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For most, death brings a few tears followed by burial or cremation, leaving behind only memories of our physical form. However, some bodies embark on extraordinary journeys. Here are tales of corpses that defied tradition, from serving as crash test dummies to being repurposed as drug paraphernalia.
10. Bodies Turned to Stone
Humans have long been fascinated by the preservation of dead bodies. The earliest known mummy belongs to a child from the Chinchorro people, an ancient fishing society inhabiting the dry coasts of modern-day Chile and Peru. Carbon dating places it around 5050 B.C., predating Egyptian mummification practices.
Girolamo Segato, an Italian anatomist born in 1792, was deeply captivated by Egyptian burial customs. After multiple archaeological trips to Egypt, where he studied mummification, he returned to Italy and revealed a groundbreaking method of preserving flesh—artificial petrification.
Valentine Mott, a renowned American surgeon who spent time with Segato in Europe, noted that the Italian had developed a chemical process to rapidly petrify animal tissue. This technique maintained the form and internal structure with such precision that the material could be cut into slabs and polished to a fine finish!
Segato passed away in 1836, having destroyed all his research notes. His collection of preserved specimens was dispersed, with the majority housed at the Museum of the Department of Anatomy in Florence. Despite thorough investigation, Segato’s petrification technique remains unsolved to this day.
9. Preserved Bodies in Liquid
Decades before the Panama Canal's construction, a railway was established to connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. This ambitious project was driven by the California Gold Rush of 1849, which sparked a global frenzy for wealth. Workers from around the world, often without identification or known relatives, flocked to build the railway.
The construction came at a heavy price—workers suffered from deadly diseases like yellow fever, malaria, and cholera, leading to thousands of deaths. A prohibition on opium caused many Chinese laborers, who had developed dependencies in their homeland, to take their own lives. While no official records exist, estimates suggest the death toll may have surpassed 10,000.
Instead of burying the deceased, the Panama Railroad Company opted for a more profitable approach. They preserved many bodies in liquid and sold them to medical schools for research. This period marked a revolutionary era in medicine—anesthesia had recently been introduced, transforming surgeries from crude, hurried procedures into precise and detailed operations. The demand for cadres soared, and for over five years, the company became a major supplier.
8. Bongs Made from Corpses
Frequent marijuana users are seldom praised for their ingenuity. However, when it comes to crafting smoking devices, they often display remarkable creativity, repurposing items like apples and soda cans. In 2008, three teenagers in Humble, Texas, took this to a horrifying extreme. They exhumed the grave of Willie Simms, a child who died in 1921, removed the skull, and turned it into a bong.
The teens might have escaped detection if they hadn’t been caught during a car break-in investigation. One of them admitted to defiling Simms’s remains. Initially, the police dismissed the story as too outrageous, but a trip to the cemetery revealed a desecrated grave filled with rainwater and a shattered headstone.
All three were charged with misdemeanor corpse abuse, among other offenses.
7. The Indicator of Unclaimed Bodies
Funerals can be incredibly costly. The National Funeral Directors Association states that a traditional burial and funeral can easily reach $10,000, while even a more affordable cremation often exceeds $3,000.
In 2009, during a severe economic downturn, cities across the U.S. saw a sharp rise in unclaimed bodies, signaling the nation’s financial distress. Los Angeles reported a 36 percent increase in unclaimed corpses compared to the previous year. While most deceased are claimed by family, even in tough times, there are situations where bodies remain unclaimed. For instance, would a struggling single mother incur massive debt to bury a distant relative she never knew?
Detroit, a city grappling with high unemployment and poverty, was particularly affected. Michigan covers the cost of indigent burials at $750 each, but delays in payments were common due to the state’s financial struggles. Meanwhile, unclaimed bodies accumulated in refrigerated storage. In late 2008, Michigan funded 637 indigent burials, but by the same period in 2009, as the economy worsened, this number nearly doubled to 1,268.
6. Audrey Mountford, The Abandoned Bride
Charles Dickens’s famous novel Great Expectations features a boy entangled in the dark schemes of a scorned bride. In real life, Audrey Mountford, an Australian woman, experienced her own tragic tale of abandonment. Audrey fell deeply in love with a Canadian man, and the couple planned to marry. However, their relationship ended in heartbreak, prompting Audrey to leave her Sydney home in 1969.
Known for her wanderlust and described by her family as “flighty,” Audrey’s absence initially caused little concern. They assumed she had traveled abroad to heal from the breakup. However, in 1981, a teenager stumbled upon her remains in a cave in Australia’s Blue Mountains. She was found wearing her mother’s wedding ring and surrounded by personal items like toothpaste and utensils. Unable to identify her, authorities closed the case in 1983.
In July 2009, a coroner’s investigation finally revealed the tragic fate of Audrey Mountford. Her family was heartbroken by the discovery. Nola Stewart, her 84-year-old sister and the last relative to see her alive, expressed her grief, saying, “It’s even more heartbreaking to learn what happened to her because I always hoped she was alive somewhere, choosing not to reach out to me.”
5. Robots That Consume Corpses
In 2009, news outlets were filled with stories about military robots designed to use human corpses as fuel. The eerie invention, named EATR™ (Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot), could function indefinitely without refueling by devouring any nearby biomass.
Cyclone Power Technologies Inc. and Robotic Technology Inc., the developers of the robots, clarified that the “biomass” would not include human or animal flesh but rather plant material. Harry Schoell, Cyclone’s CEO, stated, “We fully grasp the public’s unease about robots consuming humans in the future, but that’s not our goal. Our aim is to show that our engines can generate sustainable, eco-friendly energy from abundant, renewable plant sources.”
Given that much of the U.S. military’s focus is on arid Middle Eastern deserts, known for their lack of vegetation, it might be practical to modify the EATR to handle other biomass sources, even if it skirts the boundaries of the Geneva Conventions.
4. Samuel Pepys’s Romantic Encounter
Samuel Pepys is a name familiar to many from history classes. As a parliament member and naval administrator, he is most renowned for his detailed diary, a vital resource on the English Reformation. Beyond chronicling events like plagues and fires, the diary also reveals aspects of Pepys’s personal life, including his affairs with his mistress.
One of the strangest entries in Pepys’s diary dates to February 23, 1669, when he and his family visited Westminster Abbey to celebrate his 36th birthday. Part of the entry reads, “So I took them to Westminster Abbey and showed them all the tombs in great detail. We were alone at first, though others arrived later to view the tombs, as it was Shrove Tuesday. By special permission, we saw the body of Queen Katherine of Valois. I held the upper part of her body and kissed her mouth, reflecting on the fact that I had kissed a Queen, and that it was my 36th birthday, the day I first kissed a Queen.”
Catherine of Valois, the wife of Henry V, passed away in 1437 at 35, shortly after giving birth. She had been dead for more than 230 years when Pepys made his peculiar romantic gesture.
3. Japan’s Oldest Man
Japan’s kodokushi, or lonely deaths, refer to elderly individuals who pass away and remain undiscovered for extended periods. This phenomenon is common in Japan, which has the world’s largest elderly population. One of the longest undiscovered cases was Sogen Kato, born on July 22, 1899.
In 2010, authorities attempted to reach out to Kato to celebrate his remarkable age. His family, however, provided various excuses to avoid contact, claiming he was brain dead or undergoing sokushinbutsu, a Buddhist practice of self-mummification through starvation to achieve enlightenment.
Officials continued their efforts to contact Kato. Eventually, police forced their way into his home and found his mummified remains lying in bed. Newspapers in the room suggested he had likely died around November 1978, meaning his body had remained there for 32 years. Unlike typical kodokushi cases, Kato’s family was fully aware of his death but continued to collect his pension. His daughter and granddaughter were later charged with fraud.
The Kato incident prompted the Japanese government to initiate a nationwide inquiry to verify the status of the country’s reported centenarians.
2. A Third Leg
The 1995 terrorist attack on Oklahoma City’s Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was a tragic event that claimed the lives of 168 individuals. Among the victims was 21-year-old Lakesha Levy, an Air Force member visiting the building to obtain a Social Security card. Following her burial, a severed leg was discovered in the debris. FBI analysis confirmed the leg belonged to a black woman, and footprint evidence linked it to Levy, despite her being buried with both legs intact.
Levy’s body was later exhumed, but authorities could not identify the origin of the mysterious leg. The embalming process had destroyed the DNA, making it impossible to match. Oklahoma medical examiner Fred Jordan stated, “We have no body to compare it with. This remains an unsolved mystery.”
1. Crash Test Dummies
Many who grew up during the 1980s recall Vince and Larry, the crash test dummies who emphasized seat belt safety. While dummies provide valuable insights, understanding the full impact of car crash trauma requires the use of real human bodies.
For decades, cadaver research has been a critical part of automotive safety development, even as car manufacturers often avoid publicizing its use. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, supported by funding from companies such as Ford, performs annual cadaver tests. Innovations like seat belts and safety glass were initially evaluated using cadavers, allowing researchers to conduct X-rays and autopsies to precisely analyze how human tissue reacts in crash scenarios.
Those who find such practices unsettling will be relieved to know that cadaver testing has seen a significant reduction in recent years. Modern vehicle safety systems have reached a high level of effectiveness, and the majority of testing now relies on advanced computer simulations.
