Number 7 Keegan Barnes
During the pandemic lockdown, on June the 10th of 2021, friends Keegan Barnes and Toni Butler
were drinking at the former’s home in the town of Thornaby, England. An unspecified argument
erupted between the two women, both in their 20s, reportedly related to illegal substances, which
they’d also been taking at the time. According to Barnes, Butler had dragged her out of bed by her
hair, while carrying a kitchen knife. The latter allegedly threw her on the floor but dropped the
knife, as she punched and kicked her. Barnes grabbed the blade and stabbed her friend twice
in the calf. One of the knife strikes severed a main vein and, as Butler was bleeding out, Barnes
left the apartment. CCTV captured her buying chips at a local convenience store, with her friend’s
credit card and while only wearing her nightie. Butler passed away from her injuries and the
investigation that followed gradually dismantled Barnes’ self-defense claim and indicated she’d
been the main aggressor in the fight. Moreover, the police determined that her concern had been to
primarily conceal her actions rather than render assistance to her friend. She pleaded not guilty
to murder and was ultimately cleared of it but a jury did find her guilty of manslaughter. In 2022,
she was sentenced to over eight years in prison. Number 6 Taylor Smith
18-year-old Taylor Smith was with her friend Jordan Holgerson, also in her late teens,
at Washington’s Moulton Falls Bridge, on August the 7th of 2018. In a clip that since went viral,
Holgerson was standing on the edge of the bridge and hesitating to jump into the water below.
Others in her group were recorded telling the teen that she didn’t have to do it but Smith
kept taunting her. “No, I won’t go in”, Holgerson told the group, moments before Smith forcefully
pushed her from behind. Holgerson’s limbs flailed through the air as she dropped roughly 60 feet and
impacted the water face-first, at an awkward angle. Medical experts later determined that,
given the distance of her fall, the water would’ve been akin to concrete. Holgerson was left with
life-threatening injuries that included six broken ribs, an injured trachea and esophagus,
in addition to punctured lungs. She experienced severe breathing difficulties upon being pulled
from the water and remembered thinking she was going to die. It would take months for
her to fully heal from the injuries. Holgerson’s mother later argued that Smith hadn’t checked
on her daughter, neither at the scene of the incident nor in the period that followed and
only apologized via text. Many of those commenting on the viral clip argued that Smith should be held
criminally responsible. She was arrested and charged with reckless endangerment to which she
pleaded guilty in 2019. It resulted in a sentence of two days in jail and 38 days on a work crew.
She was also ordered to pay Holgerson $300 and cease all communication with her for two years.
Number 5 Mustafa Magdy’s Engagement Party An engagement party in the Alexandria
governorate of Egypt ended in tragedy, on May the 25th of 2022, after the groom-to-be was
fatally shot. The victim, identified as 21-year-old barber Mustafa Magdy,
was being held aloft and carried by his friends to the celebrations. Much like with other Middle
Eastern countries, special occasions in Egypt are also sometimes marked with celebratory gunfire.
In the context of weddings and engagements, it may be interpreted as a show of force highlighting the
union of two families. There have been a number of fatal incidents related to the practice,
across the Middle East, but also in the US, Europe and South America, in which people were struck by
falling or stray bullets. Magdy’s friends carried him on their shoulders as they headed to a beauty
salon where his bride was having her makeup done. The plan was to wait for the woman and then head
to the party’s venue together but, following a rattle of gunfire, Magdy collapsed to the ground.
He was left in critical condition, after being hit by a bullet, and passed away shortly thereafter
at Mabaret Al-Asafra Gharb Hospital. Other companions confirmed that the shooting had
been caused by one of the friends recklessly aiming his weapon during the celebrations,
but his identity wasn’t disclosed. Number 4 Joshua Davies
Welsh teenagers Joshua Davies and Rebecca Aylward, from Aberkenfig, near Bridgend, had been friends
for some years before they briefly dated in 2009. The relationship ended, after a few months,
but Aylward was reportedly thrilled when Davies contacted her, the following October, asking that
they meet up again. Her mother was approving of Davies, as he was an academically gifted young
man who hailed from a churchgoing family. As recounted by Aylward’s mother, the teen woke up
early on October the 23rd of 2010 to do her makeup and put on clothes she’d bought the day before,
in anticipation for the rendezvous. Later on, she and Davies were in secluded woodland.
It was there that he attacked Aylward from behind and tried, but failed, to break her neck. He then
grabbed a rugby ball-sized rock from the ground and repeatedly smashed it against Aylward’s head,
cracking her skull. He abandoned her face-down on the wet forest floor, where she succumbed
to her injuries. In the killing’s aftermath, he took a friend, only identified as Boy B,
to see Aylward’s body and tell him about what he’d done. A search for Aylward was launched, when she
failed to return home, during the course of which Davies updated his Facebook status to give himself
an alibi. Once the teenager’s body was found and her whereabouts were retraced, Davies and Boy B
were arrested. The former tried to pin the murder on the latter but his statements were rapidly
dismantled by investigators. It emerged that he’d been boasting to friends online, for months,
that he would kill Aylward and contemplated various methods, including poisoning, drowning
or throwing her off a cliff. Davies’ friends encouraged him and one of them even joked about
buying him breakfast if he followed through on the threats. Two days before the murder, the friend
received a message from Davies that read “don’t say anything but you may just owe me a breakfast.”
He was eventually found guilty of the killing and sentenced to a minimum of 14 years in prison
but the friends who’d nudged him towards making his twisted intention a reality weren’t charged.
Number 3 Tekia Strickland, Armonni Cofer and Chasmyn Donald
In February of 2015, Myriah Pointer and three of her best friends were playing a drinking game at
a home in Atlanta, Georgia. At some point during the get-together, one of the other
women accused 23-year-old Pointer of sitting on her Whopper even though, in reality, she’d only
sat on the wrapper. The trio charged the woman and began ruthlessly beating her, as she slipped
in and out of consciousness. Pointer was dragged across the room by her hair as Tekia Strickland,
Armonni Cofer and Chasmyn Donald took turns punching and stomping on her. Others in
attendance, who were identified as the attackers’ boyfriends, recorded the incident on their cell
phones but didn’t intervene. One of them was seen in the background of the video as he sat on the
couch while holding a small child. The footage was subsequently uploaded to various sites,
including WorldStarHipHop.com, which is known for similarly shocking videos. Pointer claimed
that the beatdown lasted for at least two hours before the trio ultimately allowed her to call her
aunt to come pick her up. Pointer later uploaded photos of her severely swollen face online.
The beating left her with facial fractures, a concussion and two cracked teeth. Strickland,
Cofer and Donald were arrested on charges of aggravated battery, aggravated assault,
and false imprisonment, which was likely to result in all of them spending time in jail.
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Number 2 Zachary Woodcock
In January of 2018, Zachary Woodcock was celebrating his 21st birthday at his Bavarian
Haus Apartments home, in Merril, Michigan. Also joining the festivities was the man’s best friend
and fellow gun enthusiast, 21-year-old Richard Skillman. During the party, Woodcock led him
and a few others to his bedroom, to show them a handgun. The firearm went off as Woodcock was
handling it and Skillman was struck in the chest by a bullet, immediately becoming unresponsive.
Realizing what he’d done, Woodcock left the apartment and a second gunshot rang out.
Others at the address then discovered that he’d turned the gun on himself. Skillman died at the
scene while Woodcock succumbed to his gunshot wound at a local hospital the following day.
The authorities reported that the two men, both of whom had worked as truck drivers,
owned multiple firearms and also remarked upon the ever-present danger of handling such weapons
while under the influence of alcohol. Number 1 Anna Bonner
In April of 2022, English woman Anna Bonner, aged 40, was called “greedy, devious and manipulative”
by a judge at Liverpool Crown Court after leading a lengthy fraud campaign against her best friend,
Susan Hughes. The two women had met in the late 1990s and Hughes was even the leading bridesmaid
at Bonner’s wedding. They’d constantly go out together in Merseyside and, during a night on the
town, Hughes started talking to a club bouncer named Ste. The relationship never went beyond
that of acquaintances, but Hughes wanted more and was thrilled when Bonner later revealed that the
man was her uncle, Ste Lucas. After a few years, Lucas reached out to Hughes “out of the blue” and
arranged a rendezvous in Liverpool, for which he never showed up. The man then claimed that
he’d been sent to jail and needed money as he was being harassed by other prisoners. Hughes gave up
the cash. In 2015, Hughes learned that Lucas was in the US, where he’d been diagnosed with cancer.
Over the course of roughly five years, Hughes continued funding what she believed was her love
interest’s life-saving treatment, ultimately giving up nearly $150,000 of the savings she’d
gathered while working as a nurse. Throughout that time, Bonner had been confirming Lucas’ reports
and fueling her best friend’s crush, encouraging her to send letters, cards and gifts, which were
reciprocated by the man. Then, in early 2020, she pressured Hughes to transfer more money, claiming
she was in the US taking care of Lucas. By that point, Hughes had nothing left and had also worked
herself to the point of suffering a breakdown. Bonner’s web of lies began to unravel, when Hughes
and a friend checked the woman’s social media and discovered she was in Skelmersdale, not the US.
Further investigation revealed “Ste Lucas” didn’t exist and Bonner’s ex-husband told Hughes
he’d found a bundle of cards and gifts she’d sent him. Using a middleman and manipulation,
Bonner had fabricated Lucas and used Hughes’ money to fund her lifestyle. The mother-of-three
eventually pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation and was jailed for 28 months.
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