THE WALKING DEAD: Indonesia

  

 In villages occupied by the Toraja people located in the mountains of South Sulawesi, Indonesia, Shamans have been raising the dead for centuries. While we might refer to the Indonesian walking dead as “zombies”, they are known by the Toraja people as “Rolang”, or “the corpse who stands up”. The only major difference between the Western world’s idea of a traditional zombie and the Indonesian version is that many people have witnessed the Rolang and luckily, they do not crave human flesh. According to the religious beliefs of the Toraja people, in order for a deceased person to reach the afterlife known as “Puya” or “The Land of Souls”, their corpse must be returned to the place of their birth for burial.

 Prior to the Dutch colonization of this area in the 20th century, the Toraja people lived in remote villages without roads connecting one to the other. Due to the difficulty of treading terrain in this mountainous region, people were terrified to journey too far in fears that their body could not be returned to their birthplace in the event of their demise. The Toraja’s beliefs state that if the body is not returned to the corpse’s village of birth, the soul will never reach Puya and will forever wander around in limbo, confused by their unfamiliar surroundings. In order to aid in transporting corpses, Shamans would be called upon to temporarily raise the dead so that they could walk back to their birthplace on their own in order to attend their funeral and begin their journey to Puya. Every August, a ritual known as Ma’nene or “The Ceremony of Cleaning Corpses” takes place.

Corpse cleaning, grooming and redressing during Ma’nene

During this time, families exhume the bodies of deceased relatives in order to wash them, groom them, change their clothes and repair their coffins. The bodies are taken to the place of their death, then back to their grave in the village of origin. Often the deceased are paraded around the village in straight lines during the journey in order to observe the living;

 This is done out of respect to the ‘Hyang’, unseen spiritual entities with supernatural powers who reside in mountains, hills and volcanoes and may only move in straight lines.

 Simple wooden caskets are placed into limestone cliffs in order to make it easier for the bodies to be retrieved for Ma’nene. Some of these limestone burial caves are so old that many coffins have rotted away leaving nothing but skeleton; Some belonging to people who died 1,000 years ago.

 Generally coffins belonging to children and infants are suspended from the sides of these limestone cliffs with rope. Once the rope rots and the coffin falls, new ropes are simply reattached and the coffin is hung once more. Infants who die before beginning teething are buried in Baby Grave Trees. [Read all about The Baby Grave Tree here]

 The Toraja, who are known as skilled woodworkers carve life-sized wooden effigies for high-status villagers which are called “Tau-Tau” and are also displayed on these limestone burial cliffs. Often, the Tau-Tau are dressed with the deceased’s favorite piece of jewelry or clothing. In the Toraja culture, more importance is placed on funerals and The Ceremony of Cleaning Corpses than births and marriages.

 In addition to returning to their place of birth, Toraja people believe that for a soul to reach Puya, all relatives of the family, no matter how far away, must attend the deceased’s funeral. Due to this stipulation, it can take several weeks, even several months, for the funeral to take place. While awaiting burial, the corpse is taken to a traditional ‘Tongkonan’ house. These houses are used almost exclusively as a place to keep the deceased before burial, similar to a funeral home. Tongkonan houses pass down from generation to generation and cannot be bought or sold according to the Toraja culture.

These elaborate houses are adorned with buffalo horns which are considered to be a symbol of wealth. The roofs’ shape symbolizes prows of the ships which carried the ancient Toraja people to the land they inhabit today. Less wealthy families may instead keep their loved one inside a room of their own home. Prior to burial the corpse is treated somewhat like an actual living person; The body will be washed, groomed, have changes of clothing and will even be offered daily meals.

 It is not uncommon for a visitor to thank the corpse for being a good host. The main reason the deceased are treated so much like the living is because the Toraja people believe it takes many, many years to reach Puya and that in some sense, the deceased remain with their bodies until they complete the voyage. Once all relatives (and the corpse) have arrived in the deceased’s village of birth, the funeral festivities may begin.  those attending the funeral will gather in ceremonial sites called “Rante”. Usually, hundreds of people are in attendance at Toraja funerals and for the wealthy, a massive feast is held which may last for several days. It is believed that for the soul to reach Puya more quickly, it is nessesary that blood is spilled at the funeral; The more blood spilled, the faster the journey into the afterlife will be. For this reason, buffalo and pigs are sacrificed at the ceremony. The installment of a new Tau-Tau requires the sacrifice of no less than 29 buffaloes and 59 pigs. For an exceptionally wealthy citizen, dozens of buffalo and hundreds of pigs will be slaughtered while those in attendance sing, dance and try to catch the animals’ blood with bamboo straws. Sometimes cockfights called “bulangan londong” are also held.

 Family will offer the corpse items they feel will be needed for the journey into the afterlife (commonly money and cigarettes). In modern times, bodies are usually transported in cars which means there is not much need for the walking dead; However, it is claimed that Shamans often attend funeral celebrations and can use the same magic to cause a slaughtered buffalo to get up and walk after it has been beheaded. This is to prove the same magic used to create Rolang is still practiced by the Toraja Shamans today. When Rolang was a popular method of transporting corpses to their burial site, special runners would go ahead of these walking dead (who were usually accompanied by a Shaman and family members) to warn people on the path and in villages that a corpse would be shambling through shortly.

 Once temporarily reanimated, the corpse would be expressionless, unresponsive, and only able to perform the most basic of functions such as walking. If anyone were to address the corpse by name or unnecessarily touch the body (in a hug, for instance) the corpse would immediately collapse and sometimes, disappear. These migrations to the corpse’s birthplace were also conducted in straight lines and were silent, somber affairs which could take many days, weeks or even months if the person had journeyed too far from home before their demise.

 The practice remains a complete mystery and although most young people of the Toraja culture do not believe in this ancient practice, the older Toraja population swear it to be real saying it is now only practiced in some areas where it is necessary such as the remote village of Mamases. The practice of regularly exhuming and cleaning corpses can be found in a few other parts of the world such as Madagascar. Unfortunately, it is believed to be a large part of why the bubonic plague, also known as the Black Death is still prevalent in that area. During the 14th century, the Black Death killed an approximate 200 million people. The disease can last in an infected corpse for several years, putting those who exhume and handle deceased infected bodies at risk of contracting the notoriously deadly disease.
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Photos courtesy Reuters, The Associated Press, Sijori Images and Mongabay.com

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Be sure to read about another bizarre funeral rite of the Toraja, The Baby Grave Tree
If you enjoyed this article, you might also like The Zombie Cat Parasite, Pray the Decay Away: Incorruptible Corpses and Other Forms of Postmortem Preservation, The Seven Stages of Decomposition, Everybody Poops: The Postmortem Edition, Mount Everest’s Death Zone, Pascualita: How Much is that Corpse Bride in the Window, How to Drive a Corpse Cross-Country and Rasputin’s Pickled Penis on Public Display

Cause of Death: Spontaneous Human Combustion & Other Stories of SHC

The body of Robert Francis Bailey

Robert Francis Bailey

At 5:19am on September 13, 1967 emergency services were called when a concerned citizen walking to work noticed a bright light coming from inside an abandoned home at 49 Auckland Street in Lambeth, South London. When the fire department arrived at 5:24am they discovered the burning body of Robert Francis Bailey, a local homeless alcoholic. One of the responding firefighters reported, “When we entered the building he [Robert Francis Baily] was lying on the bottom of the stairs half-turned on his left side and his knees were drawn up as though he was trying to bend the pain from his stomach”. Baily had been conscious as he burned to death and there was evidence to suggest he had been convulsing in agony as the fire consumed him. He had bitten into the post on the stairs which was made of solid mahogany and his teeth were embedded so deeply into the wood that his mouth had to be pried open by the fire department in order to remove his body. The firefighter described what he had witnessed, “There was about a four inch slit in his stomach and the flame was emanating from that four inch slit like a blow torch. It was a blue flame. The flame was actually coming from the body itself. From inside the body. He was burning literally from the inside out. And it was definitely under preassure. And it was impinging on the timber flooring below the body, so much so that the heat from the flame was charred into the woodwork.”. The only fire damage in the house was on the floor, directly below where the body had been burning. Aside from the abdomen where the fire had originated, Robert Francis Bailey’s clothes were intact and unaffected by the fire. The fire department put out the flames almost immediately, originally believing Bailey may still have been alive; The job required the use of several fire extinguishers and was incredibly difficult. Robert Francis Bailey’s original cause of death was determined to be “asphyxia due to inhalation of fire fumes” but after reviewing the case further his death was deemed to have been due to “unknown causes”.

Michael Faherty

The home of Michael Faherty

Seventy-six year old MichaelFaherty was found dead in his home in Clareview Park, Ballybane, Galway, Ireland on December 22, 2010 after his neighbor, Mr.Mannion was awoken by a fire alarm and noticed smoke coming from Faherty’s house. The official cause of death for Michael Faherty was “spontaneous combustion.”. Quite frankly, of all claims of SHC I find it very odd that this is the one investigators chose to officially name as a real case of spontaneous human combustion.

The body of Michael Faherty

While no accelerants were found and the fire that consumed Mr. Faherty had only damaged the floor directly beneath and the ceiling directly above the body, he was found with his head next to an open and active fireplace. A lead official working on the case stated, “The fire was thoroughly investigated and I’m left with the conclusion that this fits into the category of spontaneous human combustion for which there is no adequate explanation.”.

Dr. John Irving Bentley

From 1925-1953 John Irving Bentley had worked as a family physician in Coudersport, Pennsylvania. He had suffered a fractured hip in 1947 which affected his mobility and had caused him to be infirm in his senior years. Dr. Bentley remained in Coudersport where he was friendly with many residents which he had served as physician to before his retirement. On December 4, 1966, ninety-two year old John Irving Bentley received visitors who left at around 9pm that evening.

The home of Dr. John Irving Bentley

The following morning, Don Gosnell, meter reader with the North Penn Gas Company arrived at Dr. Bentley’s two-story home on Main Street and let himself in, as usual due to the ninety-two year old’s immobility. When he entered the house, Don Gosnell noticed a light blue smoke and a strange smell which was “somewhat sweet, like starting up a new oil-burning system.”. After going into the basement to read the meter he saw there was a pile of ash on the floor. Concerned about the strange conditions in which he found the home, he set off to search for Dr. Bentley. Don Gosnell found the upstairs bedroom filled with smoke and in the bathroom he discovered the doctor’s remains.

The body of Dr. John Irving Bentley

All that was left of John Irving Bentley was the lower half of his right leg, still wearing a slipper and his walker on top of a 2 1/2 by 4 foot hole burned into the floor. Dr. Bentley’s ashes had fallen through this hole and into the basement. Terrified, Don Gosnell ran back to the gas company screaming, “Doctor Bentley’s burned up!” and coworkers later said, “He [Don Gosnell] looked as white as a sheet.”. Aside from the hole burned into the floor, there were few signs of fire damage. The nearby tub was nearly unscathed and the rubber tips on Dr. Bentley’s walker were intact. Found inside the bathtub was Dr. Bentley’s burned robe and in the toilet were the remnants of “what was apparently a water pitcher.”. The official cause of death was recorded as “death by asphyxiation and 90 percent burning of the body”. It is theorized that Dr. Bentley had set fire to himself in his bedroom with his pipe and went into the bathroom in an attempt to extinguish the flames, becoming unconscious before he could do so. While this theory is plausible considering Dr. Bentley was an avid pipe smoker and his robe showed signs of multiple previous accidents with hot ash, his pipe was found sitting neatly in its stand by his bedside as though it had not been used anytime recently. The fire which consumed Dr. Bentley is estimated to have burned at 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit, a common element of supposed cases of spontaneous human combustion.

Helen Conway
On the evening of November 7, 1964 Helen Conway was babysitting the two children of her daughter and son-in-law overnight at her home in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. The following morning at 8:42am Helen Conway’s granddaughter, Stephanie delivered a book of matches to her invalid grandmother upstairs upon request. Very shortly thereafter, Helen Conway’s neighbor who was leaving for church noticed an odd glow coming from inside the upstairs window of 527 Argyll Road and came to the house to investigate. The heat was so intense she was unable to make it upstairs and called the fire department. As firefighters searched the smoke-filled room at 8:48am one of them stuck his hand “into something greasy” which tuned out to be the remains of Helen Conway.

The body of Helen Conway

All that was left of her were her legs from the knee-down. Her lower legs and feet were unburnt but blistered. Two blisters broke on her leg during examination; they were wet but did not leak fluid. This is a clear indication that the 51-year-old widow was alive as she burned. Her left arm, which had burned down to the bone still had a bracelet eerily dangling from it. The only major signs of fire damage was on the chair Helen Conway sat in as she burned to death. A telephone sitting on a nearby table had begun to melt but a pack of cigarettes on the same table were not affected. Sheets on the bed in the adjoining bedroom were spotless but the television set sitting on a dresser had melted while a highly flammable doll sitting next to the TV was nearly untouched. Helen Conway was a very heavy smoker and was a bit careless with her cigarettes. Multiple cigarette burns were found on furniture in her bedroom. One theory suggests Helen Conway lit herself on fire while smoking. As the chair she sat in became progressively charred the top broke off and fell backwards, taking the upper portion of Helen Conway’s body with it. Investigators believed “The Wick Effect” was the cause of her death. The Wick Effect is a commonly use to explain potential spontaneous human combustion. Under this theory, the human body is basically an inside out candle with clothing acting as the wick and human fat as the ignition. While it has been proven to be an explanation for some believed cases of SHC, it takes seven hours to destroy a human body. Obviously, this explanation would be highly feasible if it weren’t for one teeny tiny little detail… The fire that consumed the majority of Helen Conway’s body and burned at 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit began and ended in six minutes. No accelerants were used; Her death was originally considered to be foul play due to the rate and intensity at which the fire burned.

Mary Reeser
Around 8am on July 2, 1951 Pansy Carpenter went to deliver a telegram and a cup of coffee to her tenant Mary Reeser. After discovering the doorknob to her home was burning hot, Pansy asked for the help of two painters working nearby to assist in opening the door. When they finally entered, the three were met with a gust of hot air. The home showed some signs of fire but Mrs. Reeser was nowhere to be found. There was a bit of a bit of smoke and a small fire still burning on a beam which separated the bedroom from the kitchenette. Emergency services were called and discovered the body of Mary Reeser. All that remained of her was her left foot still wearing a black satin slipper, a charred liver fused to a fragment of vertebrae and a shrunken skull which was approximately the size of a teacup.

The remains of Mary Reeser

The 170lb. woman had been reduced to a pile of remains weighing less that 10lbs. Dr. Wilton Krogman, the leading American forensic expert on the subject of death by fire at that time was called in to study the case. In 25 years of working in his field, Dr. Krogman was baffled by the shrunken skull. In deaths by burning, the skull expands from the heat and literally explodes. While it is not uncommon for the skull to shrink in claims of SHC (one of many elements that makes these cases so intriguing), it is absolutely unheard of in any burning deaths outside of these rare phenomena. The chair Mary Reeser was sitting in at the time of her death had been burned until all that was left of it was some coils from its interior but a nearby pile of newspapers was untouched by the fire. A mirror on the wall had cracked due to the intense heat and many appliances in the home had melted; Otherwise, the home was generally unaffected by the fire which is estimated to have burned at 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Local investigators in St. Petersburg, Florida were so stumped by the case that Police Chief J.R. Reichert sent a box of evidence to J. Edgar Hoover containing glass fragments found in the ashes, a section of carpet, the unburnt shoe from Mrs. Reeser’s remaining foot and six “small objects thought to be teeth” along with a note which read, “We request any information or theories that could explain how a human body could be so destroyed and the fire confined to such a small area and so little damage done to the structure of the building and furniture in the room not even scorched or damaged by smoke.”. The case of Mary Reeser was so astounding J. Edgar Hoover even discussed the case with President Harry S. Truman before replying to the St. Petersburg Police. On August 8, the FBI ruled Mary Reeser’s death to have been due to “The Wick Effect” saying that Mrs. Reeser had taken her regular dose of sleeping pills and fell asleep while smoking a cigarette in her armchair. They claimed the rayon nightgown, robe and bedroom slippers she was last seen alive in the previous evening by her son and a neighbor acted as a wick and her body fat kept the fire going until she had been completely consumed. Those who worked on the case up-close-and-personal strongly disagreed with the FBI’s explanation. Experts asserted there is no way a fire started by a cigarette could create a blaze of that intensity. Dr. Wilton Krogman vehemently protested the FBI’s theory and said throughout his life that the case, particularly the shrunken skull, haunted him. As previously mentioned, the Wick Effect takes seven hours to consume a body. While there is no way to know for sure when the fire that killed Mary Reeser began, we get a pretty good idea from a clock in the room which stopped at 2:26am, presumably due to the heat from the fire. Pansy Carpenter, Mrs. Reeser’s landlady said she awoke that morning to the smell of smoke at around 5:00am. She believed it to be caused by the water pump in the garage overheating again. She got up, turned it off, and returned to bed. If the fire began shortly before 2:26am and raged on until just before Pansy Carpenter entered Mrs. Reeser’s apartment, that would be approximately seven hours; However, the FBI’s theory doesn’t quite add up. If Mary Reeser took sleeping pills on a regular basis, one would assume she took them quite a bit earlier in the evening.

Mary Reeser

Remember, this was a 67-year-old woman in 1951 whose landlady delivered coffee to at 8am. Unfortunately, there are no records of what time Mrs. Reeser’s son and neighbor left her home that evening, but the details given by Pansy Carpenter imply that Mary Reeser was up and out of bed by 8am every morning. For that to be possible when using medication to sleep, Mrs. Reeser would have to take her pills by midnight each evening, no later. If she had, in fact, taken the pills at her usual time and fallen asleep while smoking it would mean the ember which supposedly fell into her clothes remained inactive for about two hours before starting a fire which grew to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Some put the time of the clock stopping between 4:00am and 4:20am (we’re going with 2:26 because that time is cited in books and I trust books more that the internet) and if that is the case, there certainly would not have been enough time for Mary Reeser’s body to be destroyed to the point it was by way of the Wick Effect. More bizarrely, why would J. Edgar Hoover consult the President on the matter, not simply inform him of it. All these little details that don’t quite make sense in addition to the fact that no one working on the case outside of the FBI agreed with the Wick Effect theory in the case of Mary Reeser makes it one of the most intriguing examples of SHC to this day. One theory considered in an attempt to “logically” explain her death was that Mary Reeser was murdered… using cremation equipment; However, that theory was let go when it left no explanation for the melted appliances.
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If you enjoyed this article, you might also like A Witness to Spontaneous Combustion and Other Stories of SHC, Evidence Suggests Spontaneous Human Combustion is a Reality, Scientists Have Answered the Question ‘If a Tree Falls in the Forest Does it Make a Sound?‘, Evidence Suggests Sixth Sense in Humans, Pray the Decay Away: Incorruptible Corpses and Other Forms of Natural Post Mortem Preservation, Everybody Poops: The Postmortem Edition, The Zombie Cat Parasite, THE WALKING DEAD: Indonesia and Is Kicking the Bucket for Catholics Only?

Woman Found Pushing Her Deceased Child in Swing for “Unusually Long Period of Time”

Romechia Simms with her son, Ji’Aire Lee

At 7AM on Friday, May 22, 2015 deputies of the Charles County Sheriff’s department arrived at Wills Memorial Park in La Plata, Maryland in response to a call reporting a woman who had been swinging a child for an “unusually long period of time”. Although officers had originally believed the child was in need of first-aid, as they approached, “It was instantaneously clear the child was dead.”. The child was identified as three year old Ji’Aire Lee and while there were no clear signs of foul play, investigators are not ruling out the possibility. It is believed the mother may have been pushing her deceased child on the swing all of Thursday night, having arrived that evening.

The swing which was cut down along with Ji’Aire’s body. A teddy bear and potted flowers sit beneath the absent swing; It is unclear whether they were placed there by Romechia Simms or mourners.

 Reportedly, the boy’s body had to be removed along with the swing which was cut down by firefighters. The body was then sent to the office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore for an autopsy and toxicology test, the results of which have yet to be publicly released.The boy’s mother, 24-year-old Romechia Simms, had been diagnosed with a mental illness three months prior and had been in a custody battle with the Ji’Aire’s father, Donnell Lee, since March of 2015. Mr. Lee was concerned about Romechia’s emotional state and felt it would be better if their son lived with him and only visited his mother. At a recent hearing, the judge advised Ji’Aire would be better off living with his mother. The Wednesday prior to the discovery of Ji’Aire’s body, Romechia had called Donnell and asked him to pick up their son because she was having issues with her mother, Vontasha Simms. By the time Donnell got off work and attempted to come pick up Ji’Aire, Romechia had stopped answering her phone. Romechia Simms and her child were temporarily homeless after moving out of Donnell Lee’s residence and had been living in a motel in Waldorf, Maryland, approximately one mile from Wills Memorial Park.

Wills Memorial Park in La Plata, Maryland.

She had reportedly been suffering from severe depression due to her predicament, in addition to the mental illness which she had been diagnosed with three months prior to her son’s death. After the boy was discovered, Romechia was admitted to a local hospital for a mental evaluation; She was released the following Monday. Romechia’s mother, 47-year-old Vontasha Simms stated that ordinarally, “[Romechia] would never harm my grandson in any way. You know, I just believe she had some type of mental illness, some type of mental break that came upon her where she wasn’t able to get herself out of that situation.”. Vontasha hopes her family’s tragedy will prevent similar situations in the future adding, “I don’t want people to look down upon her; I want people to use the situation as an opportunity to grow, learn from it. Like I said, help your neighbor. If you suffer from mental issues and you need help, don’t be afraid to reach out to somebody.”.

3 year old Ji’Aire Lee

More on this story as it becomes available.
Special Thanks to @Haxan_Aok on Twitter for calling this story to our attention
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If you liked this article, you might enjoy reading Infant Dies of Starvation After Mother ODs, Grandmother Murders Infant & Slits Throat with Power Saw, How to Drive a Corpse Cross-Country, Victims of Terror, Last Photo of Mother & Child Taken Aboard Doomed Malaysian Airline, Amarjeet Sada: The World’s Youngest Serial Killer, Who Killed Kendrick Johnson? and Pasqualita: How Much is That Corpse Bride in the Window?

Lyudmila Steblitskaya: The Woman Who Cannot Die

Lyudmila Steblitskaya (center) with her daughter, Anastasia, and granddaughter, Nelli. Photo courtesy The Siberian Times.

Lyudmila Steblitskaya is a 65-year-old grandmother, retired cook and she has come back from the dead more than once. On November 4, 2011 Lyudmila was taken to Tomsk Regional Hospital in Russia by her daughter, Anastasia. At the time, Lyudmila was 61 years old and had a history of heart problems. After spending several days at the hospital, sadly, Lyudmila passed away. Anastasia began planning her mother’s funeral; She broke the news to her daughter, Nelli, informed family members of Lyudmila’s death, bought flowers, food for guests, even had a grave dug for her mother’s body, spending 60,000 roubles ($1,875 / 1,223 pounds) on her mother’s memorial service. On the day of Lyudmila’s funeral, Anastasia went to the hospital with the clothes her mother was to be buried in to collect the body. Hospital staff told her to wait a while because Lyudmila’s autopsy had not yet been performed. Meanwhile, Lyudmila awoke to find herself laying in the morgue with her skin cracked and peeling off because it had become frozen in the three days she spent inside a human refrigerator. An unnerved doctor found Anastasia waiting in the hall and informed her Lyudmila was very much alive and back in her hospital bed. Anastasia Steblitskaya was shocked to find her mother lying in bed, alive, just as the doctor had said. Lydmila says she has no memory of what happened; Only that she remembers being in the hospital on Friday, and waking up in the morgue on Monday. Less than one year later, in October of 2012, Lydmila died again. This time, she was somehow able to be resuscitated several hours after she had been pronounced dead. There are some reports that Lyudmila Steblitskaya died a third time, almost undergoing an autopsy again, before coming back to life; However, reports of the third instance are not confirmed. Nevertheless, coming back to life, even just one time, is an incredibly impressive feat.
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If you enjoyed this story, you might also like The Zombie Cat Parasite, Rasputin’s Penis on Display, Pascualita: How Much is that Corpse Bride in the Window?, Literally Scared to Death, Reincarnated Victims of Terrorist Attacks, Everybody Poops: The Post-Mortem Edition, Pray the Decay Away: Incorruptible Corpses & More, Joshiah: We are the Creators of Our Universe and How to Drive a Corpse Cross-Country

Rest in Peace Lois Lilienstein of ‘Sharon, Lois & Bram’s Elephant Show’

On April 22, 2015 Lois Lilienstein passed away and for some of us, a piece of our childhood died with her. Lois Lilienstein was co-founder and member of “Sharon, Lois and Bram”, a trio well-known in the late 80s and early 90s for their popular children’s songs. Lois was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1936 but moved to Toronto, Canada with her husband, Ernest, and their son, David, in 1966. In 1978 Lois teamed up with Bram Morris and Sharon Hampson, beginning their career together in children’s entertainment. By 1984 the trio had their own television show for children aptly named, Sharon, Lois & Bram’s Elephant Show which aired on CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Company) until 1988.

Sharon, Lois & Bram’s Elephant Show, CBC

Another Canadian children’s entertainer, Eric Naghor joined them as a regular guest on the Elephant Show along with an elephant (of course) brought to life by Paula Gallivan. Reruns began airing on Nickelodeon as a part of the Nick Jr. Line-up in 1995. Lois had been suffering from a rare form of cancer (not specified) which she had been diagnosed with in October of 2013. She succumbed to the disease on Wednesday evening in her Toronto home with family and friends present at her passing. Lois’s son David commented, “She knew it was happening, she was at peace with it and she died very peacefully and not in pain.” Lois Lilienstein was 78 years old.

Rest in Peace, Lois Ada Lilienstein
July 10, 1936 – April 22, 2015

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The Anguished Man: Painted in Artist’s Blood Before Suicide

When Sean Robinson’s grandmother passed away, he inherited a painting that had been in her attic for over 25 years. The piece entitled, The Anguished Man, had been an unwanted gift from a friend that Sean’s grandmother stowed away in the attic insisting it was “evil”. She claimed a dark figure had been lurking through her house ever since she received the painting and that strange noises such as crying were coming from it. The artist who created The Anguished Man was an incredibly disturbed individual who mixed his own blood in with the oil paint when painting the piece and committed suicide immediately following its completion. Sean Robinson, being a skeptic, did not believe in his grandmother’s story or the supposed paranormal events she experienced after receiving it. Shortly after Sean displayed the painting in his home, he and his wife began seeing a dark figure, as his grandmother had claimed seeing. The couple said strange noises seemed to be coming from the painting including scratching an a man crying. Sean described, “We have heard crying coming from te corner of the bedroom. We started seeing the dark figure standing at th bottom of the bed, just staring at us. It seems to be a middle-aged man but his features are not very clear.”. Sean’s wife was so unsettled by the happenings in their home she refuses to live with The Anguished Man. Mr. Robinson, on the other hand, has gained quite a bit of attention on the web from filming supposed activity surrounding the mysterious painting and releasing the “evidence” on YouTube.

Unfortunately, chances are the “haunted painting” is a hoax. After all, no one even knows the name of this twisted, tormented artist who created the painting with his own blood before dramatically taking his own life. Nevertheless, it has gained a substantial amount of attention from the paranormal community, being studied by Ian Lawman and John Blackburn of Mysteria Paranormal. Lawman and Blackburn have taken The Anguished Man to some of the most notoriously haunted locations in the United Kingdom including 35 Stonegate at York and Chillingham Castle in Northumberland. During the investigation at Chillingham Castle on May 18, 2013 John Blackburn along with more than 20 witnesses claim the room went icy cold during a séance and a large, dark figure appeared in the middle of the circle. Following a series of questions from Blackburn directed towards the painting, a large wooden bench bangs on the floor, seemingly in response. The bench then violently flipped upside down by an unforeseen force. John Blackburn said the events of that evening were the strangest thing he’d seen in his time as a paranormal investigator. While I do not necessarily doubt the events witnessed by over twenty paranormal investigators at Chillingham Castle, it is difficult to say whether or not they were brought on by the painting. As most ghost believers and enthusiasts know, Chillingham Castle is considered to be one of the most haunted locations in the world and has provided solid evidence of the existence of apparitions over the years. Fact or fiction, the tale of The Anguished Man is certainly one of the more morbid and unsettling stories of the spirit world.

Watch more videos of The Anguished Man and follow Sean Robinson on YouTube

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From the same demented mind that brought you The Post-Mortem Post: FREAK

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Chicago Grandmother Murders Infant, Slits Throat with Power Saw Before Attempting Suicide

At approximately 9:30am on Monday, March 9th, 52 year old Manuela Rodriguez murdered her infant granddaughter (reports range 7mo-9mo old) after the baby would not stop crying. According to the autopsy, baby Rose Herrera died due to “blunt force injuries to the head with suffocation from a sock being placed in her mouth a contributing factor.” The incident took place in the Little Village district of Chicago, Illinois on the 2800 block of South Avers Avenue where Manuela lived with her two daughters and their children (one child each). After Herrera had a sock forcibly inserted into her mouth and was severely beaten in the head with a pipe wrench, her throat was slit with a power saw, postmortem. Barry Quinn, assistant to the state’s attorney described, “Visible blunt force trauma to both sides of head, sock shoved into mouth. They [investigators] also observed deep cuts to baby’s neck, throat and chest.” Following the murder, Rodriguez called her sister and admitted to having killed Rose. Rodriguez was found by a relative in her home while in the process of slitting her own throat in an attempt to commit suicide. Although Manuela Rodriguez was on anti-depressants and had recently sought further mental health care, her neighbors say she had never exhibited any bizarre behavior before. Neighbor Maria Gentil said, “She would help everybody and if you needed a glass of milk or something, she would give it to you.” and Raul Chavez stated, “I can’t believe this. I knew them. I knew them real good.”. Manuela Rodriguez has been charged with first degree murder in the death of Rose Herrera and is currently residing in a mental health facility to undergo a full evaluation.

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