STRANGE DEATHS

UNUSUAL WAYS OF SHUFFLING OFF THIS MORTAL COIL

A middle-aged woman from western Japan died of a tick-borne disease caused by a bite from a stray cat, reported to be the first mammal-to-human transmission of its kind in the world. The woman, in her 50s, was bitten by the sick stray cat in the summer of 2016 as she tried to take it for treatment at a veterinary hospital. She died 10 days later, with tests subsequently showing she had been infected with Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (SFTS). The disease, most commonly found in central Asia and China, is transmitted by bites from a certain type of virus-carrying tick. Because the woman’s body showed no sign of tick bites, the virus must have been transmitted by the cat, which most likely suffered from the tick-borne disease. SFTS is relatively new in Japan, where the first infection was confirmed in 2013. Since then, there have been 266 cases involving humans, 57 fatal. Until now, it was thought that only a direct bite from a tick could cause human infection. D.Telegraph, 26 July 2017. A couple died within minutes of each other after collapsing in their garden on 18 June 2017, the hottest day of the year (around 28˚C/82˚F). Tony Williams MBE, 86, a former county councillor, and his wife Faith, 87, were found lying face down outside their house in Welsh St Donats, Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales. At Cardiff Coroner’s Court in November, Ruth Williams described her parents as “teenage sweethearts”. The coroner ruled that Mr Williams fell on the driveway and his wife went to help him, before falling herself. D.Mail, 23 June; Metro, 3 Nov 2017. Olga Perkovic and her seven-year-old son Aaron Goodstein were returning home to Kirkland, northern California, on 4 March after they had been skiing when a massive block of snow fell from a roof just feet from the front door of their mountain home, fatally burying them under about 3ft (90cm) of the white stuff. [ AP] 7 Mar 2018. A 16-day-old baby boy was sleeping beside his mother under a mosquito net at home in the eastern Indian state of Odisha on 30 March when he was snatched by a rhesus macaque monkey. The mother woke to see the monkey carrying the child away but was not quick enough to get him back. The police launched a frantic search, but the infant was discovered drowned in a neighbour’s well in Talabasta village two days later. There were no marks to indicate he had been attacked. <i> 3 April 2018. On 19 April, a Frenchman was killed by an exploding petanque ball. It seems the steel ball was on the 31-year-old victim’s barbeque in his garden – Lord alone knows why. The ball grew so hot it exploded, with some of the shrapnel hitting the man in the head. At least five people were in the garden at the time, including three children aged eight to 10. None was hurt. The freak accident took place in Boulou, near France’s border with Spain. No one else is ever thought to have been killed by an exploding petanque ball. D.Mail, 21 April 2018. A Thai woman fatally stabbed her younger boyfriend in what she claimed was a test of his mystic power. Somkid Changsalak, 41, was arrested at her house in Tambon Ban Mor, Prom Buri district, Thailand, not long after the death of Saneh Wongdee, 38. Somkid claimed that Saneh wanted her to test his mystic power, which he reportedly claimed had made his skin cutproof. She said she used a 10in (25cm)long knife and stabbed him once in the back, but it proved fatal. Police did not believe her account and charged her with murder. The Nation (Thailand), 18 April 2018. Rosangela Almeida dos Santos, 37, was pronounced dead in the town of Riachao das Neves in the northeast of Brazil on 28 January. She had been admitted to hospital with severe fatigue, where she had two cardiac arrests and “died” from septic shock. She was buried the next day, but locals raised the alarm on 9 February after hearing screams from her grave.

Around 500 people packed into the Senhora Santana cemetery to see the wooden coffin unearthed and the lid removed. Some asked for an ambulance as the woman’s feet were allegedly still warm. Her body had turned around and cotton wool that had been in her ears and nostrils had come out. She had wounds on her hands and forehead. Nails around the coffin lid we pushed up and there were scratches and blood on the inside. Local Natalina Silva said she heard banging from the grave. “I thought kids were playing a joke,” she said. “Then I heard her groan twice.” She had been in the ground for 11 days. Sun, independent.co.uk, 17 Feb 2018.