STRANGE DEATHS
UNUSUAL WAYS OF SHUFFLING OFF THIS MORTAL COIL
A 35-year-old woman driving at night along State Road 50 in Brooksville, Florida, stopped to see if she could help when she spotted a car that had crashed into the central reservation. As she investigated the wrecked GMC Sierra, its driver jumped into her Chevy HHR and raced off in it, leaving her stranded on the dark highway. However, three miles further on, the thief lost control of the stolen vehicle and swerved into the oncoming lane, colliding headon with an articulated truck. He was not wearing a seat belt and “suffered fatal injuries”. nypost.com, 25 Jan 2024.
Police attending an incident in DeLand, Florida, arrested Travis McBride, 46, a licensed anger management therapist. A caller had alerted police after seeing McBride drag a body across the road, put it in his car, and drive away. Asked if they knew where he had gone, the caller told police: “I just saw him drag the body across the road. He put it in his car, and then he left, and then he came back, and not even 10 minutes ago he started scrubbing the road, and now I see him in the yard with a flashlight looking around.” Deputies found drops of blood and a used 9mm shell near McBride’s driveway. “We believe there was an ongoing dispute between McBride and our victim,” identified as Clinton Dorsey, 51, said DeLand Police Chief Jason Umberger. “I don’t know if they knew each other, but they knew of each other. It unfortunately ended in one man’s death.” McBride, who had a criminal record involving repeated violent behaviour going back to 1995, was charged with first degree premediated murder. metro.co.uk, 23 Jan 2024.
Maison Sere, from Zimbabwe, a national celebrity after being voted the ugliest person in the country, was found dead on the toilet at home in Mabvuki in December, resulting in the Daily Star titling the report of his death “Ugly Fella Plops Out”. Sere, 51, won Zimbabwe’s “Mr Ugly” title four times, receiving a significant amount of prize money in the process. His friends said of him, “There was no funeral gathering around Mabvuki that he didn’t attend for beer” and linked his death to the alcohol and drug addictions he had fallen into after his winnings ran out. Sere’s victories were not without controversy; rivals claimed that he was actually average-looking and only considered ugly because he was missing so many teeth, including all those in his front upper jaw. D.Star, 9 Dec 2023.
A fire in a truck load of butane cannisters triggered a major blaze at the vape distribution centre it was delivering to in Clinton, Michigan. As the warehouse, which stored butane, nitrous oxide, lighter fluid and vape pens, burned, the smaller cannisters inside the building started exploding, with the blasts producing shrapnel that was later found up to two miles away. Lee Salter, 19, was at a car wash on 15 Mile Road, more than a quarter of a mile away from the inferno, when he was struck in the face by a 15-pound metal cannister that had been blasted out of the building, killing him instantly. The force of the explosions embedded other large cannisters, apparently stored illegally at the warehouse, in buildings and cars across the area, such was the power of the blasts. eu.detroitnews.com, 6 Mar; dailymail.co.uk, 7 Mar 2024.
Gila monsters, half-metre (20in) long lizards endemic to the southern US, have toxic saliva, delivered through grooved teeth; in humans a bite usually produces a short but intense burst of pain, followed by swelling, nausea, and weakness. “It’s like getting your hand slammed, caught in a car door,” says Arizona State University vet Dale DeNardo. “Even that initial pain is extended for an hour. Then you get the typical days of soreness, throbbing pain. It’s much worse than any bee, wasp, or scorpion.” There is no antivenom, but bites are not usually fatal to humans. When Christopher Ward, 34, from Jefferson County, Colorado, was bitten on the hand by one of his pet Gilas, Winston, his reaction was worse than normal; he began vomiting and struggling to breathe within minutes and, despite being rushed to hospital and being put on life support, he died four days later. This makes him just the second person in the last century alleged to have died from Gila monster venom. There have only been six other recorded deaths from Gila venom and the reliability of all but one of these is heavily disputed. Ward’s death is being considered the result of sensitivity to the venom, but Winston and his brother, Potato, have been taken to a reptile sanctuary in South Dakota where tests will be carried out on their venom to see if it has unique qualities that may have contributed to Ward’s death. sciencealert. com, 27 Feb 2024.