- Funerals are supposed to be a place
of final rest and grieving
but sometimes grieving is just the beginning.
Here are 10 horrifying things
that happened at funerals.
Number 10 is a body theft.
On August 8th, 2015
25 year old Julie Mott of San Antonio, Texas
lost her battle with cystic fibrosis.
Soon after, her family made arrangements for her funeral
and on August 15th her funeral was held
at Mission Park North Funeral Chapel.
However, before the woman could be cremated,
as her family requested, her body vanished from her coffin.
Funeral home employees notified
the family the following morning
and the police were quickly brought in.
An investigation was launched
which brought forward a suspect
whose name was never released.
He was the last to leave the home the day of Julie's funeral
and family said he had been totally obsessed with her,
texting her excessively in the days
leading up to her death.
Unfortunately, no evidence of Julie's body
was ever found, though a 60 person search party
wound up finding a body in a nearby woods.
However, it was not Julie's.
To this day, Julie Mott's remains have not been found.
Number nine are moans and groans.
We would all like to have just one more conversation
with those that have passed that we love
but what do you do when those that have passed
begin making noise?
On several occasions, the dead have been known
to make vocal noises such as moaning, wheezing,
or even sighing loudly.
This is mostly due to air being trapped inside the lungs
and the many gasses that are created
as tissues break down during decomposition.
The moaning and groaning that people occasionally hear
usually happen when the body is being moved
such as when being transported to the morgue
or to the funeral home.
However, it has also been heard when pallbearers
are carrying the casket to its final resting place.
In many instances, loved ones have panicked
at the sheer thought of their friend or relative
still being alive in the casket
and even believed that they're hearing simple words
in the small amount of air that's escaping.
Think about that the next time you visit an open casket.
Number eight is a shooting.
Funerals can bring people together
which can prove unfortunate for some people
who are being targeted by killers.
An unfortunately large number of people have,
believe it or not, lost their lives to shooters
while attending memorial services for friends or family.
In some cases, such as the March 15th 2017 shooting
that took place at a funeral in Memphis, Tennessee,
the reason behind the shots being fired
was a disagreement between rival families
over the lifestyle choices of the deceased woman
who had taken her own life.
Luckily in that instance no one was seriously injured,
however that wasn't the case on March 30th 2012
when 14 people were shot at a funeral
for 21 year old Morvan Andre, a gang member
from Miami, Florida.
After someone from one gang touched the corpse
in a disrespectful way,
members of another gang grabbed their guns
from their cars and opened fire
killing two and injuring 12 others
including a five year old girl.
Number seven is a dead assault.
In early November of 2007, mourners were gathered
at the funeral of an unidentified individual
at Harvest Baptist Church in Orlando, Florida
unaware that they were about to see their loved one
viciously attacked in their own coffin.
Timothy Cleary was walking by the church
when he decided to enter and attend the service.
However, not only did Cleary not understand
he wasn't invited, he obviously had something
wrong with himself as he ran up to the open casket
and, to everyone's shock, began punching the corpse.
Ignoring the pleas and cries from the deceased's friends
and family, Clearly was eventually stopped
when mourners attacked him,
though he continued to fight until the police arrived
and subdued him.
Released on bail, Cleary was ordered to undergo
a full psychiatric evaluation
to get an explanation as to why he assaulted
the dead body but the reasoning is still unknown.
Number six is the ghost at a funeral.
On the list of types of buildings
most likely to be haunted right after hospitals
and the insane asylums rests the funeral home.
With all of the bodies and mourning happening
within the walls of these places,
it's no wonder people often claim
to get eerie feelings
or experience cold spots while inside them.
Many have claimed to witness a passed away loved one
standing near their coffin
or beside their spouse or family for a moment
just before they disappear,
but the truly brave are the morticians
who have to deal with these apparent ghosts daily.
One morning some time in 1999, an unnamed mortician
was working to prepare for a funeral
that was scheduled for later that same morning.
While in the men's room, the mortician saw a man
in a blue suit walk by the bathroom door
only to disappear once he was around the corner.
Unable to find him, the mortician went back to work
only to find that the body he was preparing
was the same man in the blue suit.
Number five is back to life.
It's pretty hard to find something more shocking
than having a dead loved one come back to life
at their own funeral.
That is until you hear of the story
of Swapna and Mekela Srinivas
who actually witnessed the unbelievable resurrection
of their own baby who died just a couple days earlier.
The couple's newborn came into the world
on July 1st 2017, a whole month too early
and severely underweight.
After giving birth at a private hospital,
they were transferred to Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hospital
in India where, the next morning, doctors informed
the parents that their infant daughter had died
due to her being too weak.
Heartbroken, the couple quickly made funeral arrangements
for the following day.
However, upon receiving her last rites,
the baby suddenly began moving.
Alarmed, they rushed back to the hospital
where police stopped them from attacking
the doctors in rage.
Was this a miracle or something more sinister at work?
A simple medical mistake or something more?
Number four are two bodies.
When a family elects to have a closed casket ceremony
for their deceased loved one,
it's usually out of respect for the departed's privacy.
It's then up to the mortician to ensure
that respect is given.
However, in the case of funeral home director Mark Villella,
that privacy was more than just invaded.
After having a fight with his 28 year old wife, Exelee,
at their Florida home on August 5th 1999,
29 year old Villella stabbed her to death while she slept.
Then, on August 9th, as people mourned the loss
of an 89 year old woman with a closed casket ceremony,
he stuffed Exelee's body alongside hers.
Friends and family of the woman had no idea
that they were attending not one burial but two.
After coworkers became suspicious when Exelee
failed to show up to work
and Mark stopped calling in to check on her,
they notified the police.
The body was exhumed and the funeral home director
was arrested immediately.
A twisted end to not one but two lives.
Number three is cheering up mommy.
There are few things more upsetting
than the loss of a child
but when that child sends a message
from beyond the grave, things get much worse.
A video filmed in Mexico at the funeral
of an unnamed boy shows the child's mother in tears,
understandably unable to handle the loss
that she just incurred,
but then suddenly something very unsettling occurs.
A white helium filled balloon
that was tied to the boy's coffin came loose
and began floating, not up into the ceiling
as should have been the case,
but almost straight along horizontally
until it reached the grieving mother.
It then began to circle her
before she realized it was there.
While some have offered explanations
as to how this could have occurred,
the mother and several others believe
that it was the dead child's spirit.
Number two is the missing head.
Being a mortician is an incredibly stressful
and creepy job, especially when you realize
they spend more time with the dead
during a regular day than they do with the living
but on July 26th 1986 that creepy job
became a whole lot more startling for an employee
of a funeral home in Mount Vernon, New York.
That morning, they were preparing the body
of Anthony Parese, a local grocery store co-founder
who'd passed away days before of natural causes.
However, when they opened the casket lid
they found that the body was missing his head.
Police were called in, but disturbingly they found
no evidence of a break in
and nothing else in the funeral home
appeared to be missing or even moved in any way.
It was concluded that a hidden individual
must have used a scalpel or even a razor
to remove the head, though to this day
the case is a mystery that remains unsolved.
And number one is a poisoning.
On January 10th 2015, friends and loved ones
were gathered at a wake in a province
in northwest Mozambique, Africa.
The group was mourning the tragic loss
of a couple's newborn baby
and enjoying a beer which the infant's mother
had brewed herself.
However, some time between visiting the cemetery
to bury the baby's body and returning to the wake's location
an unknown person poisoned the beer
using bile from a crocodile's liver.
196 people flooded nearby hospitals
with various symptoms that brought them near death.
Sadly, 69 of the mourners of the funeral did,
in fact, lose their lives to the poison
including the baby's mother and the person
or persons responsible were never apprehended.
To this day, the case is still ongoing.
It's bad enough that these people
had to bury their newborn baby
but to then lose so many loved ones at once
is simply unreal.
But that's all for today's episode.
Thank you guys for watching.
On the right, you'll find two of my most recent videos
that you can press or click on your screen
right now if you'd like to watch some more.
And other than that, I will see you in the next video.
Sweet dreams.