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January
The sharp thread of a flying kite slashed the throat and killed water engineer R.C. Senal in
Orissa, eastern India, who was riding his motorbike to a meeting in Bhubaneshwar. War games
with kites are a popular sport in India, and enthusiasts often put a paste of boiled rice mixed
with glass dust on the string to cut the thread of other kites. Some kite flyers have sliced
off their fingers in accidents. [UNI] Hong Kong Standard - 18 January
1994
February
Farmer Jerry Kulpin was killed in Christchurch, New Zealand, when a 280lb pumkin fell on him
from a lorry. Daily Mirror - 5 February 1994
An unidentified man in his mid-twenties told onlookers in Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast, that he
could no longer bear to live without President Felix Houphouet-Boigny, who ruled for 33 years
until his death on 7 December. The man jumped into the ruler's palace moat, drawing huge crowds
who spent two days watching his body being devoured by crocodiles. Hackensack (NJ) Record - 16 February 1994
March
Karl Welker, Husband of the Year, battered his wife to death with his winner's trophy in Bonn,
Germany. The businessman flew into a rage at the prospect of embarrassment when she said she
was leaving him. Welker, 36, was jailed for 30 years. Daily Record - 8
March 1994
April
Just before Christmas 1993, Dimitru Dumitrazcu, a farmer from Slatioara in Romania, was
distilling brandy in his cellar when he was overcome by the fumes and fell into the barrel. He
was dead when his wife found him Delict Magazin (Romania) - April
1994
Michelle Von Emster, 25, of Ocean Beach, San Diego, was killed by a great white shark after she
had won a battle against leukaemia. It was the first reported death by a shark on the US
Pacific coast since 1989. Associated Press - 19 April 1994
Welder Sven Lund died trying to thaw his car's fuel line with a blowtorch. Police in Stockholm
said: "He was a very good welder, but didn't know a lot about cars. Daily Star - 29 April 1994
May
An Indian border guard died after a woman tenant squeezed his testicles following an arguement
over scarce water. Pammi Tiwari, 32, grabbed Inderpal after he objected to her washing clothes
in his block of tenements, citing a water shortage. South China Morning
Post - 9 May 1994
Health freak Franz Heinan choked to death on vitamin pills in Brussels after lecturing friends
on their eating habits. Daily Star - 5 May; Sunday Mail - 15 May
1994
An
Australian woman of 77 froze to death after falling into her top-opening food freezer at her
house in the Sydney suburb of Punchbowl. She had apparently been leaning over the freezer when
she overbalanced and hit her head. Reuters - 29 May 1994
June
An
Indian farmer who was bitten by a snake sank his teeth into it and killed it before dying in
hospital in north-eastern Assam. Reuters - 10 June 1994
A
poacher died after he tried to catch fish by putting a live cable into a pond outside Moscow.
He forgot to disconnect the electricity before collecting the fish. Daily Record - 16 June 1994
Chris Bowie, 29, from West Palm Beach, Florida, was dragged to his death by the fish he was
trying to catch. He was pulled 30 feet under by a giant blue marlin when his hands became
tangled in the line during a contest off North Carolina. Daily Mail - 20
June 1994
A
couple in Hamburg were trapped when the door of their home-made sauna jammed and the
temperature soared to 180 degrees. As lawyer Sigrid Wildberg, 53, hammered on the door and
sreamed for help, husband Achsen, 60, tried to wrench off the pine roofing. Then, overcome by
heat, he died. Sigrid passed out as she ripped wiring of a wall - but she managed to cause a
short circuit which cut off the heating. She was rescued the next day by a neighbour. Daily Mirror - 22 June 1994
July
Jeremy T. Brenno, 16, slammed his No. 3 wooden gold club against a bench after amking a bad
shot at the Kingsboro Golf Club in Gloversville, New York. He bled to death after the club's
broken shaft snapped back and pierced his pulmonary vein. Associated
Press - 12 July 1994
Julien Powell, 33, from Cardiff collapsed and died after riding on the aptly-named Nemesis
roller coaster at Alton Towers, Staffordshire. >Daily Telegraph - 16
July 1994
August
Janet Smith, 28, walked into a grocery store in Gresham,Oregon, on 21 August, holding a knife
to the throat of her Siamese cat, and sat down in an aisle. Told by police to drop the knife,
she threatened to kill the cat. Suddenly, she jumped up and began walking towards the poice,
who sprayed her with pepper mace. She then raised the knife above her head and charged at the
police, who shot her dead. The cat escpaped into the store and could not be found. Associated Press - 22 August 1994
Cory Quinn, from Sydney, Australia, committed suicide by locking himself in his estranged wife
Mary's freezer when she went on holiday. He left a note for the 20-stone woman which said:
"Gorge on this, you fat pig!" Daily Record - 31 August 1994
October
To
support her ample frame, Berbel Zumner, 23, had to wear a bra reinforced with metal wires.
These conducted a bolt of lightning which killed her as she was walking through a park in
Vienna. Daily Record (Scotland) - 21 October 1994
Krzysztof Azninski, 30, had been drinking all day in his garden with his three friends. The
four men put on traditional "toughness bonnets" and played macho games. Franciszek Zyzcoszusko,
41, put his hand on a chopping block and dared Azninski to cut it off. Azninski hacked at it
with a knife, partially severing the wrist, then put his own head on the block and challenged
Zyzcoszusko to chop it off - which he did, with an axe. The revellers then decided things had
gone too far, stopped the contest and began to sing a folksong called 'Roll the head of the
giant', which woke the neighbours. Polish News Agency - 25 October
1994
November
Einner Dahl, 54, of Minton, saskatchewan, killed buck deer while hunting on 5 November 194.
Later, as he tried to move the deer at a relative's home in Celon, south of Regina, the antler
punctured his leg and hit an artery. He died before he could get help. Victoria (BC) Times-Colonist - 7 November 1994
Karate brown belt and Thai boxing enthusiast Scott Kell, 23, lost his balance doing high-kicks
and plunged to his death through an open window on the 10th floor of a tower block in salford,
Manchester, on 6 July last year. Daily Mail - 17 November
1994
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Strange Deaths of 1994.