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Strange Deaths

ramonmercado said:
Terrible way to go.

A woman died after getting trapped in an airing cupboard while on holiday, an inquest has heard.

Elizabeth Isherwood, 60, from Wolverhampton, tried to break out using a piece of water pipe.

But after breaking the pipe, she got sprayed with water and subsequently died from hypothermia at Plas Talgarth Country Club near Pennal, Gwynedd.

Coroner Dewi Pritchard Jones recorded a conclusion of misadventure at a hearing in Caernarfon.

The inquest was told Ms Isherwood checked in on 23 September 2017, but her body was not found for a week.

It is believed she got trapped the night she arrived or the morning after when she was going to the toilet, but the coroner said it was difficult to know when.

The internal doorknob disintegrated, meaning she could not escape.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-north-west-wales-44538699
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How did she end up in the airing cupboard?
 
Min Bannister said:
I rather got the impression she marched in there trying to go to the toilet, closed the door, felt for the light switch, realised there wasn't one, tried to get back out. Rather horrible,
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Yup, but airing cupboards generally have shelves across them for storage. They're not much use otherwise. If you can walk into one it sounds more like a 'drying room'.

Also, and this is just me, if I were alone I wouldn't be too bothered about closing the door. That's one of the joys of having exclusive use!

It's very sad anyway and the poor lady had an awful death. I'm not laughing at her.
 
escargot said:
Yup, but airing cupboards generally have shelves across them for storage. They're not much use otherwise. If you can walk into one it sounds more like a 'drying room'.

Also, and this is just me, if I were alone I wouldn't be too bothered about closing the door. That's one of the joys of having exclusive use!

It's very sad anyway and the poor lady had an awful death. I'm not laughing at her.
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Yes, it must have been a fairly capacious one!

Sometimes folk do things automatically. I automatically lock the en-suite bathroom door in hotel rooms for some reason, even though we don't even have a lock on our bathroom door at home (just the two of us and a wee house so we always know where the other is). Anyway, I am just guessing here. Maybe she just wanted to go in it. I sometimes like to go into walk-in wardrobes and peer out although I don't do it compulsively or anything. I blame CS Lewis.
 
I once locked myself in my bedroom. Normally, I leave the door open, but my housemate/co-owner was still living here - so I had it closed. I got up in the morning after he'd gone and tried to open my door. The metal bar inside the door handle failed to engage with the inner door handle, so it would turn but not open the door.
I tried for ages to bang the door and make the metal bar move back into place, but I was stuck.
Fortunately for me, it wasn't a life-or-death situation and I have all kinds of things lying about that I can use as tools. Nail scissors came in very handy!
My OCD now makes me check things like this.
 
Mythopoeika said:
I once locked myself in my bedroom. Normally, I leave the door open, but my housemate/co-owner was still living here - so I had it closed. I got up in the morning after he'd gone and tried to open my door. The metal bar inside the door handle failed to engage with the inner door handle, so it would turn but not open the door.
I tried for ages to bang the door and make the metal bar move back into place, but I was stuck.
.
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:rollingw:
 
I once got locked in a friends toilet, i couldnt even climb out the window as it was just a small top one and it was a double one, my friend did offer to call International Rescue, I said, 'As if they'd come' I eventually got out using a pen knife, her dad and brothers came home and the dad put a new lock on, did it end, no, he had put it on wrong and when the brother went to the toilet, he got trappd, he asked for some pillows so he could sleep in the bath
 
Mythopoeika said:
Fortunately for me, it wasn't a life-or-death situation and I have all kinds of things lying about that I can use as tools. Nail scissors came in very handy!
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You might have been able to do it with a credit card, although it depends which way the mechanism was facing.
 
Shady said:
I once got locked in a friends toilet, i couldnt even climb out the window as it was just a small top one and it was a double one, my friend did offer to call International Rescue, I said, 'As if they'd come' I eventually got out using a pen knife, her dad and brothers came home and the dad put a new lock on, did it end, no, he had put it on wrong and when the brother went to the toilet, he got trappd, he asked for some pillows so he could sleep in the bath
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My youngest locked herself in the bathroom when she was about 4. After trying all sorts I rang the fire Brigade and they nipped round and popped the door open with no damage using a snazzy gadget.

That would have been the end of it, except that the local rag rings the Fire Service every morning to ask what they've been up to. So next thing we had a reporter on the doorstep and little Escette was front page news - 'Bathroom tot Freed!'
 
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David Plankton said:
You might have been able to do it with a credit card, although it depends which way the mechanism was facing.
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That's supposed to be impossible to do these days. The bit of the lock that you'd prise open with the card isn't curved so the card will slide along it. There's a flat bit at the edge.
 
David Plankton said:
Depends how old your locks are.
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Absolutely. I have personally taken note of this aspect of security hardware because I can remember seeing locks being popped that way in TV crime dramas in the 70s. There was a bit of a tabloid panic about it, after which it was announced that locks henceforth would have that particular design adjustment. No doubt burglars all over the country were cutting up their Barclaycards in despair.

The furore was probably more about the sudden availability of credit cards than how easily the locks could be popped.
 
escargot said:
Absolutely. I have personally taken note of this aspect of security hardware because I can remember seeing locks being popped that way in TV crime dramas in the 70s. There was a bit of a tabloid panic about it, after which it was announced that locks henceforth would have that particular design adjustment. No doubt burglars all over the country were cutting up their Barclaycards in despair.
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On Amazon they sell something called a 'bump key' for about a fiver. I'd never heard of them before but they are used by locksmiths to open any* door should you get locked out.
The first thing I did was to go out and get a couple of heavy duty bolts, something I'd been meaning to do for ages.

*I think you can get locks which are bump key resistant but how would you know if your door is or not?
 
David Plankton said:
On Amazon they sell something called a 'bump key' for about a fiver. I'd never heard of them before but they are used by locksmiths to open any* door should you get locked out.
The first thing I did was to go out and get a couple of heavy duty bolts, something I'd been meaning to do for ages.

*I think you can get locks which are bump key resistant but how would you know if your door is or not?
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You have to use a particular bump key for a lock. There are several types so you need a set.

I considered getting some just to see if it works! but was put off by the idea of having to choose the right one.
 
Swifty said:
Death by McDonads cheeseburger. To be honest though, this makes me want one ..

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-35490011
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Remember that after-hours staff-only fairy cake eating contest in a pub from a few years ago, where a bloke choked to death after shoving a load of them in his gob? I thought at the time Didn't his mother teach him not to stuff his mouth? Mine did!

However, I may be about to die in this way myself. We have a sofa with electric recliners at each end. A bar underneath in the workings of my end has somehow come away so it reclines abruptly when I'm sitting on it. It's unpredictable so if I forget to bump it myself it suddenly drops and if I'm eating I choke.

So if I go quiet, that's what's happened.
 
escargot said:
Remember that after-hours staff-only fairy cake eating contest in a pub from a few years ago, where a bloke choked to death after shoving a load of them in his gob? I thought at the time Didn't his mother teach him not to stuff his mouth? Mine did!

However, I may be about to die in this way myself. We have a sofa with electric recliners at each end. A bar underneath in the workings of my end has somehow come away so it reclines abruptly when I'm sitting on it. It's unpredictable so if I forget to bump it myself it suddenly drops and if I'm eating I choke.

So if I go quiet, that's what's happened.
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You're not supposed to do jiggy jiggy on them Skargy ..
 
escargot said:
How did she end up in the airing cupboard?
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Very strange indeed; possible, but so unlikely that I find myself groping for another strand of the story.

And the death from hypothermia--would not her kicking the hell out of the door for hours on end have kept her body temperature up?

Is there any suggestion that she was drunk or under the influence of something?
 
Having broken off a piece of water pipe, she was getting persistently sprayed with water. This inescapable wetting is believed to have hastened her succumbing to hypothermia.

The bit I find most disturbing is that some news accounts claim neighboring guests had heard her beating on the wall(s) for up to 24 hours, but never reacted or responded on the assumption it was some sort of maintenance work in progress.
 
EnolaGaia said:
Having broken off a piece of water pipe, she was getting persistently sprayed with water. This inescapable wetting is believed to have hastened her succumbing to hypothermia.

The bit I find most disturbing is that some news accounts claim neighboring guests had heard her beating on the wall(s) for up to 24 hours, but never reacted or responded on the assumption it was some sort of maintenance work in progress.
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Yup, you'd pop out to look if there was a van outside, and if there wasn't you'd poke around to see what was going on.
 
Yithian said:
Very strange indeed; possible, but so unlikely that I find myself groping for another strand of the story.

And the death from hypothermia--would not her kicking the hell out of the door for hours on end have kept her body temperature up?

Is there any suggestion that she was drunk or under the influence of something?
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If she was being sprayed with cold water no amount of activity would keep her warm. She'd become exhausted eventually both from the effort and from being soaked. Fit and healthy people have succumbed to hypothermia when out on brisk runs and endurance tests when you'd think they'd be BOILING.
 
David Plankton said:
If she was being sprayed with water for a week from a broken pipe, then why wasn't the place flooded?
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Apparently there was water leakage, if not outright flooding ...

... other guests heard banging for 24 hours, with her body found by shocked maintenance workers a week after she checked in as they investigated a leak.

Maintenance had been sent to investigate some leaking water and had found Mary's body trapped in the cupboard.
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SOURCE: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ed-getting-trapped-naked-airing-cupboard.html
 
Similar happened to this unfortunate gentleman -

Man died trapped in cupboard

A man who got stuck in his bedroom cupboard died after struggling to free himself for up to a week, an inquest heard yesterday.
...
Ronald McClagish... was believed to have been cleaning out his cupboard when a wardrobe toppled over and trapped him inside.
...
He broke off a copper water pipe inside the cupboard so he could use it as a tool to batter the inside of the door. But water from the pipe started gushing over him inside the cupboard.
...
A post mortem exam revealed he had died of bronchitis which was either caused or worsened by his body being immersed in water.
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Curiously, the Coroner recorded an open verdict. Surely it was an accident, pure and simple? An open verdict
covers deaths where there is uncertainty. Perhaps it's because the exact time/day of death was not known. Still unusual.
 
So he stepped into it and it fell on him, if it did this then it ripped away from the heater and must have left a sizeable hole,I'm sorry, I am being a pain in the ass here, but I cannot wrap my head around this, he was cleaning out a cupboard, when a wardrobe fell on him, so he ripped a pipe out so he could hit the door, but if the wardrobe fell on him the door would be on the floor
 
Shady said:
So he stepped into it and it fell on him, if it did this then it ripped away from the heater and must have left a sizeable hole,I'm sorry, I am being a pain in the ass here, but I cannot wrap my head around this, he was cleaning out a cupboard, when a wardrobe fell on him, so he ripped a pipe out so he could hit the door, but if the wardrobe fell on him the door would be on the floor
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I guess you'd have to see a photo... but I'm not sure how much I'd like to!
 
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