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You may recall our earlier compilation on premature burials, but if you assumed that was the conclusion, think again. Surprisingly, there are even more recent and equally spine-chilling stories of premature burials this year, rivaling the terror of Edgar Allan Poe’s tales. If the idea of being buried alive wasn’t already your worst nightmare, it certainly could be now.
10. Octavia Smith Hatcher
During the late 19th century, Pikeville, Kentucky, was gripped by a mysterious illness, with Octavia Smith Hatcher’s case being the most heartbreaking. Following the death of her infant son Jacob in January 1891, Octavia fell into a deep depression, confined to her bed, and eventually became severely ill, slipping into a coma. On May 2 of that same year, she was declared dead from unknown causes while still lying in her bed.
Embalming was not yet common, and due to the intense heat, Octavia was quickly laid to rest in the town cemetery. Just days after her burial, many residents fell victim to the same illness, entering comatose states. However, unlike Octavia, they eventually awoke. Her husband, fearing the unthinkable, worried he had buried her alive. He arranged for her grave to be exhumed, only to discover his worst fears confirmed. The coffin’s interior lining was shredded, and Octavia’s nails were bloodied and broken, her face frozen in an expression of sheer terror. She had succumbed to death after being buried alive.
Octavia was reburied, and her husband placed a lifelike monument over her grave, which remains standing to this day. It was later theorized that the illness was caused by the Tsetse fly, an African insect known to transmit sleeping sickness.
9. Mina El Houari
Typically, when you're on a first date, you might wonder how the evening will conclude. While it's wise to expect the unexpected, no one should ever anticipate being buried alive after dessert. A chilling incident from May 2014 illustrates this. Mina El Houari, a 25-year-old French woman, had been communicating with a man online for months before traveling to Morocco to meet him in person. She arrived at her hotel in Fez on May 19 for what she hoped would be a dream date, but she never left.
Mina and her date enjoyed a pleasant evening until she suddenly collapsed. Mistakenly believing she had died, the man decided to bury her in a shallow grave in his garden without seeking medical help. Unbeknownst to him, Mina was in a diabetic coma, a condition she was unaware she had. Days later, her family reported her missing and traveled to Morocco to search for her. Moroccan police eventually located the man, finding evidence of his actions, including muddy clothes and a shovel. He confessed to burying Mina alive and was charged with manslaughter.
8. Mrs. Boger
In July 1893, Charles Boger and his wife resided in Whitehaven, Pennsylvania, when Mrs. Boger unexpectedly passed away from unknown causes. After doctors confirmed her death, she was quickly buried. However, a friend later informed Charles that his wife had a history of hysteria before they met, suggesting she might not have been dead when buried. This possibility tormented Charles, driving him to hysteria as he grappled with the thought of her being buried alive.
Tormented by the possibility of his wife perishing in her coffin, Charles Boger enlisted friends to help dig up her grave for verification. The sight that greeted them was horrifying. Mrs. Boger’s body had shifted position, her burial garments were torn to shreds, and the glass lid of her coffin lay shattered across her remains. Her skin bore deep scratches and was smeared with blood, and her fingers were entirely gone, presumably bitten off in a desperate attempt to break free. The fate of Charles Boger after this grim discovery remains a mystery.
7. Angelo Hays
Among the most terrifying accounts of premature burial are those where the victim miraculously survives. Angelo Hays’ story is one such example. In 1937, Angelo, a spirited 19-year-old from St. Quentin de Chalais, France, was riding his motorcycle when he lost control, crashing headfirst into a brick wall. Doctors pronounced him dead on the spot, and he was buried three days later. However, an insurance company in Bordeaux grew suspicious after noticing that Angelo’s father had recently taken out a 200,000-franc life insurance policy on his son. An inspector was dispatched to investigate.
The inspector ordered Angelo’s body to be exhumed just two days after burial to verify the cause of death. To everyone’s astonishment, Angelo was still alive. When the doctor removed the shroud, he found Angelo’s body warm and his heart faintly beating. Rushed to a hospital, Angelo underwent multiple surgeries and extensive rehabilitation, eventually making a full recovery. It turned out he had been in a deep coma due to his head injury. Inspired by his ordeal, Angelo later invented a security coffin equipped with features to prevent premature burial. He gained fame in France, touring with his invention and sharing his incredible story.
6. Mr. Cornish
In 1817, John Snart released *Thesaurus of Horror*, which included a chilling account of premature burial involving Mr. Cornish, a respected mayor of Bath. Cornish had reportedly died of a fever approximately 80 years prior to the book’s publication. Following the customs of the time, his body was interred shortly after his presumed death. As the gravedigger was halfway through his task, he paused to share a drink with some passersby. During their conversation, they heard faint, muffled groans emanating from the direction of Cornish’s partially filled grave.
Realizing Cornish had been buried alive, they rushed to rescue him before he suffocated in his coffin. However, by the time they cleared the dirt and pried open the lid, it was too late. Mr. Cornish had already perished, his knees and elbows bruised and bloodied from his desperate struggle. The tragedy left Cornish’s half-sister so terrified that she demanded her relatives decapitate her upon her presumed death to spare her a similar fate.
5. The 6-Year-Old Who Survived
The thought of being buried alive is terrifying, but it becomes unimaginably horrifying when a child falls victim to such a nightmare. In August 2014, this very tragedy befell a six-year-old girl in Uttar Pradesh, India. According to her uncle, Alok Awasthi, a neighboring couple lured the girl by claiming her mother wanted them to take her to a fair in a nearby village. However, upon reaching a vast sugar cane field, they strangled her and buried her for reasons still unknown.
Fortunately, villagers working in the field noticed the couple entering and grew suspicious when they left without the child. Investigating further, they discovered the girl unconscious and not breathing in a shallow grave. Rushed to the hospital just in time, she regained consciousness and identified her kidnappers. Though she had no memory of being buried, her testimony helped authorities. The motive behind the neighbors’ actions remains unclear, and the suspects are still at large. Despite the horror, the story ended without a fatal tragedy.
4. Buried Alive Voluntarily
Throughout history, humans have attempted to challenge fate, and some have even tried to escape death by voluntarily being buried alive. In 2011, a 35-year-old Russian man took this idea to a deadly extreme. Convinced that spending 24 hours underground would bring him lifelong luck, he enlisted a friend to help him dig a grave outside Blagoveshchensk. He prepared a makeshift coffin equipped with air pipes, a bottle of water, and a cell phone. After climbing inside, his friend covered the coffin with nearly a foot of dirt and left. The man called once to confirm he was fine, but by morning, he was dead. It’s believed that overnight rain clogged the air pipes, leading to his suffocation. This tragic incident highlights a disturbing trend of voluntary burials that gained popularity in Russia at the time.
The man’s friend returned the next morning to find him lifeless. Investigators speculated that rain had blocked the air supply, causing him to suffocate. What makes this story even more unsettling is that being buried alive was a viral internet challenge in Russia during that period, raising concerns about how many others may have met a similar fate.
3. Stephen Small
In 1987, Stephen Small, an heir to an Illinois publishing and media empire, was kidnapped and buried alive near Kankakee. His captors, Danny Edwards, 30, and his girlfriend, Nancy Rish, 26, devised a plan to hold him captive in a wooden box buried underground while demanding a $1 million ransom from his family. They provided minimal air, water, and light through tubes, but Small was buried 1 meter (3 feet) beneath sandy soil. Tragically, he suffocated when the breathing tube failed, cutting off his air supply.
Authorities located Mr. Small by tracing his maroon Mercedes to the burial site. The convictions of Edwards and Rish sparked debates over whether they intended for Small to die in the coffin. Regardless of intent, the crime was gruesome and had devastating outcomes. Edwards and Rish are likely to remain imprisoned for at least another 27 years.
2. Sipho William Mdletshe
In 1993, Sipho William Mdletshe, a 24-year-old South African, and his fiancée were in a devastating car accident. While his fiancée survived, Sipho was pronounced dead at the scene due to his severe injuries. His body was taken to a Johannesburg mortuary and placed in a metal coffin. However, Sipho was not dead—he had merely lost consciousness. Two days later, he awoke in a confused state and began screaming for help.
Fortunately, morgue workers heard his cries and freed him from the coffin. Despite surviving the ordeal, Sipho faced further heartbreak when he returned home to his fiancée, only to be rejected because she believed he was a zombie. This added an extra layer of tragedy to his already harrowing experience.
1. Lawrence Cawthorn
A chilling tale of premature burial is recounted in a pamphlet titled *The Most Lamentable and Deplorable Accident*, which leans more toward legend than fact. It tells the story of Lawrence Cawthorn, a London butcher who fell gravely ill in 1661. His landlady, eager to inherit his possessions, ensured he was declared dead without a doctor’s examination and hastily buried in a nearby chapel.
Shortly after his burial, visitors and mourners heard desperate screams emanating from the grave. They hurried to exhume the coffin, but it was too late. Cawthorn’s burial shroud was torn to pieces, his eyes swollen, and his head brutally bloodied from repeatedly striking it against the coffin in a futile attempt to escape. The landlady was accused of orchestrating his premature burial, and the story became a haunting legend for centuries.
