Strange deathS

UNUSUAL WAYS OF SHUFFLING OFF THIS MORTAL COIL

Victor Sibson tried to blow his brains out with a gun but only succeeded in shooting his girlfriend – Brittany-Mae Haag, 22 – after the bullet passed through his head and into her chest. The shooting happened at the couple’s apartment in Anchorage, Alaska, last April. Sibson and Haag were hospitalised, but Haag died the same day. Sibson survived and was charged with second-degree murder. He could face up to 99 years in prison if convicted. metro. co.uk, 27 May 2017. Jonathan Mthethwa, a pastor with the Saint of the Last Days Church in Zimbabwe, attempted to recreate a biblical scene on 13 May by walking on water – in this case the ominously nicknamed Crocodile River. He is said to have walked out about 100 feet (30m) when three crocodiles attacked him. “They finished him in a couple of minutes,” said church member Deacon Nkosi. “All that was left of him when they finished eating him was a pair of sandals and his underwear floating on the water. We still don’t understand how this happened because he fasted and prayed the whole week.” Zimbabwe Today, via dailypost.ng, 13 May; aol.com, 15 May 2017. In early May, a 49-year-old man from Yokohama injured his ankle while hillwalking. Unable to continue, he contacted the emergency services and a rescue helicopter was dispatched. However, due to the downforce that the rotor blades generated, nearby rocks and braches were disturbed, resulting in a landslide that buried the man and killed him. japantoday.com, 15 May 2017. Three Daish jihadists setting up an ambush in a bitterly contested area of northern Iraq were killed by a herd of stampeding boars. Sheikh Anwar al-Assi, a chief of the local Ubaid tribe and supervisor of anti-Daesh forces, said the jihadists were hiding on the edge of a field about 50 miles (80km) southwest of Kirkuk when the boars overwhelmed them on 23 April. Five other jihadists were injured. The group was poised to attack a band of local tribesmen who had fled to nearby mountains since jihadists seized the town of Hawija three years ago. The jihadists had summarily executed 25 people attempting to flee their would-be caliphate in the three days before the boars attacked. usatoday.com, 25 April 2017. During a hunt near Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe on 19 May, a group of hunters led by Theunis Botha accidentally walked into the path of a breeding herd of elephants. Three elephant cows stormed the group and Botha, 51, shot at them. A fourth cow stormed them from the side and one of the hunters shot her after she’d lifted Botha with her trunk. The shot was fatal and as the cow collapsed, she fell on Botha, killing him. Botha, who leaves behind a wife and five children, was a well-known hunter from Tzaneen in South Africa, and often travelled to the US to recruit wealthy Americans for trophy-hunting in Southern Africa. He was a good friend of Scott van Zyl, 44, who was killed by crocodiles in Zimbabwe a month earlier. news24.com, 21 May; NY Post, 22 May 2017. Cemetery worker Manuel Gomes, 56, died after he blacked out and fell into a grave he had just dug in Freixo, near Ponte de Lima, Portugal. He lay unseen for hours until a woman passing by came across him with his hands cold and lips turned blue. Medics were unable to revive him and he was declared dead in hospital. D.Mirror, 16 Feb 2017. A schoolgirl obsessed with hygiene died after being overcome by fumes from Right Guard deodorant while on a family holiday. Paige Daughtry, 12, overused it after a swim on 18 July 2016 and butane and isobutane affected her heart rhythm. She was found face down in a caravan the family was renting in Fleetwood, Lancashire, and died two hours later in hospital. Times, D.Mail, 30 Mar 2017. A South Korean man was fatally poisoned after eating toads. He was among a group of men who caught five amphibians at a reservoir near the city of Daejeon in March. Mistaking the animals for edible bullfrogs, the men cooked and ate them at a restaurant days later. The 57-year-old man began vomiting soon after and was rushed to hospital, where he died the next morning. The man’s friends showed similar poisoning symptoms but survived. Bufotenin, commonly found in toad toxin, was found in the leftovers of the meal. This can be fatal when ingested in large amounts, but it is also a natural psychedelic, giving rise to a subculture where some lick toads in an attempt to achieve a hallucinogenic high. BBC News, 21 April 2017.