Gruesome Deaths and Attacks #3

 Some more macabre news stories I've come across:

• "Horrifying moment python's bulging belly wriggles as grandmother is found swallowed whole inside the snake"--The Daily Mail. I'm old enough to remember when stories like these were dismissed by experts as superstition and old wives' tales. But I'm also old enough to remember when there were no confirmed attacks by mountain lions on humans in North America.

    This is the horrifying moment a python's bulging stomach appeared to wriggle - before a family found their grandmother swallowed whole inside.

    The anxious family of a missing woman tracked the snake down to a patch of dense vegetation in South Sulawesi, Indonesia yesterday afternoon.

    Locals feared for the worst when they saw the 26ft serpent weighed down by a large bulge in its stomach.

    Slashing into the snake, they found the body of 66-year-old Hasia, who had vanished while walking home from her job at a rubber plantation.

    The snake is believed to have pounced from the tall grass and clamped down on her leg, causing her to fall.

    Hasia battled to escape from its grip, but was squeezed to death while being swallowed whole, it was reported locally.

• "Nine students found dismembered by side of Mexico highway after disappearing on vacation"--New York Post. 

    The bodies of nine students who went missing on vacation in southern Mexico last month have been found dismembered by the side of a local highway — with a bag of hands nearby.

    The group’s gruesome remains were discovered in the trunk of an abandoned vehicle and underneath a blood-covered tarp in San Jose Miahuatlan on the border of the Mexican states of Puebla and Oaxaca.

    Four of the bodies were in the trunk, while the other five corpses were left under the tarp. 

    A bag with eight pairs of hands was also found at the scene, with two more hands left in the trunk, reported Periodico Central.

    The bodies of the four women and five men, ages 19 to 30, all had bullet wounds and signs of torture, according to El Financiero.

• Speaking of being disarmed: "Two tourists die when one has arm ripped off by shark and another drowns after they are swept away from their dive group by strong currents in the Philippines"--Daily Mail. 

    Two Russian divers have died in the Philippines after being swept away by strong undercurrents - with one believed to have drowned and the other mauled in a horrifying shark attack, according to officials.

    Four Russian men aged 18 to 57 were diving with a Filipino dive instructor in a popular destination near the resort area of Batangas on Thursday when they were separated by the current, coast guards said.

    While two members of the group and the instructor managed to swim back safely to their boat, two of the tourists, who were identified as Ilia Peregudin, 29, and Maksim Melekhov, 39, went missing.

    The dive instructor and other divers in the area, along with Philippine coast guard personnel, immediately launched a search, according to officials.

    The first man found by rescuers floating in the water, and was pronounced dead on arrival at a local hospital, coast guard district chief Airland Lapitan Lapitan said.

    The second missing diver was found later that evening 'being attacked by sharks', Lapitan said.

    It took the rescuers more than half an hour to prize him away from the predators, but eventually, he said, 'they somehow managed to pull him away.'

    The man lost his right arm in the vicious attack, with Lapitan saying it had been severed as the sharks pulled at him.

• "Missing fisherman pulled overboard by massive shark: police"--New York Post. The fisherman had apparently captured the shark in a net, but was pulled overboard by the shark while attempting to reel in the net, and drowned.
  
• "Child snatcher, 61, who lured nine-year-old girl out of store with a lollipop meets violent end"--Daily Mail.  A fitting end:

    New footage captured the moment a 61-year-old man lured a nine-year-old girl into his convenience store in Brazil moments before an angry mob beat him to death.

    Marco Jacob was seen standing by the exit of the shop in the southeastern city of Tramandaí when the girl followed him inside, surveillance camera showed.

    The child's family told police that she was given permission to visit a neighborhood plaza for a playdate before she failed to return home. 

    The video showed the girl walking past the store and stopping in front of a house before she walked over to Jacob.

    After speaking for about 16 seconds, the girl ran on to the street and appeared to walk away, but turned around and followed Jacob into the store.

    She was reported missing around 7 pm local time and residents joined her family in an all-out search by putting up posters and pictures of her in the neighborhood. 

* * *

    Cell phone video showed the frantic moment cops barged through the convenience store, tossing crates to the side before they located the girl locked away underground beneath a trapdoor.

    The child was eventually carried out of her makeshift dungeon by one of the cops as she shouted, 'I was abused,' while Jacob is slammed to the ground

    A person who witnessed the rescue alerted neighbors, who surrounded the store and wrestled Jacob away from the police and killed him on the spot.

• "Adorable girl, 4, almost eaten by wild animal seconds after stepping out of stunning $2.3m home"--Daily Mail. Okay, not gruesome, but still unnerving. 

    A little girl was almost dragged away by a coyote seconds after stepping outside her family's stunning $2.3 million home in a ritzy Seattle suburb.  

    Chang Tong was right behind his daughter Lena when she stepped outside their gorgeous Craftsman home and was immediately attacked by the wild dog on Tuesday.

    Tong said they thought the gray-and-white canine was a pet dog, so Lena reached out to pet it - but it responded by latching its jaws onto her palm and dragging her.

The girl's father was able to scare the animal away, but imagine if the girl had gone outside on her own.

• Literally FAFO: "Ex-con decapitated man who impregnated his wife while he was in prison: cops"--New York Post.

    An ex-con strangled and decapitated a man who impregnated his wife while he was locked up in prison, authorities say.

    The victim’s hands were chopped off, too — and one was later found by a 5-year-old boy in a mail box.

    Anthony Newton, 45, is now charged in the gruesome murder of Ulisys “Cesar” Molina, whose burned, dismembered body was found in a vacant lot outside Las Vegas in 2017 after his family reported him missing, according to KLAS.

The article also observes that "Molina’s head and other hand were never found."

• "Months After Student's Remains Were Found in Well, Authorities Discovered More of Him — but Still Don't Know How He Died"--People. 

    Authorities in Texas have confirmed that a human rib found last December belonged to Texas A&M student Caleb Harris, whose remains were found in a wastewater well months earlier.

    The latest update into the tragic death of the college student came on Friday, March 28, when the Corpus Christi Police Department (CCPD) said a city employee at the Greenwood Water Recycling Plant found the bone on Dec. 2, 2024.

    “The Greenwood Water Recycling Plant is the same location where the contents of the Perry Place lift station were transported to in June 2024, following the discovery of Caleb Harris's remains,” authorities continued.