STRANGE DEATHS

UNUSUAL WAYS OF SHUFFLING OFF THIS MORTAL COIL

Since the Kilauea volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island started erupting in September, thousands of people have visited the Volcanoes National Park to view the glowing lava lake in the volcano’s Halemaumau Crater and fiery lava fountains that have regularly reached 100ft (30m) in height. In May 2019, during a previous eruption, a 32-year-old soldier was seriously injured after falling 300ft (90m) into the crater, and in early January a 75-yearold man died after falling into the crater while trying to get a better view. He was reported missing on 2 January, triggering a search by rangers and firefighters who eventually found his body 100ft (30m) below the crater rim of the Uekahuna viewing area at the summit of the Kilauea volcano from which he’d been attempting to see the lava. theguardian. com, 4 Jan 2022.

Police officers in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, arrested Brittany Wilson, 32, on Christmas Eve after she called them to say that she had killed her boyfriend. Wilson was found on the lawn outside her home, covered in blood, with a sword on the ground nearby, while her boyfriend, Harrison Stephen Foster, 34, was found dead in the house with several fresh stab wounds. Wilson admitted taking methamphetamine with Foster earlier in the day and explained that she had attacked him because she believed he had several evil entities living in his body and that by stabbing him she was setting him free. [AP] 26 Dec 2021.

Greg Jarvis, 57, died with an uncashed winning lottery ticket in his wallet. Having won $45,000 (£33,200) in a lottery-style gambling game at the Blue Water Inn in Caseville, Michigan, he was unable to cash his ticket in because he didn’t have a social security card to confirm his identity. He applied for one and while waiting for it to arrive was found dead on his boat in Saginaw Bay after falling and striking his head; his family, though, have inherited the ticket. Times, 2 Oct 2021.

Marina Kukhal, the wife of Russian rapper Alexander Yushko, was arrested after police investigating Yushko’s disappearance found his dismembered remains in the couple’s flat in St Petersburg. Yushko, 30, had been gaining a growing following across Russia, performing under the name “Andy Cartwright”. Kukhal, 36, told police that he had died of a drug overdose, and she had dismembered his body to dispose of it so fans would not know he had died such an “inglorious death” and would think he had just “gone missing”. Police found Yushko’s organs in the fridge and his fingertips in the yard, where they had been fed to rats. Forensic investigation found that there was “not a drop of blood” in his body, and police said that they had not been able to carry out forensics on eight of his organs as they had been put through the washing machine or were missing. The organs they did find had been salted and wrapped in plastic, while his limbs were said to have been cut “perfectly” with a hacksaw. Initially police believed that Yushko had died from an injection of a hard-totrace insulin substitute drug intended for diabetics, but forensic investigation indicated that he had died of hypoxia, a lack of oxygen. They believe that his dismemberment probably “occurred shortly – a few minutes, dozens of minutes – before death” and that he may have taken up to several hours to die. In addition to murder, police also accused Kukhal of “drinking her dead husband’s blood and having sex with his corpse”. She denies all charges, and, if her claim that she only dismembered Yushko and fed parts of him to rats after he died of an overdose is true, she is likely to walk free as that is not technically in violation of any Russian laws. thesun.co.uk, 2 Jan; mirror.co.uk, 3 Jan; boingboing.net, nme. com, 6 Jan 2022. In Koenigs Wusterhausen, just outside Berlin, police found two 40-year-olds and their children, age 10, eight and four, dead outside their home with gunshot and stab wounds after neighbours had called them to say there were bodies lying in the garden. A note found at the scene made it clear that the father had murdered his family and then killed himself. The motive that he gave was that he had faked a Covid vaccination certificate for his wife and her employer had found out, so he was afraid they would be arrested and lose their children. All five family members were believed to have been in Covid quarantine at the time and German authorities had just tightened Covid rules in the face of the Omicron wave, banning unvaccinated people from all the most essential businesses, such as supermarkets, pharmacies and bakers. news.sky.com, 7 Dec 2021.