This list of unusual deaths includes unique or extremely rare circumstances of death recorded throughout the 21st century, noted as being unusual by multiple sources.
2000s Name of personImageDate of deathCountryDetailsBernd BrandesThe 43-year-old engineer was voluntarily slaughtered and eaten by Armin Meiwes following an appointment via the Internet at Meiwes' home in Rotenburg. At Brandes' request, Meiwes first severed Brandes' penis, and they unsuccessfully tried to eat it. Meiwes taped the entire amputation, killing, conserving, and eating Brandes' meat. Meiwes was eventually arrested, tried, and sentenced to life in prison.Unknown manA man in his mid-50s was visiting his mother's house in Vernon, British Columbia, to attend his father's funeral. While cleaning the kitchen, he tripped over the open dishwasher door and was fatally impaled on knives sticking up out of the cutlery tray.Michael Colombini The 6-year-old died during an MRI scan at Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, New York, after an oxygen tank was magnetically pulled into the machine and fractured his skull.Brittanie CecilThe 13-year-old died from her injuries at a National Hockey League (NHL) game in Columbus, Ohio, after a deflected puck struck her in the left temple. This was the first, and to date only, fan fatality in the league's history.Roger Wallace The 60-year-old auto parts salesman was flying his wingspan remote-control plane in Tucson, Arizona, when he lost sight of it in the bright sun. It struck him in the chest, killing him.Miroslav KuklišThe 31-year-old Czech tourist killed himself by stabbing his chest with a knife during a cave diving trip in the Poganica bay near Split. Due to the nature of his death, police initially believed that he was murdered. Later investigation concluded that after Kukliš became lost in the underwater cave and ran out of oxygen, he stabbed himself to avoid the prolonged pain of death by drowning.Louis DethyThe 79-year-old retired engineer from Pont-de-Loup installed 20 booby traps in his house with the reported intention of killing his family, who he had become estranged from after being caught cheating on his wife, but was killed by a shotgun pellet from one of the traps after accidentally activating it. He was presumed to have died by suicide until police inadvertently activated another trap.Jane McDonaldWhile visiting a friend in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, the 31-year-old slipped and fell onto an open dishwasher, landing on an upright knife. She was taken to a hospital, where she died of her injuries.Rebecca LonghofferThe 39-year-old tourist and mother of four was electrocuted while crossing Las Vegas Boulevard when she stepped on a cast-iron plate hidden by a deep rain puddle that covered electrical wiring.Hitoshi Nikaidoh The 35-year-old surgical resident from Houston, Texas, was killed after his head was trapped in elevator doors at the hospital where he worked. He was partially decapitated as the elevator ascended, and he also sustained injuries to his ribs and spine.Brian WellsThe 46-year-old pizza deliveryman from Erie, Pennsylvania, was killed after a collar bomb around his neck exploded as part of a bank robbery scheme.Unknown womanA 45-year-old woman bathed in 40.5% ethanol in an attempt to protect herself from SARS during the 2002–2004 SARS outbreak. She lay down in the fluid at 11 p.m. and was found dead at 11 a.m. by her family the next day. Her BAC was 1.35% and she most likely absorbed the alcohol through her skin.Francis Daniel Brohm The 23-year-old was hanging out the passenger window of 21-year-old John Hutcherson's car when an intoxicated Hutcherson drove off the road in Cobb County, Georgia, and sideswiped a telephone pole support wire, decapitating him. Hutcherson continued the final 12 miles (19 km) to his Atlanta home, parked in the driveway, and went to bed. A neighbor found Brohm's headless body in the truck the next morning.Kenneth PinyanThe 45-year-old Boeing engineer from Seattle, nicknamed Mr. Hands, died from acute peritonitis after his colon was perforated while being anally penetrated by a horse.Chandler Hugh Jackson The 12-year-old was playing at the Dogwood Hill golf club in Cunningham, Kentucky, when he fell on his 9-iron club while retrieving an out-of-bounds ball. The club broke, with a piece of the shaft piercing his aorta through his chest.Steve IrwinThe 44-year-old wildlife expert and television personality was pierced in the chest by a short-tail stingray's barb while filming in shallow water in the Great Barrier Reef, off the coast of Australia.Alexander LitvinenkoThe 44-year-old naturalised British citizen, former Russian FSB officer, and defector, was assassinated by poisoning with polonium-210, which caused acute and irreversible radiation sickness. One of just a handful of recorded deaths attributed specifically to polonium exposure, Litvinenko is the only confirmed fatality from malicious polonium poisoning.Jennifer Strange The 28-year-old mother was participating in a contest sponsored by Sacramento-based radio station KDND, called "Hold Your Wee For A Wii", in which contestants had to drink excessive amounts of water without going to the bathroom. She vomited during the contest and returned home with a headache, later dying of water intoxication.Humberto HernandezThe 24-year-old resident of Oakland, California, was struck in the back of the head by an airborne fire hydrant when a passing car struck it, and the water pressure shot it at him with great force.Francis Pete ToveyThe 81-year-old built a device consisting of a jigsaw power tool attached to a .22 semi-automatic handgun containing four bullets after downloading suicide plans on the Internet. He activated it, which fired multiple shots at his head, killing him. Tovey, who originated from England and was living in Burleigh Heads at the time, left a note stating that he was struggling after pressure from relatives to move from his £450,000 home to a retirement home.Judy Kay ZagorskiThe 57-year-old from Pigeon, Michigan, died of blunt force craniocerebral trauma when a spotted eagle ray leaped out of the water and knocked her over off the coast of Marathon Key, Florida. The ray also died.Adelir Antônio de CarliThe 41-year-old priest and sky diver undertook a cluster balloon flight to raise funds for charity. During the flight, contact was lost and de Carli disappeared. The lower part of his body was found floating in the sea eleven weeks later on 4 July.Isaiah Otieno The student from Cranbrook, British Columbia, was struck and killed by a helicopter that plunged into a residential street he was walking in. The pilot and two other passengers of the helicopter were also instantly killed.David PhyallThe 50-year-old last resident in a block of flats due to be demolished in Bishopstoke decapitated himself with a chainsaw to highlight the injustice of being forced to move out of it.Unknown womanA 43-year-old woman from Limerick died of an allergic reaction after having sex with a German Shepherd. She met the dog's owner, Seán McDonnell, in an Internet chat room for bestiality. McDonnell was prosecuted and added to a sex offender list. The dog was later euthanized.Fernando Gomez2 November 2008The 35-year-old Spanish drum maker died of multiple organ failure following an anthrax infection, which was traced to the inhalation of spores from imported hide at his home in Hackney, London.Jeff TwaddleThe 54-year-old charter boat deckhand from Huntington Beach, California, choked to death on a bait fish he had placed in his mouth to amuse a group of elementary school students on a fishing trip off Long Beach.Diana Durre The 49-year-old was killed in North Platte, Nebraska, when a Taco Bell sign was knocked over by high winds and landed on a pickup truck, crushing her and injuring her husband Mark.Mark FidrychThe 54-year-old former Major League Baseball pitcher of the Detroit Tigers suffocated to death when his clothes became entangled with the power take-off drive shaft of his dump truck while working underneath it.David CarradineThe 72-year-old American actor was found dead in a closet at the Nai Lert Park Hotel in Bangkok with his neck and genitals bound and connected by a cord. His death was ruled a case of autoerotic asphyxiation rather than suicide.Taylor MitchellThe 19-year-old folk singer was killed by a pair of coyotes while hiking in Cape Breton Highlands National Park, in the only known fatal coyote attack on an adult.Larry Ely Murillo-MoncadaThe 25-year-old Honduran man became trapped after falling behind a supermarket freezer in Council Bluffs, Iowa after suffering from hallucinations. His body was discovered by contractors removing freezer units almost 10 years later, on 24 January 2019.
2010s