Buzz
Farming is an incredibly demanding occupation, with its burdens and dangers often going unnoticed or unacknowledged. The risks are numerous—animals, heavy machinery, reckless individuals, and even manure can all pose serious threats to a farmer's safety.
The following ten accounts explore the unimaginable and disturbing consequences that can arise from such a perilous profession, as well as the senseless, tragic crimes that have occurred to farmers living on the fringes of society.
10. A Relentless Swarm
One peaceful Sunday afternoon, Rogerio Zuniga was riding his tractor, tending to his farm in Lorenzo, Texas, when the third-generation farmer accidentally struck an old irrigation pipe. What Zuniga didn't know was that inside the 18-inch (45 cm) diameter pipe was a massive nest of Africanized bees. As the angered swarm emerged, Zuniga, in a panic, leapt from his tractor and fled 100 yards (91 m), but was soon overwhelmed by the deadly swarm. When his family noticed the tractor had been left behind, they searched the field and found Zuniga’s lifeless, mutilated body, completely engulfed by bees.
Lisa, Zuniga’s sister, recalled, “He had gaping wounds, the bees shredded him basically. It was horrible.” Following a thorough investigation, the fire department discovered a 15-20 foot (4.5-6 m) honeycomb inside the irrigation pipe, prompting county authorities to get involved. As crews worked to break through the concrete piping, they were swarmed by the highly aggressive bees, with some even being stung through their protective gear. After four hours of clearing the pipe, the fire department realized that the bees were relocating to another massive honeycomb located on the property where the victim’s mother lived.
9. The Savage Bull
Roger Bearup’s final day on earth began with a somber note, as it was the anniversary of his son’s tragic death. Ten months earlier, the 71-year-old had buried his son after a forklift accident caused by a power line electrocution. However, this particular day, Bearup’s death wouldn’t come from electricity, but from a wild bull on his farm in Lowell Township, Kent County, Western Michigan.
In a desperate attempt to control the 1,500-pound (680 kg) enraged bull, Bearup was fatally attacked. Authorities were notified when a neighbor found Bearup’s lifeless body lying in the field. Unable to help due to the bull’s aggressiveness, the neighbor waited helplessly for police. Upon arrival, officers sealed off the driveway, trapping the bull. Fearing for their safety and with no other choice, deputies fired their cruiser rifles at the rampaging animal. A total of 33 shots were fired before the bull collapsed. It was later determined that the bull had broken through an electric fence and was roaming freely before attacking Bearup, who suffered “massive injuries” from the assault.
8. The Sole Survivor
In April 1937, John Waszak was stepping out of his barn, only 50 feet (15 m) away from his two-story house, when an explosion threw the home off its foundation. The aftermath was a pile of smoldering debris, along with the charred remains of his wife and eight children, ranging from three to 20 years old. Six weeks earlier, Waszak had discovered 50 sticks of government-made dynamite left behind by the previous farm owner in the pumphouse. Fearing his children might find the explosives, Waszak moved the dynamite to the basement of the family home.
Unbeknownst to the Waszak family, the youngest child, Raymond, had found his way into the cellar while the rest of the family gathered in the living room. Moments later, the Waszak home exploded, scattering body parts and debris over an acre of land in Muskego, Wisconsin. On April 19, 1937, the Madera Tribune reported that Raymond’s body was “discovered in the basement, not far from where 50 pounds of pyrotol, a low-grade dynamite, had been stored.”
7. The Fatal Decapitation
Surprisingly, accidental decapitations are more common than most would expect. These horrifying events typically happen in traffic accidents or workplace incidents involving heavy machinery. This was the case for a 41-year-old farmer, who unknowingly sealed his fate when he entered a trailer to complete part of his daily chores.
Inside the trailer, the unaware farmer was shoveling barley while the grain was being fed into the trailer by a mechanical helix elevator. Due to his severe allergy to barley dust, the farmer loosely tied a scarf around his face and neck. As the grain was loaded into the trailer, the scarf became entangled in the rotating shaft of the machine. In seconds, the scarf tightened around his neck with such force that his head was severed from his body. After some time, the decapitated body was found where it had fallen in the stackyard of his property.
6. The Amazon
In the remote Brazilian Amazon in the western part of the country lies the community of the Kulina tribe. For years, rumors of cannibalistic rituals had circulated throughout the region, with their disturbing truth only becoming evident when the unthinkable happened. While guiding cattle through the dense jungle in 2009, farmer Ocelio Alves de Carvalho encountered a group of Kulina tribesmen who invited him to their village. Farmers in the area are generally fearful of the Kulina tribe, especially when they drink alcohol, raising questions about whether Carvalho went willingly. When he failed to return home, his family entered the reservation, only to discover the unimaginable: their loved one’s body had been “quartered” and his skull was hanging from a tree.
According to a witness who initially reported the murder to the police, Carvalho was decapitated and cut in half; “After this, his internal organs, his heart, and parts of his thigh were cut away and eaten.” Several tribesmen were detained by police, only to inexplicably escape back into the jungle. Due to a baffling law in Brazil, civil and military police are prohibited from entering an Indian reservation without permission from federal authorities.
51903. The Tragic Massacre
In March 1903, German farmer Adolph Krauss murdered his entire family with a sledgehammer, twenty-one miles (34 km) west of St. Louis. Known in the neighborhood as quiet and harmless, Krauss inexplicably snapped, with no clear explanation for such a brutal act. On the fateful afternoon, Krauss entered his home, armed with the hammer, and struck his wife in the head, killing her instantly. He then proceeded to crush the skulls of his six children, aged six months to 12 years, one by one, from oldest to youngest. Later that evening, Krauss’s brother John arrived at the eerily silent farm and discovered that the front door was unlocked. Upon entering, he found the horrific aftermath of his brother’s violent rage against his own family.
John's deranged, murderous sibling had arranged his family’s bodies with eerie precision, laying them side by side. After committing this grim act, Krauss turned the sledgehammer on himself, causing fatal fractures to his own skull. By the time the authorities arrived, Krauss was barely alive, lying beside the remains of his wife and children. He was left where he fell and succumbed to his injuries later that evening.
4. Desperate Measures
While harvesting corn on his farm, Sampson Parker’s corn picker became clogged with stalks. As he tried to fix the jam, Parker reached into the still-moving machine, and his glove was sucked into the motor, trapping his hand. For over an hour, his desperate cries for help went unheard in the isolated fields of South Carolina. The harder he struggled, the deeper his arm was drawn into the machine.
When sparks began to fly from the motor, Parker was surrounded by flames; “My skin was melting. It was dripping off my arm like melting plastic.” Realizing he had no choice but to act if he wanted to survive, he pulled out a small pocketknife and began to sever his right arm. “I could feel the nerves as I was cutting my arm off.” Using his body weight, he broke the bone in his forearm, freeing himself—but not without a grave cost. Bleeding profusely, Parker rushed to his truck, drove to the highway, and stood in the middle of the road, waving his arms in desperation. Most motorists ignored him, until Doug Spinks stopped, halted the bleeding, called for help, and ultimately saved Parker’s life.
3. Violation of One’s Memory
Truman Capote's groundbreaking non-fiction book In Cold Blood forever etched the Clutter family’s name into public memory, recounting the brutal murders that occurred at their farmhouse during the winter of 1959. Despite its critical acclaim, the Clutter family’s relatives expressed disdain for Capote's portrayal of their loved ones, feeling that the victims were overshadowed and the killers were almost sympathetically depicted. As noted by Oscar-nominated director Joe Berlinger, “The family was not happy about how they were portrayed and never heard from Capote after the book came out.” Instead of focusing on the lives of Herb and Bonnie Clutter and their two children, Nancy (16) and Kenyon (15), Capote delved into the horrific details of the crime, such as the “gurgling noise” Herb made as his throat was slashed and the violent shotgun blast that split his skull.
In that cold November night nearly 60 years ago, the horrific event gripped a nation as Perry Smith and Richard Hickock infiltrated the Clutter farmhouse, believing a safe within held a large sum of money. When they discovered the safe was empty, the bound family of four was executed one by one. Ultimately, their lives were claimed for a mere $50. Smith and Hickock were convicted and executed for the murders on April 14, 1965.
2. A Surge of Murders
In 2017, protests erupted in South Africa as demonstrators blocked highways in Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Pretoria in response to the rising number of murders of white farmers. Dressed in black to honor the victims, protesters demanded answers about the alarming murder rate of white farmers, which was higher than the overall national average. “A farmer has 4.5 times more chance of being murdered in South Africa, than an average South African. So farmers have by far the most dangerous job of all people in this country, at the moment. We cannot allow this to continue the way it is.”
Despite demographic evidence, the South African Police Service denied that the killings were racially motivated, asserting that the murders were primarily driven by a desire to rob the farmers. However, the South African Institute of Race Relations cautioned that there might be a racial element in some of the attacks, noting that white farmers appeared to be specifically targeted. In fact, farm murders reached their highest level since 2010, with 74 farmers killed between April 2016 and March 2017, an increase from 58 in the previous year.
1. Eight Feet Deep
In 2007, a tragedy unfolded in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley when 34-year-old dairy farmer Scott Showalter was overwhelmed by toxic fumes eight feet (2.4 m) beneath the ground. The disaster began when a manure pipe became blocked, prompting Scott to descend into the manure pit in an attempt to fix the issue. Within moments, farmhand Amous Stoltzfus realized that Scott had fallen unconscious due to the odorless methane gas. What followed was an unimaginable series of events. Phyllis Showalter, Scott's 33-year-old wife, along with their daughters Shayla (11) and Christina (9), rushed to the scene. One by one, they jumped into the pit, only to succumb to the toxic fumes. When emergency responders arrived, they found the lifeless bodies of Scott, Phyllis, Shayla, Christina, and Amous, huddled together in the pit’s depths, eight feet below the surface.
The tragic scene swiftly shifted from a rescue operation to a recovery mission, as the fire chief focused on safeguarding the rescue teams. Hazmat units from across the county rushed to the location to control the situation, ensuring no further lives would be lost at the devastating site.
