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A bad-tempered man who went to bed with a headache saying he must not be disturbed was found dead four years later. The 50-year-old’s brother and sister were too scared to knock on his bedroom door – and thought he was eating out at night. Workmen noticed the body as they measured up windows in Den Haag, Holland. D.Mirror, 26 June 2010.

Than Singh, 70, a dairy farmer in northeast India, was left aghast after receiving a bogus receipt for his own cremation service a week earlier. He complained of chest pains and was rushed to hospital, but suffered a massive heart attack and died. His body was then delivered to the same crematorium in Ghaziabad that was mentioned in the mysterious letter. In a further macabre twist, the body was issued with the same serial number – 89. Suspicious relatives called in police, who believe the death was the result of a prank rather than an administrative mistake. “The element of mischief is apparent and obvious,” said Raghubir Lal, senior superintendent of police in Ghaziabad. “What remains to be deciphered is if the person behind it wanted to shock the old man to the extent that he might collapse and if so then why, or if it was merely a prank that took a serious turn.” Newscore, via www.news.com.au, 26 June 2010.

Jenny Mitchell, a 19-year-old hairdresser, was driving to her parents’ house in Shaftsbury, Dorset, on 9 March when her Mini Cooper was engulfed in flames and she was killed. A bottle of hydrogen peroxide, used to bleach hair, had leaked in her passenger footwell. It appeared that, near Sturminster Newton, she lit a cigarette and opened the window to ventilate the car, causing a huge explosion. D.Mail, 26 Mar 2010.

Merike Engelbrecht, 25, from Tzaneen in South Africa, was kicked to death by a giraffe as she walked her dogs in a game park near Musina in the north of the country. She died instantly after one of her German shorthaired pointers startled the giraffe, which had a calf nearby. “It looks like she scooped up one of the dogs and tried to protect it,” said family friend William Smith. “That’s when the giraffe kicked her on the back of the neck.” Metro, 13 May 2010.

A computer-addicted couple from Suwon in South Korea let their three-month-old baby starve to death in September 2009 while raising a virtual daughter online. The jobless pair fed their premature baby powdered milk once a day and then spent 12 hours at an Internet café nurturing virtual girl Anima through their avatars on a Second Life-style game called Prius Online. The 45-year-old man and his wife, 25, met through a chat website. They were sentenced to two years’ jail in May. The wife’s term was suspended because she is pregnant with a second child. Guardian, 6 Mar; Irish Independent, 29 May 2010.

A couple and their granddaughter were found dead in the basement of their house in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, on 19 June. It trans­pired that in an effort to exterminate rats in the basement, the grandfather, 71, had attached a hosepipe to his car’s exhaust, put the other end through the basement window, and started the engine. After retiring upstairs for some time, he went to see whether any rats had died, but the concentration of carbon monoxide caused him to pass out. When he failed to return, his wife, 77, investigated and also fainted. The same later happened with their 29-year-old granddaughter. The three bodies were found when a second granddaughter went to investigate. Authorities said she was herself lucky to survive. Pravda, via D.Record, 22 June, and D.Telegraph, 29 Jun 2010.