crossing the road too slowly. Johnarian Travez Allen was shot eight times by Jeremiah Wesley Penn, 22, who confessed to the crime after turning himself in. Mr Allen had gone to a convenience store to buy food, but as he was walking across the road, the suspect, Mr Penn, drove up and opened fire with multiple shots because he believed Mr Allen was walking too slowly. Mr Penn is being held on a capital murder charge in the County Jail. wsfa. com, 28 Aug 2020.
Sumio Suenaga lived in a house in Kasugai, Japan, with his younger sister and brother. In 2015, when he was 66 years old, he disappeared, but was only reported missing the following year. Four years later, his sister, now 69, decided she’d like to use her older brother’s room, but realised she would need to clean it up first. While doing so, she discovered an unclothed and skeletonised body. “I found something that I think are human bones,” she told police, who confirmed the corpse to be human, and, while not yet having been identified as Mr Suenaga, investigators believe there is a high probability that the body is his. The house is not large, so police were surprised that the two younger siblings had spent years in such close proximity to the remains of their brother. They were also curious about the fact that when they reported him missing, the brother and sister told police that Mr Suenaga “hasn’t come home in over a year”, implying that they had seen him leaving the house at some point. soranews24.com, 17 Aug 2020.
A daredevil who died in a plunge over Niagara Falls in a stunt involving an inflatable ball may have been accompanied by a two-metre (7ft) boa constrictor, investigators believe. After Kirk Jones’s body was recovered from water below the falls, New York State police found a website featuring a photo of the 53-year-old stuntman posing with the snake, named Misty. “Believe in the Impossible Kirk Jones + Misty Conquer Niagara Falls” read the caption. On the same day it’s believed Jones died, tourists spotted an 2.5m (8ft) plastic ball with its hatch open, spinning in the rapids before tumbling over the brink. Misty’s body has not been recovered, although an empty snake cage was found in Jones’s parked van. A crashed drone belonging to Jones was also recovered, but the footage from its camera showed only rushing water. In 2003, Jones became the first person to survive the drop over Niagara Falls without a safety device when the then-unemployed salesman climbed over a rail and into the water in what appeared to be a suicide attempt. Despite such stunts being illegal, several daredevils have risked their lives in various contraptions, starting with 63-year-old schoolteacher Annie Edison Taylor, who in 1901 survived a trip over the falls in an oak barrel (FT45:6266). BBC News, 27 Aug; newyorkupstate. com, 28 Aug 2017.