STRANGE DEATHS
UNUSUAL WAYS OF SHUFFLING OFF THIS MORTAL COIL
Salman Mirza, from Gujarat in
India checked into a hotel in Ahmendabad with his former fiancée. Both were drug users and sniffed glue. On this occasion, after taking drugs they decided to have sex, but, lacking condoms, they decided to seal Mirza’s penis with the strong epoxy adhesive they had been sniffing. The next day Mirza was found unconscious in bushes near the hotel and taken to hospital where his condition rapidly deteriorated and he died of multiple organ failure as a result of toxicity from the epoxy. Indiatimes. com, 25 Aug 2021.
Jason Alan Thornburg, 41, was a wellknown character in Euless, Texas, regularly found outside the Mid City Inn where he lived, talking to passers-by about God, handing out religious flyers and offering to help people, sometimes inviting them up to his room. One person who took up the offer was David Lueras, 42, who stayed with Thornberg for several days in mid-September. After he had been there a few days, Thornberg, for some reason, decided that Lueras needed to be “sacrificed” cutting his throat, then dismembering the body and storing the remains in plastic bins. Over the next few days, two unnamed female acquaintances of Thornberg also turned up at his room and he decided they, too, needed to be “sacrificed”, killing and dismembering them as well, and adding their remains to the storage bins. When neighbours started to complain about the smell Thornberg took the remains 25 miles away and tried to burn them in a skip. Police, though, were still able to identify Lueras’s remains by his tattoos and a medical implant and traced him back to the hotel room he’d shared with Thornberg.
Arrested, Thornburg admitted the killings, describing them as “sacrifices”. He also admitted killing a girlfriend in Arizona as another sacrifice. His arrest also caused renewed interest in the death of a former housemate, Mark Jewell, 61, killed when their home exploded in May and not considered a homicide at the time, but Thornberg, who had given a eulogy at Jewell’s funeral, admitted to cutting Jewell’s throat and setting the house on fire to cover the crime. chron.com, 1 Oct 2021.
An allergic reaction killed a daredevil melon farmer in Astrakhan, Russia, after a stunt being filmed for YouTube went wrong. The 55-year-old farmer was amusing other fieldworkers by catching field vipers and putting them in his mouth headfirst when, on his third attempt, one bit him on the tongue. While venomous, field viper bites should not be lethal to humans, but a few hours after the bite, the farmer’s tongue and throat started swelling massively, obstructing his breathing. He was rushed to Kharabalinskiy district hospital and diagnosed with Quinke’s edema, a form of allergic reaction, and frantic efforts by doctors failed to save him.
Apparently, snake-swallowing is a popular trick among locals and the hospital put out a statement saying: “You just should not try to swallow a snake or carry out any other experiments if you are not sure that it may end up in an unfavourable way for you.” D.Star, 25 Sept 2021.
Helena Randall, 29, died after she was struck by a car driven by Peter Sinclair, 55, in Handforth, Cheshire. Sinclair, though, was asleep at the time. According to the coroner at Randall’s inquest, Sinclair was suffering from a “nocturnal seizure” following a 14-hour night shift. This led to him driving while asleep, leaving a trail of destruction as he drove through the town at speed on the wrong side of the road, crashing three times before finally going through a red light and killing Randall.
Also apparently asleep was 17-year-old Benjamin Elliot, who allegedly stabbed his twin sister Meghan to death. He told police that he awoke between 2.30am and 3am and found himself in his sister’s room and saw that she had a knife in her neck. Realising he was not dreaming he called 911 and tried to stem the bleeding and apply CPR. Elliot had no history of sleep disorders, nor had he taken any drugs or drunk alcohol the previous evening and there was no history of trouble between the twins, described as “the best of friends”. D.Mirror, 8 May 2021; lawandcrime.com, 1 Oct 2021.
Failing to find any toilets after drinking heavily on Pledade Beach in Jaboatao dos Guararapes, Brazil, Marcelo Rocha Santos, 53, waded waist-deep in the sea to relieve himself, but was grabbed and killed by a shark, making him the 13th person to die of a shark attack on that stretch of coast. Metro, 13 Jul 2021.