Tag: mysterious deaths

Birthday Present Filled With Grenades Kills Aide To Ukraine’s Top Commander

An entirely bizarre story is widely circulating in international headlines on the ‘accidental’ death of a high-ranking Ukrainian military commander. 

A top aide to Ukraine’s armed forces commander-in-chief, Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, has died Monday after what was initially reported as an “unknown explosive device” went off inside a birthday present he was handed. 

He’s been identified as Major Hennadii Chastiakov, and details have since emerged saying he was given a gift box full of grenades. An urgent Telegram post from Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs Ihor Klymenko might be among the strangest war time announcements out of Kiev yet.

The post was translated by the Washington Post as follows:

Gen. Valery Zaluzhny said that his assistant, Maj. Hennadii Chastiakov, was killed under “tragic circumstances” while celebrating his birthday with relatives when “an unknown explosive device went off in one of the gifts.” His 13-year-old son was also seriously injured, the National Police of Ukraine said. 

The below image is now circulating on Ukrainian news sites and social media. The Washington Post commented:

In one photo, what appear to be several grenades or grenade-shaped items are scattered across the floor. On social media, some jumped to the conclusion that Chastiakov’s death had been an assassination rather than a mistake.

“I pray to God that this was a tragic coincidence and not a targeted attack,” wrote Dana Yarova, member of the Defense Ministry’s anti-corruption council.

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Death on the ice: Was the skate blade that fatally slashed the throat of a Nottingham ice hockey star really just a freak accident?

The clock has just struck 8.15pm and inside Sheffield’s Utilita Arena a showdown between the two biggest rivals in British ice hockey is simmering towards what promises to be a gripping climax.

Moments ago, a burly Canadian named Patrick Watling smashed the puck into the top corner of the visiting side’s goal, putting the orange-clad home team, the Steelers, 2-1 ahead in a closely contested cup game.

Most of the 8,000-strong crowd, which includes many families decked out in Halloween-themed fancy dress, are now hoping this slender lead will hold until the second of the game’s three time periods.

Yet, with five minutes to go, Adam Johnson, who plays for the visiting Nottingham Panthers, makes a dangerous break up the left-hand side of the rink, snaking his way into the attacking zone.

The awful sequence of events that unfolds in the next few seconds of Saturday night’s encounter will be seen, and talked about, around the world.

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Blonde woman found dead face-down in Florida creek nearly 40 years ago is finally identified as wife in notorious Boston crime family after investigators match DNA from bone fragments to her daughter

A murder victim whose body was found face down in a Florida canal in 1984 has finally been identified, 40 years later. 

Lori Jane Kearsey was just 23 when she went missing after marrying into an infamous Boston crime family. 

She was found dead in a canal on the 2600 block of Southwest 130th Avenue in Davie, South Florida on February 18, 1984, having been strangled.  

Despite releasing her description, blonde, hazel eyes, 5’4 and 120 pounds, police were not able to identify the victim.

However, a breakthrough came when the use of DNA from Kearsey’s bone fragments led investigators to find a match with her daughter Maehgan Smith, who lives in Gloucester, Massachusetts.

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New Information Emerges on Death of Barack Obama’s Personal Chef

More details have emerged concerning the death of Tafari Campbell, a chef to former U.S. President Barack Hussein Obama, causing further speculation about the circumstances of Campbell’s death.

“We have new information tonight in the drowning death of Obama’s chef Tafari Campbell,” the eponymous host of the Fox News show “Jesse Watters Primetime” announced on Friday. “The Massachusetts State Police responded to our FOIA request and released their report with some redactions.”

“According to the report, Obama was on the scene shortly after Campbell went missing,” Watters said. “The report also states an unmanned female staffer jumped into the water when Tafari fell off his board, but it was already too late. He disappeared.”

“We also now know that Secret Service has surveillance footage of Campbell from Obama’s compound moments before he entered the water,” the host said. “So we’re going to see if we can get that, and we may have that for you. Again, we’re very, very sorry for Tafari’s family. That was a serious, serious tragedy,” he said.

Judicial Watch, a watchdog group, made these details public on its website. Many key figures and locations in the report were redacted for confidentiality.

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Epstein Victim Who Testified Against Ghislaine Maxwell Has Died—and Her Family Wants Answers

Carolyn Andriano, a victim of sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein whose testimony was crucial to putting away his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, has died.

There was no obituary or funeral service after she died earlier this year, and police in West Palm Beach, Florida, opened an investigation into her death. After The Daily Beast reached out for comment, police spokesman Mike Jachles told us that the investigation was concluding and that Carolyn died of an accidental overdose.

The 36-year-old mother-of-five had planned to start a new chapter in North Carolina, at a new house with a fireplace and half-acre lot with a chicken coop. Carolyn and her husband, John Pitts, had purchased the property just weeks before she was found unresponsive in a West Palm Beach hotel room on May 23.

Before her death, “she was ecstatic,” Carolyn’s mother, Dorothy Groenert, told The Daily Beast. “She was all set up for a whole new lifestyle.”

Groenert says Carolyn’s death came as a shock because she was working on building a new life and texted her recently about being free of drugs and alcohol.

The way Groenert sees it, some things about her daughter’s overdose don’t make sense, and she wants cops to investigate further.

Jachles, however, said that Carolyn’s case would officially be closed this week. Officers on the scene took a statement from Pitts, who told them that Carolyn had been using drugs, and Carolyn’s brother, who rushed to the hotel after Pitts texted Groenert that Carolyn had died. Pitts tried to administer CPR and “was given directions over the phone with 911,” Jachles said.

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Six Suspects in Ecuadorian Presidential Candidate’s Assassination Found Dead in Jail

According to a report from CBS news, six inmates at the Litoral Penitentiary, all of whom were suspects in the August assassination of a presidential candidate in Ecuador, were killed on Oct. 6.

The inmates, all Colombian nationals, were accused of killing former presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio. They were identified as: Jhon Gregore R., Andrés Manuel M., Adey Fernando G., Camilo Andrés R., Sules Osmini C. and José Neyder L.

Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso announced that he would immediately convene the Security Cabinet, expressing his commitment to uncovering the truth behind the incidents, emphasizing there would be no complicity or cover-up in the investigation. 

“Following the information about the six crimes that occurred in the Deprivation of Liberty Center No. 1, in Guayaquil, I have ordered an immediate meeting of the Security Cabinet,” Lasso wrote on X, according to the site’s translation system. “In the next few hours I will return to Ecuador to attend to this emergency. Neither complicity nor cover-up, here the truth will be known.”

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Their son’s prison death was under investigation — then the funeral home found evidence in his body bag

Patrick LeBranch Jr. had just viewed the body of his brother at the Richardson Funeral Home of Jefferson in River Ridge when the funeral director pulled him aside. Something strange had happened, LeBranch said the man told him. He handed LeBranch a bulky, clear plastic bag sealed with red tape. On the front, in all black capitalized letters, was the word “EVIDENCE.”

LeBranch’s brother, Markus Lanieux Jr., had been found dead in early September while in state custody at the Raymond Laborde Correctional Center in Cottonport. Prison officials told the family Lanieux killed himself, but they wouldn’t say how, or provide any additional information.

Lanieux Jr. is the son of Markus Lanieux, who is serving a life sentence at Elayn Hunt Correctional Center in St. Gabriel and was the subject of a joint report on Sept. 8 by Verite News and ProPublica. Lanieux Jr. died the day before that story was published. The death is still under investigation, according to corrections officials.

LeBranch held the plastic bag, squeezing the contents gently as he continued to read. Next to a line marked, “Description and/or location,” someone had written, “Sheet modified into a rope.” Inside the plastic bag was the bedsheet his brother had allegedly used to hang himself the prior week. LeBranch said the funeral director told him it came with his brother inside the body bag.

From the moment Laborde’s warden, Marcus Myers, told the family of Lanieux Jr. that the 22-year-old died by apparent suicide, they’ve had questions about it. While they don’t have firm evidence to suggest anything other than suicide, they reported receiving phone calls from Laborde inmates urging them to challenge the prison’s version of events. Adding to their doubts, family members said, is a lack of communication from Laborde.

A few days after getting the news, the family said prison officials cut off all contact. When they tried to call Myers back, an assistant instructed them to direct any future questions to Jonathan Vining, general counsel for the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections. Despite calling him repeatedly, the family said Vining hasn’t returned any of their messages.

Then came the evidence bag, further deepening the family’s concerns about how the investigation was being handled.

“It took me for a loop,” LeBranch said of that moment when the funeral director handed him the evidence bag, which is still in the family’s possession. “For y’all to say he took his life, and this is y’all’s evidence — why would it be down here with us?”

Katherine Mattes, director of the Criminal Justice Clinic at Tulane Law School, said she has never heard of an evidence bag related to an in-custody death being misplaced like this. She described it as “bizarre” and said it is “certainly understandable why this mistake would cause the family to not trust the integrity of an investigation.”

The Department of Corrections acknowledged that the evidence should not have been sent to the funeral home with Lanieux’s body. A DOC spokesman, however, indicated the blame lies outside of the department.

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Flight Attendant Found Dead in Philadelphia Hotel with Sock in Mouth Identified

Officials have identified the 66-year-old American Airlines flight attendant found dead late Monday in a Philadelphia hotel room with a sock in her mouth.

According to authorities, Diana Ramos’s body was found at the Philadelphia Airport Marriott, Fox News reported Thursday.

Housekeepers in the building discovered her body just before 11:00 p.m., according to Breitbart News, noting she was supposed to have checked out of the hotel two days before.

There were reportedly no signs indicating forced entry or a struggle at the scene.

An image shows Ramos, who was reportedly from Las Vegas. A Fly Guy’s Crew Lounge described her as a “seasoned crew member.”

Officials are calling her death “suspicious” and homicide investigators are working to gather answers in the case. According to law enforcement, there were no weapons found at the scene and no one has been arrested regarding the incident.

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American Airlines Flight Attendant Found Dead With Sock in Her Mouth in Hotel Room

Editor’s note: New information has come to light, and it has been confirmed that it was a “cloth” rather than a “sock” that was found in the airline attendant’s mouth, according to the New York Post.

An American Airlines attendant has been found dead in a hotel room in Philadelphia.

The attendant’s identity has not been made public. According to NBC 10 News, Chief Inspector Scott Small reported the cause of death “has not been determined.”

Small added the following details:

The attendant was 66 and a resident of Las Vegas.

The woman was found by the Marriott hotel cleaning staff. Medics responded quickly and pronounced her dead at the scene at 10:40 a.m., Monday, Sept. 25.

The woman was to have checked out two days prior.

Sealed prescription bottles were found inside the room.

Officials have verified that the attendant had been prescribed “several medications.”

The room showed no signs of forced entry or struggle.

No weapons were found inside the room.

The woman’s identity is being withheld pending an autopsy.

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26-Year-Old Tech CEO Pava LaPere Found Dead With Blunt-Force Trauma Inside Her Apartment

Tech CEO Pava LaPere, 26, has been found dead in her apartment with “blunt force trauma.”

LaPere had been on the Forbes “30 under 30” list for her success in the tech world.

LaPere was reported missing on Monday and was found a short time later in her Mount Vernon luxury apartment.

The EcoMap tech company founder was found with “blunt force trauma,” according to local police.

Few details are available at this time. The New York Post announced her social media accounts indicated “she was single” and that it “is unknown whether LaPere had any guests over prior to her death.”

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