- Watch kids choose between a gift for themselves or their parents
- When a business owner saw two men with a sign begging, he got out a sign of his own
- Texas billionaire offers $100,000 bonus to all employees
- Pharma bro' Martin Shkreli arrested in FBI securities fraud sting
- Bride remembers late 6-year-old daughter in heart-wrenching photos
Among the most trending news items of 2015, five of the most shocking stories had to do with people dying - either the shocking discovery of a death or a shocking accident or crime ending in death.
1) 'Strange taste' in water caused by human remains in supply tank
In January, the body of a woman who had been missing for 11 months was found in a supply tank in Mexico City after residents complained about a strange taste in the water. Carmen Esparza’s remains were identified from her breast and hip implants because her natural body had decomposed. Her death was being investigated as a murder.
2) 3-year-old found dead in swing was there two days
Deputies in La Plata, Maryland, carried out a well-being check when people reported seeing a woman pushing a child in a swing for a long time in May. The 3-year-old boy, Ji'Aire Donnell Lee, had been sitting in the swing for two days and died of dehydration and hypothermia, the medical examiner said. Family members said the boy's mother, Romechia Simms, 24, suffered from mental illness and she was hospitalized after the boy's death. Months later, she was charged with manslaughter, first-degree child abuse and child neglect.
3) Teen killed after being pulled into wood chipper
The headline pretty much tells this terrible story. Just this month, Mason Cox, 19, had gotten a job with a tree and stump grinding service in North Carolina. On his first day on the job, he was pulled into the wood chipper and killed. Nobody saw Cox getting pulled into the chipper. Instead, Jon Crawford, the business owner, noticed the machine was jamming. Crawford was hospitalized after suffering a heart attack at the scene when he realized what happened.
4) 7-year-old girl found dead minutes after disappearing from football game
In November, little Gabby Doolan was cheering on a brother at his football game in Allen County, Ky., before she disappeared. Within 30 minutes, her body was found in a nearby creek. Timothy Madden, 38, knew the family and had reportedly been sitting near them at the football game. He pleaded not guilty after being arrested and charged with kidnapping, rape, sodomy and murder.
5) Baby cut from womb when woman responded to Craigslist ad
In March, an expectant mother in Longmont, Colorado, responded to a Craigslist ad for baby clothes and was stabbed in the stomach by a woman who then removed the baby from her womb. The 26-year-old victim survived but the baby died. The alleged assailant, Michelle Wilkins, 34, was not charged with murder because of the debate over when a fetus can legally be considered a human being. Instead, she was charged with attempted murder, first and second degree assault and unlawful termination of a pregnancy.
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