DEATH with a Twist: DEAD BODY MISTAKEN FOR HALLOWEEN DUMMY, USA

The body of Mostafa Mahmoud Zayed, 75, an apparent suicide, sat decomposing on his Marina del Rey balcony for days because neighbors thought the lifeless figure was a dummy and didn’t call police.

Mostafa Mahmoud Zayed had apparently been dead for days with a single gunshot wound to one eye. He was slumped over a chair on the third-floor balcony of his apartment on Bora Bora Way.

Neighbors said they noticed the body “but didn’t bother calling authorities because it looked like a Halloween dummy”, said cameraman Austin Raishbrook, who owns RMG News and was on the scene Thursday when authorities were alerted to the body.

“The body was in plain view of the entire apartment complex [and] they all didn’t do anything,” Raishbrook said. “It’s very strange. It did look unreal, to be honest.”

An investigator with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said the case is an “apparent suicide,” and declined to comment further.

“I just knew him to say ‘Hello,’ and he was sweet and gentle,” Patricia Kingery, out for a walk, said of Zayed. “He was always well-dressed and obviously active.”

Source

DEATH with a Twist: MAN SLEPT NEXT TO DEAD WIFE FOR FIVE YEARS, VIETNAM

A Vietnamese man dug up his wife’s body, molded it with clay into a female figure and put it in his bed so he could hug it every night for the past five years.

Van began by sleeping upon his wife’s grave after she died in 2003. He said that a year and a half later he decided to dig a tunnel next to his wife’s grave so he could sleep beside her away from the rain and wind.
However, neighbors and local authorities found out about the practice and persuaded Van to stop. Subsequently in November 2004 Van returned to the grave, dug up his wife’s corpse and brought it home, where it remains today.

“I’m a person that does things differently. I’m not like normal people,” he was quoted as saying. “My wife’s body only passed away but her spirit still accompanies us. I have no fear when it comes to sleeping with her at all.”

Source

DEATH with a Twist: VAN TOWED WITH DEAD BODY STILL INSIDE, USA

For one New Yorker, the journey to the Pearly Gates involved a detour to the city’s car pound.

The New York City Police Department towed an illegally parked van carrying a body. The van, parked outside Redden’s Funeral Home on West 14th Street, was to transport the body to Newark for a flight.

But according to the New York Daily News, Paul DeNigris, the funeral director, said he went inside the funeral home to get paperwork and answer a phone call. When he returned, the van was gone — along with the body that was in a white cardboard box, the newspaper said.

“I was just a wreck,” he told the newspaper. “I was frantic. When something like that happens, you go into panic mode.

The corpse was finally rescued after 90 undignified minutes in Manhattan's most miserable locale, trapped amid scofflaws and irate out-of-towners.

DeNigris had parked his silver 2002 Dodge in a "No Parking Anytime" zone outside the funeral home. The body, in a white cardboard box, was headed for Newark Airport and a flight to Miami for cremation.

A funeral van carrying a body was towed from Redden's Funeral Home on West 14th Street. (SMITH FOR NEWS)

DeNigris said he stepped inside to pick up some paperwork, took a phone call, and returned to find ... nothing.

"The car was just gone," he said yesterday.

The NYPD said the van was ticketed at 9:22 a.m. - and then towed nearly three hours later, at 12:07 p.m.

"There was nothing to indicate it was more than just an illegally parked car," said NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne.

The terrified DeNigris was at the pound within minutes, explaining his improbable plight and showing his funeral home paperwork.

"I tried not to be too loud," he recounted. "I didn't want to scream, 'I'm the guy from the funeral home with the car with the person in the back.'

Source

DEATH with a Twist: ANOTHER “WEEKEND AT BERNIE’S”?, USA

“Hey! I think my roomate might be dead back at home!” stated one of the the two guys who approached a Denver cop.

In a case reminiscent of the 1989 film “Weekend at Bernie’s,” prosecutors say two men went for a night on the town with their friend dead in the backseat of their car.

The two men, both friends with Jarrett, put his body in the back seat of Mr Rubinson’s car and took it to Teddy T’s and Sam’s No 3 – both bars in Denver – before taking the body back to Jarrett’s home.

At Shotgun Willie’s they also withdrew $400 from Jarrett’s account, although court documents do not make clear whether either of the men knew Jarrett’s PIN number.

The two men stayed at Shotgun Willie’s until closing time, and reported Jarrett’s death to the police at around 04:00 in the morning.

Denver Police Department spokesman Sonny Jackson called the incident a “bizarre and unfortunate crime”.

He added: “This isn’t anything you want to have happen to a loved one. You want them treated with respect in death.”

Source

DEATH with a Twist: DOGS SURVIVING ON OWNERS’ FLESH, CANADA

A Canadian couple died, man-67, woman-57, in their rural Saskatchewan home of causes unknown.

A few of the dogs who survived

Left behind were 7 of their dogs.

Police concluded that for more than a week the dogs — five Shelties and two mixed breeds — survived by eating the remains of the couple.

The question now is whether the dogs should be put down or given a new home.

Neighbour Margaret-Ann Irving, who knew the dogs' owners, said the animals cannot now be adopted.

"Those dogs need to be put down," she said. "You can't place a dog that's been eating on human flesh for two or three weeks and put it in a home where there might be a child."

Source

Apparently, there are others...

Similar related stories:

• Starving Dog Fed on Human Remains, UK
• Dog Eats Flesh Of Its Dead Owner Picking His Bones Almost Bare, RUSSIA
• Starving Dog Eats His Owner, AUSTRIA