Tag: mysterious deaths

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Jeffrey Epstein whistleblower Simon Andriesz found dead in Thailand aged 57 just weeks after issuing disturbing warning

A British banker who blew the whistle on an alleged million-dollar deal involving Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has been found dead in Thailand, just weeks after vowing to expose further explosive evidence.

Simon Andriesz, 57, was reportedly found hanged on September 23 in what has been described as an apparent suicide, according to Radar Online.

His death came just weeks after he publicly detailed the “devastating” consequences of speaking out and hinted that he was preparing to reveal more about an alleged financial arrangement involving the disgraced former prince.

Andriesz had previously accused the former Duke of York of being at the centre of a proposed £1 million (about AUD$2 million) deal designed to secure valuable introductions and connections cultivated during his decade-long stint as Britain’s special trade envoy.

Mountbatten-Windsor held the prestigious position between 2001 and 2011, during which he travelled extensively and developed relationships with wealthy business figures and foreign governments.

On July 14, Andriesz spoke to BBC journalist Andy Verity for the File on 4 Investigates documentary, Epstein Files: Lutnick, the Royals and the British Whistleblower.

During the investigation, the former banker made the extraordinary allegation that a proposed loan was effectively designed to purchase access to the former Duke of York’s influential network.

“What it involved was a loan to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor of £1 million (or about AUD$2 million) … to basically buy a prince.”

Andriesz also claimed to have uncovered evidence suggesting US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had failed to disclose business dealings involving convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

The whistleblower previously served as a managing director at financial brokerage BGC Group, where Lutnick had been chief executive.

He alleged the company had been eager to strike the £1 million arrangement with Mountbatten-Windsor in exchange for introductions to wealthy individuals and sovereign institutions.

The allegations have not been established in court. However, it was a cryptic social media post published just weeks before Andriesz’s death that has since attracted renewed attention.

On August 9, the banker took to X to describe the enormous personal toll he claimed to have suffered after coming forward.

“The personal consequences of whistleblowing, and the retaliation I say followed, have been devastating for my family and me.”

In the same post, Andriesz suggested he was not finished speaking out, indicating that further revelations could be on the horizon.

“I intend to share more of the evidence and the story behind what happened.”

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Defense Attorney For Former Crips Leader Found Guilty in Murder of Rapper Tupac Shakur Found Dead in His Vegas Home

Michael Sanft, the 55-year-old defense attorney who represented former Crips leader Duane “Keffe D” Davis, who was found guilty in the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur, was found dead in his Las Vegas home on Friday.

Details surrounding Michael Sanft’s death are unclear.

A Las Vegas jury in August found former Crips gang leader Duane “Keffe D” Davis guilty of first-degree murder in the killing of rapper Tupac Shakur.

25-year-old Tupac Shakur was gunned down in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada, in September 1996.

Rap record executive Suge Knight was driving a BMW while Tupac was riding as a passenger when passengers in a white Cadillac pulled up and opened fire on the rapper.

Prosecutors did not allege that Duane Davis pulled the trigger, but under Nevada law, anyone who helps aid, abet, or orchestrate a murder can be criminally charged.

Duane Davis is the only person to be charged in the murder of Tupac Shakur.

Michael Sanft reportedly died Thursday night just days after he filed a notice of appeal of the conviction.

Fox 5 Vegas reported:

Michael Sanft, the defense attorney who represented Duane “Keffe D” Davis in the Tupac Shakur murder trial, has died.

Sources tell FOX5 that Sanft was reported dead on Thursday night in Las Vegas. On Friday, the Clark County Coroner’s Office confirmed the 55 year old’s passing.

A cause and manner of death remains pending. Details surrounding his death are limited, with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department referring all inquiries to the coroner’s office.

Sanft was the lead trial attorney at SOS Injury Lawyers, where he tried over 150 cases to jury verdict and argued before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. According to his website, he moved to San Diego at the age of 12 and later attended BYU-Hawaii.

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The Epstein 20 – There Are Now 20 People Connected To Epstein Who Have Wound Up Dead

A mere 20 people with connections to Epstein have been killed in recent years—the latest was last week.

Sorry, not killed. I meant to say “they chose to take their own lives rather than keep telling the world about the powerful men involved in a horrible sex trafficking enterprise.” Oh, and some of them died from “natural causes” like the highly contagious Rope Around Neck Syndrome or the tragically rare Fall From Tree Disease.

Here’s the list that should be on the front page of every newspaper but isn’t.

  1. Jeffrey Epstein – hanged in jail cell with a mysterious vanishing noose – 2019
  2. Jean-Luc Brunel – French fashion designer and Epstein co-conspirator – also hanged in his jail cell – 2022
  3. Carolyn Andriano – Epstein survivor who gave testimony that helped convict Ghislaine Maxwell – drug overdose – 2023
  4. Virginia Giuffre – The most prominent Epstein victim and accuser – stated publicly she would never take her own life then took her own life – this came months after surviving a bus hitting her – 2025
  5. Daniel Siad – “Modeling scout” who worked extensively with Epstein – was under investigation in France when he had a “heart attack” – 2026
  6. Efrain “Stone” Reyes – Epstein’s final prison cellmate who provided information to authorities – died of “Covid complications” – 2020
  7. Mark Middleton – White House aide to Epstein buddy Bill Clinton – he facilitated several events with Epstein – died from both hanging and shooting himself, which means he either shot himself and then got to work on the hanging or hanged himself and then, while hanging there, shot himself – 2022
  8. Steven Hoffenberg – Business associate who alleged Epstein’s involvement in his Ponzi scheme – 2022
  9. Ken Starr – Epstein’s lawyer during his 2008 plea deal – 2022
  10. Roy Black – Epstein’s other lawyer during his 2008 plea deal – 2025
  11. Umar Dzhabrailov – Russian senator with connections to Epstein – died of Gunshot To Chest Disease – 2026
  12. Simon Andriesz – Banker and whistleblower who revealed business ties between Epstein and Trump’s Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick – died by tripping and falling into a noose – 2026
  13. Thomas Bowers – Former Deutsche Bank wealth management executive with ties to Epstein – died by hanging – 2019
  14. Steve Bing – Film producer and political donor who reportedly contacted the FBI about Epstein – died by accidentally jumping out of a Los Angeles high-rise – 2020
  15. Valentin Broeksmit – Deutsche Bank whistleblower, possibly had direct information about Epstein’s business transactions – died by fall from a tree… after getting locked in a breezeway… at a middle school he had no connection to… on a Sunday night… when the school wasn’t open… – 2022
  16. Alberto Pinto – Epstein’s interior designer – 2012
  17. Al Seckel – Organized events for Epstein – died after enjoying a long, scenic walk off a 100-foot cliff – 2015
  18. Joseph Recarey – police officer who first built the case against Epstein – died from sleeping at age 50 (reported as complications from sleep apnea) – 2018
  19. Leigh “Skye” Patrick – Epstein survivor – died of an “accidental” overdose – 2018
  20. Annabelle Neilson – Socialite closely tied to Epstein – died of a stroke – 2018

So there you have it—the 20 people with close ties and information on Jeffrey Epstein and his associates who have died in recent years. I left out the few people who were ancient (one was 95 years old) and the people who died before Epstein’s first 2008 arrest. But this list, of course, can’t include other possible victims who died even before they were able to come forward to reveal anything.

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100 years later, the mystery of Houdini’s death endures

Harry Houdini, the greatest escape artist who ever lived, has been the subject of hundreds of books and movies. A pop icon, even today. He died 100 years ago this week, on Halloween – a coincidence that did nothing to diminish his mystique. But we’ll get to that.

Erik Weisz was born in Hungary, in 1874. When he was four, the family moved to Wisconsin. As a teenager, he performed magic tricks in sideshows and beer halls. “He was a skinny kid, and he built himself up,” said New Yorker staff writer David Denby. “He became this beautiful, incredible body, and he was a handsome man.”

But according to Denby, he wanted a catchier name. He turned to his idol, Houdin, the great French magician of the 19th century: “So, he took the name Houdin and added an i and pronounced it as Houdini. But the name always sounded funny. It’s vaguely Italian, but it’s not. What is it?”

Houdini historian Roger Dreyer owns one of the world’s largest collections of Houdini artifacts, such as the Metamorphosis Trunk. He says Houdini’s magic tricks didn’t exactly bring the house down. “If he was to perform it today, he wouldn’t even make it past the second round on ‘America’s Got Talent,'” Dreyer said. “It wasn’t until his Metamorphosis Trunk that Houdini really became bookable; theaters wanted to see his act. People today, over 100 years after Houdini’s death, still perform this exact same trick.”

After being locked in a trunk, Houdini switched places with his new wife, Bess, instantly. But once he added handcuff escapes to his show, Houdini became a sensation. Denby said, “He would be put in a cell, virtually naked, shackled. He’d come out 20 minutes later holding the handcuffs. The specialists were called out of their corners to produce the most complicated locks for him. He’d lick it every time. There’s no record of his failure.”

Denby says there was symbolism in his escapes: “He would defeat those police forces all over the world. And so, there was definitely a kind of anti-authoritarian message that people liked.”

In time, the act was more than escaping shackles. It became about escaping death. “He always reinvented himself,” Dreyer said. “Initially, he got out of a trunk. Then Houdini got out of a straitjacket. Then Houdini would get out of a straitjacket hanging from a crane. Then Houdini would go inside a live jumbo water tank upside down.”

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Kurt Cobain’s death investigation takes new turn over cop’s shocking claim casting doubt on suicide

Seattle’s ex-top cop admitted there were contradictions between key evidence and what was concluded in the police report on the 1994 death of Kurt Cobain, according to bombshell claims being probed by the city.

The city’s Office of Police Accountability recently began probing the shocking allegation: that former Chief Shon Barnes “acknowledged evidence collected” when the Nirvana frontman died was “contradictory” to what had been stated in the original police report, people involved with the investigation told The Post.

Grunge legend Cobain was just 27 when he was found with dead with a gunshot wound to the head in a greenhouse at his Seattle mansion in April 1994. Within hours, investigators declared his death a suicide.

But Barnes allegedly noted during a sit-down with private investigators on the case last year that there was no blood found on the hand that Cobain supposedly shot himself with — a potentially crucial issue with the suicide determination.

Barnes’ shocking admission is alleged to have come during a November 2025 meeting that the then-commish had with “Who Killed Kurt?” — a group of volunteer researchers who believe Cobain’s death was a homicide staged to look like a suicide and have been campaigning for the case to be reopened.

Barnes met with the group’s lead investigator, Michelle Wilkins, and its legal adviser, former local King County senior prosecutor Mark Larson, at cop headquarters to discuss the findings of a peer-reviewed paper which concluded Cobain was murdered.

“Who Killed Kurt?” claims that during the meeting, they discussed forensic evidence which shows an apparent absence of blood on Cobain’s left hand, which the musician is supposed to have used to hold

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“I Know The Truth”: Mother Breaks Silence On Daughter’s Mysterious Death At Russian Plague Lab

The mother of a Russian scientist who died under mysterious circumstances at a high-security plague laboratory is speaking out, accusing medical authorities of allowing her daughter to die as questions mount over what happened inside the facility.

Darya Shipilova, 28, died October 2 after developing a rapidly progressing illness while working at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute in Siberia, a facility that handles some of the world’s most dangerous pathogens.

This week, Shipilova’s mother raised explosive questions about the Russian government’s official account.

“They simply let my daughter die,” Svetlana Shipilova alleged, according to the Independent.

The grieving mother also challenged reports suggesting her daughter accidentally broke a test tube containing hazardous biological material, arguing that the laboratory’s protective containers were virtually impossible to shatter.

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Dead Before Questioning: Another Epstein Recruiter Dies in Mysterious Circumstances

Ghislaine Maxwell is serving twenty years in federal prison for conspiring with Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse minors. Jean-Luc Brunel, the French modelling agent accused of supplying Epstein with young women, died in his cell in Paris in 2022 while awaiting trial on charges of raping minors. Epstein was found dead in a Manhattan jail in 2019. A fourth name emerged from the documents released by the United States Department of Justice. The 68-year-old man, whose name is featured 1,841 times in the DOJ files on Epstein, died before French investigators could question him. Daniel Amar Siad was found dead at his home in Colombes, northwest of Paris, on 20 July 2026.

On 18 February 2026, the Paris prosecutor’s office opened a framework investigation into organised human trafficking and criminal conspiracy in preparation for a crime. It entrusted the inquiry to France’s Central Office for the Repression of Human Trafficking, known as OCRTEH.  Five rape and trafficking complaints had been filed against him since 2022, but Siad had always denied the accusations and said he was ready to face his accusers.

Investigators were expected to interview him. A lawyer for several of the women said he was due to be questioned shortly; Le Parisien reported that some had been assured he would be taken into police custody before the summer. Neither happened.

His death ensured that investigators would never hear his account of the Epstein network with which the documents linked him for years. Ebba Karlsson, the Swedish former model who accused Siad of raping her after luring her to the Côte d’Azur with promises of modelling work, later said she believed he had been “eliminated” because “he had too many connections with powerful people.” The cause of his death had still not been established publicly when this article was completed.

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Long-Time Republican Missouri Prosecutor Found Dead Inside Courthouse at 53 Following Reported “Incident”

A long-time Missouri Republican prosecutor has been discovered deceased inside a place he regularly practiced his profession.

As Fox 4 Kansas City reported, law enforcement officials responded to the Platte County Courthouse on Thursday, where they discovered the body of Platte County Prosecuting Attorney Eric Zahnd. He was just 53 years old.

The Platte County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Zahnd died following a reported “incident” at the Platte County Courthouse.

The building was closed at 2:15 local time on Thursday and remains shut down. All employees were sent home.

The courthouse is expected to reopen on Monday.

Authorities have not determined an official cause of death and continue to investigate. They have assured the public that there is no threat.

Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway released the following statement in response to Zahnd’s passing:

I am deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Platte County Prosecutor Eric Zahnd.

I have known Eric for many years and have always held him in the highest regard. Eric was a true patriot, a person of remarkable character and integrity, and a public servant who cared deeply about his community.

We are very grateful for his dedication to public safety, the rule of law, and Platte County.

My thoughts and prayers are with his wife, Tracy, and sons, Benjamin and Luke, during this incredibly difficult time.

Zahnd, a Republican, was the longest serving prosecuting attorney in Platte County’s history. He had been in the role since 2002.

He was recognized as Missouri’s Prosecutor of the Year in 2014.

Zahnd announced in April that he would be retiring after serving more than two decades in politics.

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DNA analyst linked to JonBenet Ramsey case sentenced to 10 years in prison for mishandling evidence

A former DNA analyst with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation — who was employed there at the time of JonBenét Ramsey‘s 1996 murder — was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Tuesday, September 8 after pleading guilty to four charges related to mishandling or manipulating investigations.

As In Touch previously reported, an internal investigation by the CBI found that Yvonne “Missy” Woods, 66, had omitted facts, tampered with DNA results and violated lab policies in more than 1,000 cases. She agreed to plead guilty to cybercrime, perjury, attempt to influence a public servant and forgery in a deal in which 100 other charges were dropped.

“At its core, this case is about trust — the extraordinary trust placed in Ms. Woods, and her breach of that trust,” District Judge Andrew Poland said as he imposed the sentence in Jefferson County Court in Golden, Colorado, per The Denver Post.

“I know an apology cannot undo the harm or restore the trust that was lost,” Woods said during the hearing, the outlet reported. “For many years I was entrusted with evidence that could have profound consequences for defendants, victims, families and the courts. I failed that responsibility. I am deeply sorry for that failure.”

It’s unclear what involvement Woods may have had in DNA analysis following the murder of JonBénet, who was found bludgeoned and strangled in the basement of her family’s upscale Boulder home on December 26, 1996.

However, the attorney for Michael Clark — whose conviction for a 1994 murder in Boulder was overturned in 2025 because DNA testing was botched by Woods — attempted to connect the two cases ahead of his retrial. Defense lawyer Adam Frank tried to subpoena the records from the first 48 hours after the 6-year-old’s death, alleging investigators were “woefully incompetent” and “committed colossal mistakes,” according to court documents obtained by In Touch.

A judge rejected his request, according to Colorado Politics, but Woods’ plea sparked renewed interest in one of the country’s most enduring unsolved mysteries.

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Mistress of Imprisoned Ex-FBI Special Agent Tried to Report His Crimes with China and the Bidens – Now She’s Dead

Allison Guerriero, FBI Agent Charles McGonigal’s ex-mistress turned whistleblower, wrote the following on her Substack about the OIG politely declining to investigate her claims that former top Biden FBI Executive, Charles McGonigal was involved in fraudulent activities with China as well as with Europeans. (emphasis added)

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The Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General (OIG) officially declined to open a case into the FBI’s handling of matters involving Charles McGonigal — and instead punted the whole thing back to, wait for it… the FBI.

Hmmm so the FBI is involved in some alleged crimes and corruption? What better agency to investigate this than the FBI!

The jokes just write themselves…

Yes, really.

It is my belief that I witnessed deeply troubling conduct by former senior FBI official Charles McGonigal. I reported that conduct through the appropriate channels, at great personal risk. It is also my belief that this conduct involved potential espionage, uncharged sanctions violations, and serious financial irregularities.

So naturally, the agency I believe helped cover it up is now being asked to investigate… itself.

This is like reporting your house was robbed, and the police say:

“Don’t worry, the suspect you named is a retired cop — he’ll drop by later and see if you’re missing anything.”

Honestly, I expected the OIG to decline and I was looking forward to posting it solely for the jokes. Every whistleblower I’ve ever spoken to receives some version of the same polite form letter. It’s like a “thank you for your bravery” Hallmark card, sealed with a bureaucratic shrug.

To be clear: it is my belief that this isn’t about one bad actor. I believe this is systemic. The same system that failed to act on credible information is now in charge of reviewing itself — and we’re all supposed to pretend that’s accountability.

It’s not.

But I’m still here. I’m still speaking out. And I’m still fighting — despite the retaliation, the legal bills, and the silence from the very institutions that were supposed to protect whistleblowers like me.

If you’d like to help me stay in this fight, please consider supporting my legal defense and basic expenses here:

http://www.GiveSendGo.com/AllisonGuerriero

And you can follow me on X (formerly Twitter), where I post updates, public filings, and the kind of truths that make federal agencies squirm:

Thanks for reading. More to come.

— Allison Guerriero

(See the letter from the OIG at Ms. Guerriero’s Substack) 

Ms. Guerriero was correct.  It turns out FBI’s finest – Charles McGonigal – was providing secret information to China related to Hunter Biden’s business in China and was never convicted under the Biden Administration.  This is reported from the same entity that recently turned down a review of Ms. Guerriero’s complaint into the same matter.

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