Number 8 Shanae Brooke Edwards On July the 30th of 2021, Australian teacher
Shanae Brooke Edwards, aged 31, was hiking alone through Mount Mtatsminda, above Tbiilsi, Georgia.
She was planning to meet up with a friend, later in the day, and decided to explore the tourist
park, known for its adventure rides, beforehand. Edwards was used to traveling on her own through
natural landscapes, being an experienced trekker who had crossed harsh terrains in the past.
At around 4 pm, Edwards phoned a friend across the ocean, in California, desperately seeking help.
She reported that she was being attacked by a man and could be heard asking him to let her go. The
phone then went silent and the woman subsequently went missing. Georgian police were notified and
Edwards' friends in the area, where she’d been living for two years, formed search parties.
Her lifeless body was discovered and retrieved the following day by a team of volunteer searchers,
in the Okrokana forest. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia launched a homicide
investigation into her death, as the evidence excluded the possibility of a hiking accident.
Edwards´ body had been deliberately covered with tree branches and leaves, her phone had
been dumped in nearby bushland and the green bag she’d been carrying was also missing. The
woman was believed to have fought for her life, with her body presenting a series of defensive
injuries. Investigators found that she’d been stabbed to death with a plastic-handled knife,
which they discovered at the scene. The attacker was identified months later, in September,
as Rafael Mursakulov, a Georgian citizen. The case is ongoing and a sentence hasn’t been pronounced
but Mursaukulov was charged with armed robbery and intentional homicide, punishable by 16 to 20 years
in prison or even life imprisonment. Number 7 Shelley Miller
57-year-old Shelley Miller was hiking on the Hemlock Gorge Trail, through Ohio’s Mohican State
Park, on October the 17th of 2021. Miller had battled breast cancer for the past five years and,
after surviving the disease, went back to doing the outdoor activities that she loved.
Unfortunately, during her hike, a branch fell from an ash tree as the woman was passing beneath it.
The tree limb hit Miller in the head, leaving her unconscious on the ground. Officers from the Ohio
Department of Natural Resources and the Ashland County Coroner’s Office arrived at the scene
and pronounced Miller dead. A spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources later stated
that the Gorge Trail, where the incident had taken place, was temporarily closed. The tree from which
the limb had fallen was removed, along with several others in the area, out of precaution.
Number 6 Samantha Dehring On May the 10th of 2021, a group
of tourists visiting Yellowstone National Park, in Wyoming, noticed a grizzly bear sow and her
three cubs. Those present slowly backed away from the wild animals and returned to their vehicles,
with the exception of Samantha Dehring, a woman from Carol Stream, Illinois. She ignored park
rules, which required visitors to stay at least 300 feet away from bears and wolves,
because she wanted to take photos of them. Other tourists were filming the scene from afar, when
one of the bears started charging towards Dehring. It convinced her to back away and she emerged
unscathed from the close encounter. A video of the moment began circulating online and became
viral. In the aftermath, Dehring was banned from Yellowstone National Park for a year and charged
in District Court with violating closure and use limits and also feeding, touching, teasing,
frightening or intentionally disturbing wildlife. Number 5 John Gerrish and family
On August the 17th of 2021, 45-year-old Snapchat engineer John Gerrish took his wife, 30-year-old
Ellen Chung, their daughter Miju, and their dog on a hiking trip on a remote California trail.
The route was close to the Merced River, in the Sierra National Forrest. They drove to a nearby
spot, parked their car and went into the woods by foot. The weather at the time was very hot,
with temperatures of up to 103 degrees Fahrenheit being reported. The family only managed to walk
for a couple of miles before the heat wore them down. After not hearing from Gerrish or
Chung for a concerning amount of time, a friend reported them missing. Local authorities found
their lifeless bodies roughly 1.6 miles from their car, along with only an 85oz empty water bladder.
At first, their deaths seemed to have occurred under mysterious circumstances and
multiple possible causes were taken into consideration. Until toxicology reports came in,
investigators entertained the hypothesis of carbon monoxide intoxication from old mines
in the area. Another possibility was the family ingesting water from the river, which contained
high levels of toxic algae. Investigators reviewed a number of other possible causes,
including murder, illegal drugs, poisoning, and lightning strikes. However, two months later,
in October, the autopsy revealed Gerrish, his wife and daughter had all suffered from
hyperthermia and dehydration, thus demystifying their deaths. The cause of death for the dog was
not concretely determined, but it’s believed the canine had also suffered from heat-related issues.
Number 4 Kyle Burgess On October the 10th of 2020, Kyle Burgess
was hiking on a trail in Slate Canyon, Utah, when he encountered a mountain lion and her cubs. At
first, he thought the smaller animals were bobcats and started recording them but, soon enough,
the mother came running up. Frightened, Burgess tried to deter a potential attack by yelling at
the feline "Go away! I'm big and scary!" However, as the confrontation progressed,
the mountain lion started stalking him as he began walking backwards. It kept following Burgess and
occasionally charging at him for six minutes, but the man managed to keep his distance. The mountain
lion finally ran off when Burgess grabbed a rock and threw it in its direction. After surviving the
terrifying experience, the man uploaded the video online, where it was viewed millions of times,
on multiple platforms. Number 3 Phoenix Netts
On May the 12th of 2020, Gloucestershire Police, in England, received a report of a vehicle being
driven in the Coleford area, in the Forest of Dean. Pandemic-related restrictions were in place
at the time, meaning all but essential travel was forbidden. Officers went to investigate and pulled
over 28-year-old Gareeca Gordon and 38-year-old Mahesh Sorathiya. After opening a suitcase
in their vehicle, officers saw a partially burned, dismembered human torso. Other parts,
reported as belonging to the same body, were found in the forest during subsequent sweeps of
the area. Police managed to identify the victim, about a week later, as 28-year-old Phoenix Netts,
a woman with whom Gordon had lived together at a property in Lozells, Birmingham. She’d last
been seen in April. In order to cover up Netts’ death, Gordon had been contacting her friends and
family by messages, emails and sometimes voice calls, maintaining the illusion of her being
alive. Further investigations revealed that Gordon had murdered Netts after the woman had rejected
her romantic advances. She stabbed her victim four times in the chest and torso. Investigators
believed that Netts could’ve survived the knife wounds but Gordon refused to call for help,
leaving her to suffer a slow and agonizing death over the course of roughly 12 hours.
She then purchased a circular saw and used it to dismember her victim’s body, which
she then placed in several suitcases. Gordon was trying to dispose of the suitcases,
with Sorathiya’s help, when they were pulled over. The woman was charged with murder,
to which she eventually pleaded guilty, while Sorathiya was charged with assisting an offender.
In May of 2021, Gordon was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 23
years and six months served. Number 2 Leah Davis Lokan
On July the 6th of 2021, Leah Davis Lokan, a woman in her mid-60s, was on a long-distance bike trip
along with two fellow cyclists. When they got to Ovando, Montana, they stopped to set their
tents at a campsite in the area, famed for its wilderness and scenic views. The region was also
known for being home to roughly 1,000 grizzlies. In the early hours of the morning, at around 3 am,
the campers were awakened by the presence of a bear in the area. They heard the animal and,
in order to minimize the danger, quickly took the food out of their tents, secured it and then went
back to sleep. However, at around 4.15 am, the sheriff´s office received reports of an attack.
The bear had entered the campsite and, although her friends and others had tried to force it
to flee by using spray, Lokan was dragged out of her tent and severely injured by the wild animal.
First responders and a helicopter ambulance attempted to save Lokan’s life, but to no
avail. Later on, Montana wildlife officials also received reports of a grizzly ripping off a door
and leaving claw marks on a woman´s home in Ovando and, based on the colour and size, believed it to
have been the same bear. Following the series of incidents, on July the 9th, officers baited the
animal with a chicken coop and shot it. Number 1 Hannah Gavios
On September the 1st of 2016, Hannah Gavios, aged 23, was vacationing in Thailand. During her trip,
the woman got lost at Railay Beach, in the resort of Krabi, and went to a local tourist shop to ask
for directions. When a worker offered to help her, Gavios agreed to walk with him. However,
instead of leading her back to the hotel, the man, later identified as 28-year-old Apai Ruengvorn,
took her up to a pitch-black mountain in the jungle. It was there that he reportedly grabbed
Gavios, held her down and began trying to take off her clothes. In an attempt to defend herself
from the attacker, Gavios punched him and even bit his ear so forcefully that she tore
half of it off. Overwhelmed with pain, Ruengvorn asked her to stop and agreed to leave her alone
only to resume harassing her, moments later. To escape him, the woman felt she had no other choice
but to run blindly through the thick woods. As she struggled to find her way in the darkness,
Gavios tumbled off the side of the cliff. She hit her head a few times before landing and
breaking her back. Ruengvorn caught up to Gavios and found her lying on the ground,
screaming and moaning from the excruciating pain. At first, the man climbed further down
the mountain and allegedly began crying and praying, presumably feeling remorseful
for his actions. However, after some time had passed, Ruengvorn got on top of Gavios,
took off his pants and began to grope her while touching himself. Looking back on the incident,
the victim remembered being afraid he would choke her to death if she screamed,
so she tried to remain calm and waited to call for help. Ruengvorn initially fled the scene,
but later returned with others, who took Gavios to the hospital. In the attack’s wake, Ruengvorn
was charged with committing obscene behaviour toward another person and causing serious injury.
Thanks for watching! If a group of sadistic billionaires offered you $1 million to hunt you
through a forest, for 24 hours, would you accept it? Let us know in the comments section below!