Number 9 Tahira Jabeen
In June of 2021, a mother-of-five fell to her death while climbing a cliff formation,
on the coast of Dorset, England. 46-year-old Tahira Jabeen was with her daughter, when she
started scaling down a cliff near the Durdle Door landmark. As she took the shortcut to the beach,
she was reportedly heard shouting “I’m coming down”, roughly about halfway into her descent.
Unfortunately, moments later, Jabeen lost her footing and plummeted over 100 feet to the Man
O' War Beach below. She sustained multiple rib fractures and succumbed to an accumulation of
blood and air in her chest cavity. Her daughter, reported as being in her 20s,
was unhurt but had to be treated for shock at the scene. In light of the tragic incident,
the coroner warned members of the public about the extreme perils of coastal cliffs adding that
it was “imperative” for beachgoers to access the shore via the available pathways instead of
endangering their wellbeing by using shortcuts. Number 8 Mary Beary
On July the 30th of 2019, a British teenager was fatally struck by a train while taking a shortcut
at the Broxbourne station, in Hertfordshire. Earlier in the day,
16-year-old Mary Beary’s mother, Pamela, had taken her to get her nails, eyelashes and
eyebrows done. The woman didn’t report anything out of the ordinary in the teen’s behavior,
claiming that she was her usual, positive self. They returned home and, at around 4 pm, Mary told
Pamela that she was going to a friend’s house. She met up with her boyfriend at the Lakeside Shopping
Centre, in Essex. While Mary was out, Pamela got what she described as a “bad feeling wash
over” her. Worried about the teenager, she called her about 15 times and sent her multiple texts,
all of which went unanswered. Upon finally calling her mother back,
Mary asked if she was in trouble and if she’d lose her phone privileges as punishment. It was during
their conversation that Pamela reported hearing trains in the background. Shortly before 10:00 pm,
CCTV footage showed the teenager going into the Broxbourne station and then climbing over a wall
near the tracks. According to one of the officers looking into her case, it was a
shortcut that Mary had taken before. Surveillance cameras then captured her crossing the tracks,
with her phone in hand, as the train was approaching. Mary was then struck by the train.
Paramedics were called to the scene but there was nothing they could do to save her. There was no
indication that Mary had meant to end her life but rather that, on the night, she was distracted by
the worry of being in trouble when she got home. A coroner recorded a verdict of accidental death.
Number 7 Diarmuid Twomey
On December the 20th of 2015, Irish man Diarmuid Twomey left a birthday party in
Cork city and headed towards his home in rural Carrignavar. He’d complained of feeling unwell
and opted for a walk rather than taking a taxi with his partner. The father-of-two told her that
he’d find another taxi later but, when she tried calling him on his cellphone, he didn’t answer.
31-year-old Twomey never got home. He disappeared with his family, for weeks, having no indication
as to what could’ve happened to him. Several taxi drivers and motorists reported seeing
a man matching his description walking on Whitechurch Road, between 3 and 5 am.
Concerns for his wellbeing grew after his phone was found in a Whitechurch farmyard, the day after
he’d gone missing. A massive search was launched, involving hundreds of volunteers but, after
extensively combing through the adjacent forests, fields and rivers, they still found no trace of
Twomey. His partner knew that something serious had happened because nothing was heard of him,
even after his mother had passed away on January the 6th. Towards the end of that same month,
a local farmer started draining a slurry tank on his property. He discovered a body, in an
advanced stage of decomposition, floating inside. Dental records later confirmed that it was Twomey.
As he was taking a shortcut through the farmland, in the dark, he fell into the slurry tank and
then inhaled hydrogen sulphide. A coroner told a media outlet that his death would’ve been
quick because the colorless gas, known for its rotten egg smell at low concentrations,
is highly toxic. Number 6 Michael Burke
On January the 12th of 2018, an Irish man was fatally impaled on a spike railing while trying
to take a shortcut. 31-year-old Michael Burke was returning from a meet up with a friend and,
to shorten the distance to his home, cut though the car park of a local bar and restaurant,
in Dalkey. Shortly before 2 am, he tried to climb over a 4-foot spiked gate at a private
pedestrian entrance on Convent Road. As a local woman was heading to work, a few hours later,
she found Burke slumped on the ground, next to a speed bump, about 6 feet away from the
gate. A cyclist stopped and started doing chest compressions but Burke remained unresponsive and
was pronounced dead at the scene. He’d suffered a small puncture wound, below his navel. There
was also a trickle of blood on one of the spikes, which was later found to match Burke’s.
The postmortem revealed that the puncture wound actually extended from the small incision, through
his abdomen and into the aorta. It was deemed fully consistent with a fall on a metal spike.
Number 5 David Forbes & Natalie Miller On October the 12th of 2012, a couple was
killed in a horrific train accident at a station in Johnstone, Scotland. 29-year-old David Forbes
and his girlfriend Natalie Miller, aged 25, had weekly bus passes but it’s believed that they
missed the last one to Renfrew and consequently opted to go by train. CCTV footage would show
the couple’s tragic last moments as well as Forbes’ heroic and selfless attempt at rescuing
his partner. They’d tried to take a shortcut across the line in order to catch a 7:43 train
at the Milliken Park station. With a train rapidly approaching, Forbes tried to throw Miller onto
a platform, knowing that by doing so he risked getting hit. He could’ve saved himself, as he was
tall enough to jump on the platform, but chose to stand by his partner’s side. The train struck both
Forbes and Miller, killing them instantly. The couple was survived by a six-month-old daughter
who was placed into the care of their relatives. Number 4 Melvin Olds Jr
On July the 4th of 2019, Melvin Olds Jr. took a shortcut through a wooded area near Lake Placid,
in Florida, while trying to get to his home. The 45-year-old was attacked and viciously mauled by a
pack of stray dogs, believed to have been pit bull mixes. He was found, later that day, with over 100
bite marks all over his body. In the aftermath of the fatal mauling, traps were set up in the wooded
area which was also patrolled by officers from animal services. Six pit bull mixes were captured
and the bites that Olds had sustained appeared to match the type of injury that the animals
were capable of inflicting. DNA tests were ordered and the authorities also launched an investigation
to determine the dogs’ potential ownership. While officials regarded the attack as a
rare occurrence, they did issue warnings for residents to be on the lookout for loose dogs,
particularly those behaving aggressively. Number 3 Guo
In 2009, a Chinese man, only identified as Guo, and two companions were hiking along the Great
Wall, near Beijing. The men decided to jump from a section of the ancient structure and cut through
some bush land, as it would’ve been a quicker way to reach their starting point and then head home.
They were actually near a section of the Badaling Wild Animal World, a top breeding ground, home
to thousands of wild animals spread across 6,000 acres. Unfortunately for Guo, he and his friends
had jumped right into an enclosure dedicated to the largest feline on Earth, the Siberian
tiger. He’d barely made it over a fence when one of the beasts plunged its massive jaws into Guo’s
throat. It still had his body in its mouth when rangers arrived at the scene. They reportedly
had to force eight tigers into cages before they could retrieve the man’s remains. Guo was
pronounced dead at the scene and it’s suspected that the first bite he’d sustained was the one
that had killed him. His companions had managed to survive by clambering over a fence. They told
the authorities that they’d encountered signs warning them of dangerous predatory animals but
claimed they didn’t believe the warnings because they hadn’t actually seen any of the beasts.
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Number 2 Jean Hilard Jean Hilard’s survival story has been deemed
miraculous and has been sporadically reported on since 1980. On December the 20th of that year,
at night, she experienced car failure in rural northwestern Minnesota, after taking a shortcut.
The 19-year-old decided to walk about 2 miles to a friend’s house but collapsed just 15 feet
from the front door. She was found the next day, frozen solid, after having spent over six hours
in temperatures as low as -22 Fahrenheit. She was taken to a local hospital, where doctors struggled
to help her. Hilard’s body temperature was so low that it didn’t even register on a thermometer
while her skin had stiffened to the point that doctors couldn’t pierce it with hypodermic
needles. Her eyes were solid and didn’t respond to light while her pulse was measured at 12 beats
per minute. Hilard was wrapped in an electric blanket and, after a few hours, went into powerful
convulsions before regaining consciousness. Amazingly, she was responsive, albeit confused,
and suffered no lasting physical or mental damage. A medical expert later commented on her case and,
while recognizing how extremely fortunate she’d been, noted that cold temperatures can put the
body in a state of suspended animation, meaning that, while vital functions do drastically slow
down, victims aren’t beyond recovery. Number 1 Prabha Arun Kumar
“He stabbed me, darling” were the last words that 41-year-old Prabha Arun Kumar had reportedly said
to her husband after she fell victim to a brutal attack in Sydney, Australia. Every day, after
work, the IT consultant would call her husband and 9-year-old daughter, back in India. One night, in
March of 2015, she’d worked late and, according to her roommate, likely didn’t want to bother any of
her colleagues by asking for a ride home. Instead, she decided to walk and took a shortcut through
Parramatta Park in Sydney's west. At around 9:30 pm, Kumar had reached a tree-line walkway,
less than 1,000 feet from her home. She was still on the phone with her husband but the call ended
abruptly, after her haunting last words, when an unknown attacker stabbed her. A passerby
found Kumar shortly thereafter. She was rushed to the hospital but doctors were
unable to save her life because she’d lost too much blood. According to the investigators,
Kumar wasn’t robbed or assaulted and there was no evidence to suggest the attack had been racially
motivated. No arrests have been made but, according to subsequent updates on the case,
the police were working on a theory that someone in her native country
had ordered her death. Kumar’s family, however, completely rejected the possibility.
Thanks for watching! While walking at night, alone,
would you rather take a shortcut through a forest that's rumored to be haunted
or through a rundown cemetery? Let us know in the comments section below!