Woman’s Breasts May Have Played Part in Smothering Death of Her Boyfriend

A woman in Washington is being accused of becoming the latest femme fatale to use her lethal weapons literally.

Donna Marie Lange and her boyfriend of one month were arguing inside their trailer park home in Everett last Saturday, when witnesses say the 50-year-old woman threw her 51-year-old beau across the room and then sat on him, refusing his demands to be let up.

Lange, said to be 5'6", 192 pounds, was later discovered possibly passed out on top of her 5'7" boyfriend's face.

The two had reportedly been drinking and smoking pot earlier in the day along with several friends who were still inside the residence.

When Snohomish County Sheriff's Office deputies arrived at the scene, the man was already unconscious, and CPR was attempted unsuccessfully.

He was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Lange also sustained a facial injury during the altercation. "She didn't admit any wrongdoing and she said that she was sorry if the victim was dead, but she didn't know anything about how he died," deputies wrote in the incident report.

Investigators are currently examining the possibility that the victim was smothered by Lange's breasts, and charges of second-degree manslaughter are pending.

This is hardly the first time a woman's breast have been implicated as accessories to a crime.

This past November, a German man accused his girlfriend of trying to kill him with her 38DD breasts under the guise of a "sex game."

And in 2010, a British woman nearly choked the life out of her boyfriend when she accidentally covered his face with her 40LL breasts during lovemaking.

Via: Gawker.com

Chicago Lottery Winner Poisoned After Winning Jackpot

CHICAGO (AP) — With no signs of trauma and nothing to raise suspicions, the sudden death of a Chicago man just as he was about to collect nearly $425,000 in lottery winnings was initially ruled a result of natural causes.

Nearly six months later, authorities have a mystery on their hands after medical examiners, responding to a relative's pleas, did an expanded screening and determined that Urooj Khan, 46, died shortly after ingesting a lethal dose of cyanide. The finding has triggered a homicide investigation, the Chicago Police Department said Monday.

"It's pretty unusual," said Cook County Medical Examiner Stephen Cina, commenting on the rarity of cyanide poisonings. "I've had one, maybe two cases out of 4,500 autopsies I've done."

In June, Khan, who owned a number of dry cleaners, stopped in at a 7-Eleven near his home in the West Rogers Park neighborhood on the city's North Side and bought a ticket for an instant lottery game.

Ashur Oshana, the convenience store clerk, told The Associated Press on Monday that Khan said he had sworn off gambling after returning from the hajj, a Muslim pilgrimage, in Saudi Arabia. Khan said he wanted to lead a better life, Oshana said, but Khan bought the tickets that day and scratched off the winner in the store.

"Right away he grabbed my hand," Oshana said. "He kissed my hand and kissed my head and gave me $100. He was really happy."

Khan recalled days later at an Illinois Lottery ceremony in which he was presented with an oversized check that he jumped up and down in the store and repeatedly shouted, "I hit a million!"

"Winning the lottery means everything to me," he said at the June 26 ceremony, also attended by his wife, Shabana Ansari; their daughter, Jasmeen Khan; and several friends. He said he would put some of his winnings into his businesses and donate some to a children's hospital.

Instead of the full $1 million over installments, Khan opted to take his winnings in a lump sum of just over $600,000. After taxes, the winnings amounted to about $425,000, said lottery spokesman Mike Lang. The check was issued from the state Comptroller's Office on July 19, the day before Khan died, but was cashed on Aug. 15, Lang said. If a lottery winner dies, the money typically goes to his or her estate, Lang said.

Khan was pronounced dead July 20 at a hospital, but Cina would not say where Khan was when he fell ill, citing the ongoing investigation.

No signs of trauma were found on Khan's body during an external exam and no autopsy was done because, at the time, the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office didn't generally perform them on those 45 and older unless the death was suspicious, Cina said. The cutoff age has since been raised to age 50.

A basic toxicology screening for opiates, cocaine and carbon monoxide came back negative, and the death was ruled a result of the narrowing and hardening of coronary arteries.

Cyanide can get into the body by being inhaled, swallowed or injected. Deborah Blum, an expert on poisons who has written about the detectives who pioneered forensic toxicology, said the use of cyanide in killings has become rare in part because it is difficult to obtain and normally easy to detect, often leaving blue splotches on a victim's skin.

"The thing about it is that it's not one of those poisons that's tasteless," Blum said. "It has a really strong, bitter taste, so you would know you had swallowed something bad if you had swallowed cyanide. But if you had a high enough dose it wouldn't matter, because ... a good lethal does will take you out in less than five minutes."

Only a small amount of fine, white cyanide powder can be deadly, she said, as it disrupts the ability of cells to transport oxygen around the body, causing a convulsive, violent death.

"It essentially kills you in this explosion of cell death," she said. "You feel like you're suffocating."

A relative came forward days after the initial cause of death was released and asked authorities to look into the case further, Cina said. He refused to identify the relative.

"She (the morgue worker) then reopened the case and did more expansive toxicology, including all the major drugs of use, all the common prescription drugs and also included I believe strychnine and cyanide in there just in case something came up," Cina said. "And in fact cyanide came up in this case."

The full results came back in November. Chicago Police Department spokeswoman Melissa Stratton confirmed the department was now investigating the death and said detectives were working closely with the Medical Examiner's Office.

Investigators will likely exhume the body, Cina said.

Calls to Khan's family went unanswered Monday. A knock on the door at the family's small, two-story house late Monday afternoon wasn't answered.

Via: Associated Press

Woman Passed Out On Subway Tracks And Died After NYE Concert Marathon

The first subway fatality of 2013 was a 28-year-old Pennsylvania woman who was visiting New York City to ring in the New Year with her fiance, Phish, and the Disco Biscuits. Dana Ferrari, a medical assistant who grew up in Newton, NJ, was run over by a No. 2 train at 34th Street around 5:30 a.m. on New Year's Day. Sources told the Daily News she is believed to have walked down a flight of service stairs to the track bed and lain down on the tracks. A Reddit user has this account, in a post titled "Lost my BFF after phish and The Disco Biscuits":

She was spun and I guess confused the doors to the theater and Penn station. They were right next to each other. She ended up downstairs and wandered onto the tracks and laid down??!?! And was then hit by a train and died. I just can't wrap my head around it. How did she end up down there. Why did she lay down. I can only guess Xanax and L or some crazy mix like that.

I will never get over this or fully heal. She was a big part of my life for around 10 years. I love you Dana and I will never forget you or what we shared.

The Phish show at Madison Square Garden concluded just before 1 a.m., while the Disco Biscuits concert started in the Theater at Madison Square Garden at 11:30—but that band also played three sets, and some revelers, including Ferrari and her fiance, simply made their way downstairs after Phish. According to one person on the Phantasy Tour message board, Ferrari was "kicked out around 3rd set for smoking a butt." That would have been sometime between 4:30 and 6 a.m., though we find it hard to believe anyone could get kicked out of MSG for smoking anything.

Ferrari's sister Leslie tells the Post that her sister's fiance, Blake Pupo, went to the restroom during the concert, and when he returned, Dana was missing. The two had planned to spend the night at the Marriott, and the last Leslie Ferrari heard from her sister was a text message at the stroke of midnight wishing her a happy new year. She also tells the tabloid that her sister wasn't suicidal and "definitely wasn’t a drinker. We’d like to have more answers. How did she get into the train station?"

Ferrari did not have ID on her, just a set of keys with a CVS card registered to Pupo, which is how investigators identified her. A spokeswoman for the city Medical Examiner’s Office has not yet determined the cause of death and says, "We are doing testing and further investigation."

Via: www.gothamist.com

Man Fatally Crushed By Refrigerator While Getting a Beer on New Year's Day

What should have been an everyday, enjoyable moment sadly turned deadly for one older Angeleno on Tuesday, when he was killed by a falling refrigerator as he helped himself to a cold beer.

The incident took place at about 4 p.m. on New Year's Day in the 1300 block of 76th Street, according to Assistant Coroner Chief Ed Winter, reports City News Service.

The victim, a man in his 60s, was grabbing the beer from the fridge in his garage when the large appliance toppled and crushed him.

The man was pronounced dead at the scene. 

Via: www.laist.com

Justin Bieber Not in Ferrari When Paparazzo Killed

Los Angeles Police Department officials were investigating the death of a photographer who was hit by a car after photographing Justin Bieber's white Ferrari.

The photographer, who was not identified, died at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. Police are interviewing the motorist who hit him but no arrests have been made.

The incident took place on Sepulveda Boulevard near Getty Center Drive shortly before 6 p.m. Bieber's sports car had been pulled over on the 405 Freeway by the California Highway Patrol for a traffic stop. The CHP officer directed the driver of Bieber's car off the freeway onto Sepulveda, according to law enforcement sources. CHP officials said Bieber was not inside the car at the time.

The photographer arrived at the scene, got out of his car and crossed Sepulveda to take photos.

He was hit by the car as he crossed back across the boulevard, the sources said.

The sources said the photographer was not crossing in a crosswalk and the driver was fully cooperating with authorities.

The paparazzi have tracked the driving habits of Bieber, 18, and the Los Angeles city attorney's office has been unsuccessful in its attempt to use a novel state law to limit their pursuits.

Judge Thomas Rubinson ruled in November the state law did not pass constitutional muster in a case against Paul Raef, a photographer who sped on the 101 Freeway last year to capture Bieber receiving a traffic citation.

Passed in 2010, the law punishes paparazzi driving dangerously to obtain images they intend to sell. But Rubinson said the law violated 1st Amendment protections, potentially affecting wedding photographers or those speeding to events where celebrities are present.

Via: LA Now