21 Very, Very, Very Dark And Tragic Things I Just Learned About That Melted My Brain
Warning: Graphic content ahead including mentions of murder and suicide.
1.In 2004, a man named Peter Porco was brutally attacked in his bed by his son, Christopher (pictured below), with an axe. However, despite multiple blows, Peter did not die right away. He actually stumbled out of bed while spraying blood across the walls and doorways and went about his typical morning routine. Seemingly unaware of what had just happened to him, Peter tried to get dressed, make breakfast, and even made a check out to his son. He eventually collapsed and died, leaving a trail of blood.
ABC News reported, "According to testimony, police and paramedics believed that Peter was operating on adrenaline, and was most likely completely unaware of what had just happened to him and his wife, or the condition of his body."
Christopher was eventually convicted of Peter's murder as well as the attempted murder of his mother, Joan, who sustained life-threatening injuries including the loss of an eye in the same attack. Christopher was sentenced to 50 years to life.
2.The 1918 global flu pandemic lasted only 15 months but killed an estimated 50 million people (for comparison, it's estimated that about 7 million people worldwide have died from COVID since 2020). The virus moved so fast, in fact, that some victims would die within hours. Typically, their lungs filled with fluid, and they would suffocate to death.
A UPenn medical student at the time noted, “After gasping for several hours the patients became delirious and incontinent, and many died struggling to clear their airways of a blood-tinged froth that sometimes gushed from their nose and mouth.”
3.On April 28, 1988, Aloha Airlines flight 243 "broke apart" mid-flight at 24,000 feet, sending a flight attendant to her death. The nightmare scenario lasted 13 minutes. Miraculously, the pilots were able to safely land the plane without any other people dying. However, 65 people were injured, and of course, everyone was left traumatized.
According to one of the passengers, William Flanigan, the flight attendant who died, Clarabelle “C.B.” Lansing, had just been handing his wife a drink when the incident happened. “She had stopped and told us this was the last call. We were going to be descending. And then, whoosh! She was gone. Their hands just touched when it happened," he said.
4.Just last month, a human head washed ashore in Key Biscayne, Florida. It was discovered by someone raking the beach early in the morning. A few days later, it was determined the head belonged to a missing 19-year-old swimmer named Victor Enrique Castaneda Jr.
As reported by NBC News, "Victor went missing Saturday near the jetty area at South Pointe Drive, Miami Beach police said. Castaneda was not found after a three-hour search, police said. The Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner on Friday confirmed remains found Tuesday near Key Biscayne belonged to Castaneda, police said. Witnesses said that a good Samaritan saw Castaneda and his sister struggling in the water and saved the sister first. By the time, the good Samaritan went back for Castaneda, he was nowhere to be found."
A cause and manner of death for Castaneda was not released.
5.Earlier this year, a woman in Kansas died after backing into a plane propeller while she was taking a photo at an airfield.
In a statement to NBC News, Air Capital Drop Zone, a skydiving company who the woman was there with, said, "After the airplane landed, for unknown reasons, as the next group of jumpers was boarding, she moved in front of the wing, a violation of basic safety procedures. With her camera up to shoot photos as she did so, she stepped back slightly, moving toward and into the spinning propeller.”
6.A woman named Paulette Landrieux inexplicably disappeared in 2020, but her case was surprisingly solved with the help of Google Maps. Paulette disappeared one day in November near her home in Belgium. She was never found despite an intense search involving dogs, thermal vision, helicopters, and drones. However, two years later, a policeman was using Google Street View to look at Paulette's house and spotted her crossing the street toward her neighbor's garden. Police returned to the scene and found her body at the bottom of a hill, right below the neighbor's garden. They discovered that she had fallen from an open section and died not long after.
Even more sad is that Paulette's husband could also be seen on Google Street View, but in a different area, hanging laundry, unaware of what was about to happen to his wife.
7.A few years ago, a woman in England, Virginia McCullough, murdered her parents and then lived with their dead bodies for four years. The discovery happened in 2023 after her parents' doctor raised concerns about not hearing from them.
McCullough, who had run up serious debt and was apparently trying to hide it from her parents, admitted to poisoning her father and placing him in a "homemade mausoleum" as well as stabbing her mother to death in June 2019. When police arrived to investigate her home, she actually said, "Cheer up, at least you've caught the bad guy." McCullough will serve a minimum term of 36 years before being considered for release.
8.In October, a young employee was found dead inside the walk-in oven at a Walmart in Canada. The 19-year-old, Gursimran Kaur, was reportedly found by her mother (also an employee at the store) after she hadn't seen her for an hour, which was unusual.
According to NBC News, an investigation determined that Kaur's death was not suspicious and that there was no evidence of foul play.
9.On May 14, 2008, Brandon Swanson, a 19-year-old college student in Marshall, Minnesota, was last seen leaving a friend’s house. After apparently driving into a ditch, he called his parents to pick him up. However, even after talking to him several times on the way, they could never find him. Eventually, during one of the calls he yelled out, "Oh shit!" and that was the last time anyone ever heard from him. His car was later found abandoned in a ditch with the car doors open and keys missing, roughly 25 miles from where he had said he was.
10.A grandmother was killed after a man jumped off of a freeway bridge in Southern California and landed on the car where she was a passenger.
According to KTLA 5, "Margarita Novela Galindo was sitting in the passenger seat as her husband drove on the 210 Freeway in Sylmar. As they traveled under the Roxford Street overpass, a man jumped off the bridge in an act of suicide. His body slammed onto Margarita’s car, crashed through the windshield, and landed on the woman." According to Margarita's son, in a frantic moment, his father pulled over onto the shoulder to get the guy off of her.
Margarita was rushed to a hospital, where she remained in the ICU for weeks. She later died on Aug. 28. Her husband survived the crash without any serious injuries.
11.A man was found dead inside a tanning bed at a Planet Fitness in Indianapolis back in November. The man, 39-year-old Derek Sink, reportedly went into a tanning bed on Friday, Nov. 8, and was found there dead on Monday morning.
Sink's family later said that he struggled with drugs and a needle was found in the room with him, though his cause of death was not released.
12.Just last month, a decomposing body was found in a hole alongside the 101 Freeway at the foot of Los Angeles's Hollywood Hills. Preliminary investigations revealed the body was found at the interchange of the infamous Mulholland Drive and Cahuenga Boulevard.
CHP officials said it was found between two concrete pillars on the southbound side of the right shoulder embankment. The cause of death is not known.
13.In October this year, a woman in Kentucky, Torilena Fields, was accused of killing, dismembering, and then cooking her mother inside a pot on the stove.
According to KTLA 5, after a man reported seeing a woman's dismembered body on Fields's property, "Police found a pot with cooked human remains inside the stove in the kitchen, and it was 'still warm.' Fields also allegedly had blood on her face, hands, and clothing."
Fields was charged with abusing a corpse, evidence tampering, and obstructing government operations.
14.A few months ago, a body was found days after an explosion sent a home up in flames in Monrovia, California.
According to KTLA 5, "Two days after an explosion sparked a fire that tore through a Monrovia home, officials say a body was found in a nearby structure. The body of an unidentified male was found in a shed near the rear of the property that burned. There was no word on the identity of the person found deceased."
There was no explanation on what caused the fire, but an investigation to determine the cause of death of the person found is ongoing.
15.In 2022, a 15-year-old girl, Savannah Graziano, was abducted by her father and then subsequently shot and killed by law enforcement as she was (following instructions) walking toward them on the highway near Hesperia in California.
Earlier, Savannah's mother, Tracy Martinez, had been shot to death near her home in Fontana, and the girl had been declared missing. Her father, Anthony Graziano, had been named the main suspect. After his truck had been spotted, with Anthony and Savannah inside, a 70-mile car chase pursuit ensued.
In a recently released video, Savannah can be seen exiting the vehicle, and then following instructions to "come here" and "walk" before other officers begin to shoot her fatally.
Prior to the release of the video, Sheriff Shannon Dicus had said that "a person believed to be Savannah had gotten out of the passenger side of the vehicle wearing tactical gear and that evidence suggested she was a 'participant in shooting at our deputies.'" However, the release of the video proved that was not true.
Despite receiving medical aid, Savannah died at a hospital from her injuries. Her father also died at the scene.
16.A man, Michael Sparks, who was living in a nudist colony in Redlands, California, was charged with murdering his neighbors back in September. During the investigation, authorities even discovered more human remains on his property.
According to KTLA 5, "Investigators with the Redlands Police Department on Sunday were in their fourth day of an extensive search of Sparks’ property at the Olive Dell Ranch Nudist Resort when they recovered the additional remains. Sparks had barricaded himself with a rifle inside, prompting police to use a drone and then a battering ram to tear through the house. He was located in a cement bunker beneath the residence, the same location where a cadaver dog alerted police to bags stuffed with human remains."
Authorities said it's unclear if the additional human remains found on the property belong to another victim or victims.
17.Back in 2017, a ride at the Ohio State Fair collapsed killing one person and injuring seven others. The ride, called the "Fire Ball," consisted of six rows of seats that spun around 40 feet up in the air as the entire thing moved like a pendulum. According to witnesses, when the ride collapsed, people "flew through the air at least 20 feet before landing on their backs on the concrete."
According to CNN, the ride manufacturer said the accident was caused by "excessive corrosion."
18.In 2022, a man, Jose Rafael Solano Landaeta, used a samurai sword to decapitate his ex-girlfriend, Karino Castro, out in public in the middle of a neighborhood street. According to reports, "horrified witnesses" said they watched Castro "run for her life," as Landaeta chased her with the sword. Castro's grandmother called the killing a "public execution," while a family friend said that Castro's daughters "saw everything."
Before killing Castro, Landaeta had sent threatening messages, including one of a ninja emoji and blood emojis while also threatening to take away their 18-month-old child as well as Castro's older daughter (from a previous relationship).
Landaeta was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
19.Last summer, a man in Oregon, Michael Meyden, was accused of drugging three 12-year-old girls who were staying over at his house for a sleepover with Meyden's daughter.
Meyden allegedly spiked smoothies with benzodiazepines (a drug that can cause sedation and hypnosis), and served them to his daughter and her friends before bedtime. Two of the friends drank the smoothies, while a third tried a little, but stopped because she didn't like the taste. That girl said she "pretended to be asleep" and told authorities that Meyden started "testing" to see if one of the other girls was asleep.
When Meyden left for a moment, the girl called and texted her mom and several other friends. One of those other friend's mom was first to respond and went to the house. The girl then told Meyden she had a family emergency and had to leave.
When the girl got home, she woke her parents, told them what happened and her parents contacted the other two girls' parents who then went to pick up their daughters. All three girls tested positive for benzodiazepine at the hospital later that morning.
Meyden's wife divorced him just weeks after the incident, and he was indicted on multiple charges earlier this year.
20.A 63-year-old man died a horrific death during a flight from Bangkok to Munich this month after experiencing a "medical emergency," and losing "liters of blood." According to witnesses, blood gushed out of his nose and mouth, with some of it even splattering onto the plane's walls. "It was absolute horror. Everyone was screaming," said a passenger.
Although first aid measures were taken by the crew as well as a doctor on board, the passenger died on board, and the flight turned back to Bangkok. In the statement to People, the airline said it could not reveal specific information regarding the incident.
21.Finally, this is a bit more uplifting (albeit still shocking): Earlier this year, a boy who had been abducted over 70 years ago when he was just 6 years old was found alive. Luis Armando Albino was abducted while playing at a park in Oakland, California, in 1951. His niece found him after the assistance of an online DNA test, newspaper clippings, photos, and the help of authorities.
According to CNN, "On Feb. 21, 1951, a woman lured the 6-year-old Albino from the West Oakland park where he had been playing with his older brother and promised the Puerto Rico-born boy in Spanish that she would buy him candy. Instead, the woman kidnapped the child, flying him to the East Coast where he ended up with a couple who raised him as if he were their own son."
Albino was reunited with his family in June 2024, and he was reunited with his long-lost brother Roger then and one more time before Roger died in August of this year.
Dial 988 in the US to reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Other international suicide helplines can be found at befrienders.org. The Trevor Project, which provides help and suicide-prevention resources for LGBTQ youth, is 1-866-488-7386.
