Social media is incredibly divisive. Most people agree that it’s marvelous at connecting us, but there is a strong movement toward reducing the time we spend online. (The coronavirus quarantines and social distancing guidelines are an exception, of course.)

The Internet can definitely have an unfavorable impact on some aspects of our lives, making us unhappy occasionally. However, the negative repercussions of social media can also be grave enough to be linked to fatalities.

These stories are cautionary tales of 10 deaths directly linked to social medial and the Internet.

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10 Influencer’s Birthday Pool Party Drownings

Earlier this year, the death of three Russians at a birthday pool party was announced on Instagram, creating a frenzy on the Internet. The beginning of the story does not sound that unusual—until you realize that about 25 kilograms (55 lb) of dry ice were dumped into the pool.

In the aftermath of the tragedy, Yekaterina Didenko, the birthday girl and influencer, tearfully recounted the devastating event to her over one million followers. Russian news media and some bloggers criticized her for trying to capitalize on it.

At the party, several people were choking and passing out after jumping into the pool containing dry ice. Despite its name, dry ice is actually solid carbon dioxide (the gas we exhale when we breathe out) that is frozen at a temperature of -78 degrees Celsius (-109 °F).

As dry ice doesn’t melt—it goes from solid to gaseous at room temperature—people use it for party tricks and cool effects. This process, called “sublimation,” gives CO₂ its “smoky” qualities.

When dry ice melts in confined spaces, it turns into carbon dioxide gas, a potentially harmful substance. Carbon dioxide can cause breathing difficulties and asphyxiation, which was the reason for the party guests’ deaths.^[1]

9 Choking Challenge
The Internet’s Most Dangerous Craze

The “choking game” (aka “fainting game”) is the act of intentionally cutting off oxygen to the brain, causing the person to pass out. Children and teenagers take the challenge mostly due to curiosity (allegedly, it induces euphoria) and peer pressure.

This incredibly dangerous and irresponsible activity has been around since long before the Internet existed. (In fact, the first death was reported in 1995.) Even though the Internet cannot be blamed for the creation of the choking game, it can be credited for its resurgence.

Social media viral challenges are a huge deal for young people. Usually, when a teenager sees someone his age doing something thrilling on the Internet, he´ll try to replicate it. That’s the purpose of these challenges, which range from the ridiculous to the horrifying.

The choking game has made several comebacks over the years due to social media challenges. In 2006, a year after YouTube was created, 35 deaths were caused by the choking game. In 2019, teenager Mason Bogard died while attempting the challenge.^[2]

8 Deadliest Selfies Part I
Model Falls Off A Cliff

People will do anything for a selfie. If you don’t believe that, just do a quick search on “selfie-related deaths.” Madalyn Davis was not the first and won’t be the last casualty caused by the search for a great picture.

Davis, a makeup artist and social media influencer, was an expert in eyelash styling and had thousands of followers across different platforms. She was vacationing in Australia when the tragedy occurred.

Davis fell off a cliff in Diamond Bay Reserve in Sydney while trying to take a risky photo. Police and paramedics launched an air and water search with the assistance of the Marine Area Command. Unfortunately, the body of the British model was found in the water about four hours later. She had died on impact from head injuries.^[3]

7 Facebook Unfriending Culminates In A Double Homicide

Have you ever been “unfriended” on Facebook?

It’s not a nice feeling. But normal people get over it in a couple of hours. Thirty-one-year-old Jenelle Potter did not have a typical reaction. Instead, she decided that murder was the sensible response.

This story deserves a list of its own as it involves jealousy, the CIA, and a double homicide. Here’s the short version: After allegedly being cyberbullied by a couple of her former friends, Jenelle convinced her parents to shoot them.

The crime happened in 2012. Janelle’s father claimed that he acted according to his own impulses. However, the prosecutor of the case believed that Jenelle had manipulated her parents with a catfishing scheme.

Allegedly, Jenelle used social media to deceive her parents into killing her former friends. She created a fake profile of a CIA agent. The “agent” sent messages saying that Jenelle’s life was in danger.^[4]

6 Woman Lynched By A Mob In Brazil Over An Internet Rumor

Spreading rumors is a nasty thing to do. Although the practice was not invented online, it has certainly been exacerbated by the Internet. In the old days, the impact of a rumor was limited to small groups of people. Usually, the worst-case scenario was getting a raunchy reputation in your school. However, rumors gain a whole new dimension with the Internet’s reach and propensity to distort reality.

In 2014, Fabiane Maria de Jesus, a mother of two, was identified by a local Facebook page as a criminal accused of kidnapping children and sacrificing them in satanic rituals. The origin of the misunderstanding was supposedly a police sketch that vaguely resembled a picture of her.

The Brazilian woman was dragged through the streets by a mob of people and beaten to death. When six of the miscreants were arrested, a protest broke out at the police station. People screamed, “Do you want to arrest everybody? It’s everybody’s fault! It’s nobody’s fault! It’s the Internet’s fault!”^[5]

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5 Teenager Is Cyberbullied Until He Commits Suicide

The earliest deaths attributed to the Internet are related to cyberbullying-induced suicide, which is made much worse by social media. As a society, we now take bullying more seriously due to the long-lasting effects on the victims.

It can be difficult to put an end to bullying in schools, but it is even harder to stop it on the Internet. One of the most notorious cases is the suicide of 13-year-old Ryan Halligan. He was relentlessly cyberbullied by other kids on Myspace due to a rumor that he was gay.

At one point, a girl pretended to like him, only to later publicly humiliate the boy for believing in her affection. Ryan told her: “It is girls like you that make me want to kill myself.”

Ryan hanged himself in 2003. His lifeless body was found by his sister.^[6]

4 Deadliest Selfies Part II
Mauled By A Bear

In another selfie-related incident, a man was killed by a bear in India while trying to take a picture with the animal. After attending a wedding, Prabhu Bhatara was driving back to his house when he decided to stop to urinate in the woods. While doing so, he spotted an injured bear, which prompted him to attempt to take the selfie of the year.

As Prabhu approached the animal, the bear attacked and a struggle ensued. A stray dog at the site intervened but failed to deter the bear. The whole ordeal was filmed by a bystander, and clips of the horrific incident can be found on the Internet.^[7]

India’s wildlife often clashes with people in the suburban areas of the country. To no one’s surprise, that was the third fatality linked to selfies with wild animals in that region in a year.

3 YouTuber Dies In A Paragliding Accident While Filming A YouTube Video

Having a YouTube channel drives you to do crazy things to get views.

On “The King of Random” channel, Grant Thompson used to showcase DIY projects and experiments, but outdoor activities were also featured. Unfortunately, the influencer passed away in 2019. He was found dead near Sand Hollow State Park, Utah.

Along with his body, paragliding equipment and a recording device were recovered. This suggested that he died while attempting to film a video for his popular YouTube channel.^[8]

2 Woman Strangled By Her Tinder Date In A Rough Sex Session

Tinder is probably the first name that pops into your mind when you think of online dating. The platform is so successful that even nonusers understand what the terms “swipe left” and “swipe right” mean.

Dating in the social media era can make you feel safer. You don’t meet people face-to-face right away, and you can get a friend to track your position through GPS. However, this extra sense of security can lead you to ignore basic instincts and bypass self-preservation precautions.

Women are especially vulnerable to predatory behavior. The death of 22-year-old Grace Millane serves as an example of how we can never be too safe while meeting people we don’t know.

While the British woman was backpacking in New Zealand, she agreed to go on a date with a man she met on Tinder. The date went from promising to tragic when she was strangled during a rough sex session.

The man, not identified for legal reasons, hid her remains in a suitcase. Then he went on another date with another woman.^[9]

1 Lips To Die For:
The Kylie Jenner Challenge

Kylie Jenner is a media personality who stars in the reality TV show Keeping Up with the Kardashians. Her estimated net worth is US$1 billion, making her the youngest billionaire at 21. She is known for her ravishing beauty, of which the most coveted aspect is definitely her plump lips.

The desire to have Kylie’s pouty lips inspired the Kylie Jenner Lip Challenge. Teenagers inserted their lips into shot glasses and sucked out the air to create a vacuum. The aim was to swell the lips. The problem is that the act itself is dangerous due to the injuries sustained to the face.

In 2015, a story circulated online that Natalie Cardenas, 19, was found dead on her bedroom floor with “huge lips” and a shot glass in her hands. According to the fictional account, the tragedy prompted the authorities to declare the Kylie Jenner Lip Challenge illegal in the United States. Although no credible source confirms that story, it’s a good idea to skip the challenge as it can cause real and possibly lasting injuries.^[10]

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About The Author: Arnaldo is a Brazilian with a PhD in quantum chemistry who is living in the UK. He is a fanatic about science, beer, and the Internet.

There are many conspiracies surrounding UFO research, but some of the most intriguing surround some of the researchers themselves, more specifically, their deaths. According to some, there have been several deaths, either from natural causes or from suicide, that investigators might wish to take another look at.

With accusations of suicides covering up murder to discreet poisons to imitate a natural death, some of these claims are darkly interesting, if admittedly speculative. Here are ten such cases.

Related: 10 Bizarre Figures From The UFO Contactee Movement

10 Ron Rummel – Too Close to the Truth?

Without a doubt, one of the most controversial deaths on our list is that of Ron Rummel. Rummel had a background as an Air Force intelligence agent. What’s more, in the years leading to his death, he was the publisher of the magazine Alien Digest. Some of the topics discussed in Alien Digest revolved around the idea that aliens were indeed on Earth. And had long-term plans to use humans as a “food source.” As we might imagine, many in the UFO community dismissed such notions.

Then, in August 1993, Rummel died—an apparent clear-cut suicide in which he had shot himself in the mouth. However, there were soon conspiracy claims of foul play. This included no blood being found on the barrel of the pistol nor fingerprints on the handle. It also appeared that the suicide note had been written by a left-handed person when Rummel was right-handed. According to some, Rummel had been silenced because he was “getting too close to the truth.”

How true these claims might be is still discussed by some in UFO circles. However, the official record reflects that Rummel, unfortunately, took his own life.^[1]

9 Ron Johnson – Drank From a Poisoned Soda Can?

Another tragic death that some researchers have highlighted as potentially suspicious is that of MUFON investigator Ron Johnson. He officially suffered a sudden fatal stroke at a meeting of the Society for Scientific Exploration in Texas in June 1994. Johnson, who was 43 years old and recently medically cleared as fit and well, let out a sudden gasp at the meeting before falling forward in his chair. Even more disturbing, his face had turned purple, and blood poured from his nose.

Although the cause of his death was ruled as natural (a stroke), some thought there was more to it. Several people at the meeting recalled him taking a drink from a soda can in the seconds before his sudden collapse and death. What’s more, given his involvement in UFO investigations and his background of working with advanced technology with several corporations, some people wondered if something had been placed around the soda can, or even in the drink that might have caused such a reaction that would have been easily dismissed as a stroke.^[2]

We should note that there is no proof of foul play, and the speculation is exactly that.

8 John Murphy – Discreetly Silenced Years After the Kecksburg Crash?

Perhaps one of the most little-known suspicious deaths of a person connected to UFOs is that of radio broadcaster John Murphy. We should note that Murphy was not a UFO investigator but a radio journalist. He happened to be in the right place at the right time during the alleged Kecksburg UFO crash in December 1965. So much so that he obtained audiotapes of witnesses and several photographs of the crash site.

This alleged evidence was ultimately confiscated by high-ranking government officials, an incident that was witnessed by at least one other radio station employee. In short, it appeared Murphy was very credible in his claims.

As much as he was in the right place at the right time to witness and document the Kecksburg incident, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time several years later in California in February 1969 when he was killed in a tragic hit-and-run accident. To some, though, the accident was anything but.^[3]

7 Tony Dodd – Tumor Triggered by Dark Agents?

For the 1990s and much of the early 2000s, Tony Dodd was one of the UK’s leading UFO researchers and investigators. That he had a long career as a police detective behind him only made him that much more credible regarding the incidents he investigated.

He was a regular speaker at various UFO events and investigated some of the most intriguing cases of UFO sightings and apparent alien abductions in the UK from the late-1980s to the early 2000s.

Dodd passed away in 2009 from a brain tumor. Given that he had—according to his own writings—received warnings to avoid certain countries due to possible attempts on his life, as well as direct warnings from a mysterious agent in the United States, many wondered if the tumor had somehow been “triggered” by agents of a dark agency with advanced technology. Dodd himself had written of such suggestions before.^[4]

Of course, like many on this list, these ideas and proposals are pure speculation.

6 John Mack – Death by Drunk Driver Just a Cover?

Without a doubt, John Mack is perhaps one of the most important people in UFO and alien abduction research, even now almost two decades after his tragic death in 2004 after being hit by a drunk driver while in London. What perhaps made Mack’s study of UFOs and alien abduction claims all the more vital to the UFO community was his position as a professor at Harvard University. He is largely seen as one of the first “academics” to look at such claims with a serious mind—and did so publicly.

There is almost certainly no more to Mack’s death than it being a truly tragic accident caused by a drunk driver. However, there were some in UFO circles who privately raised an eyebrow or two to the fact that someone making such wild (and well-researched) claims from such a lofty position should meet such a tragic end.^[5]

5 Ann Livingstone – “Poisoned” by the Men in Black?

UFO investigator and MUFON member Ann Livingstone died in 1994 of a fast-acting and aggressive form of ovarian cancer. However, many of her fellow MUFON members, fellow investigators, and close friends began to wonder if a UFO sighting and subsequent encounters with the “Men in Black” might have been connected to her tragic death.

The incident in question went back to December 1992. One evening, her apartment near O’Hare Airport in Chicago was suddenly lit up by a “silver-white flash.” Then, only a few hours later, several “faceless” entities dressed very similar to the Men in Black arrived at her apartment. Moments later, she blacked out, unaware of what happened next.

As outlandish as it might sound to many, some researchers have suggested that her illness was a result of this strange meeting. Of course, whether there is any truth to such assertions remains open to debate, at least for some.^[6]

4 Jim Keith – A Series of Coincidences or a Suspicious End?

The death of researcher and author Jim Keith could very well be a case of several bizarre and unlikely coincidences. However, several strange odds and ends surround his death that have made some believe it to be a little suspicious.

Keith had been involved in examining the work of Danny Casolaro (an investigative journalist whose death was also suspicious). He essentially claimed Casolaro’s statements of an “octopus” of individuals controlling events from behind the scenes was accurate. Further were the claims of drug testing by dark, government “contacts” on residents in areas such as Dulce in New Mexico (against their will) under the bizarre guise of alien abduction to divert attention away from their very real (and illegal) activities.

Whatever the truth, Keith would fall from a stage at a festival in 2004, breaking his tibia and requiring surgery. It was a surgery that he would never wake up from. His official cause of death was a blood clot in his lung that caused him to pass away on the operating table. Incidentally, around the same time as Keith’s death, one platform he wrote for (Nitro News) completely disappeared from the internet for several weeks.^[7]

3 James Forrestal – Was He Pushed or Did He Jump?

At just before 2 am on May 22, 1949, the very first Secretary of Defense of the United States, a position he had resigned from only months earlier, jumped from the 13th floor of Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland. He was being treated for depression at the facility at the time of his death, but to some, including members of his own family, his death was far from a clear-cut suicide.

According to the official version of events, Forrestal was last seen when a guard checked on him at 1:45 am. He was reading in his room. It is then said that Forrestal immediately left the room and made his way to the kitchen, where he then tied a bathrobe rope to the nearby radiator and the other end around his neck. Then, he jumped from the window. The rope snapped, and he fell to his death.

However, several things leaped out at those who examined this official version. First, the rope around his neck would not have been long enough to allow him to reach the window from the radiator. What’s more, there was no evidence that the rope had ever been in contact with the radiator.

Even more suspicious is the guard who was on duty that evening. He had not been to the facility before and was brought in as a last-minute replacement. He gave his statement—as the last person to see Forrestal alive, remember—and then discreetly disappeared back into anonymity.

Most alarming, though, were the scratch marks discovered on the window ledge it is claimed Forrestal jumped from. This suggested that Forrestal was forced out of the window and then desperately attempted to cling to the ledge before finally falling.

From a UFO perspective, given the events at Roswell and the many other UFO incidents that occurred in the final years of the 1940s, Forrestal almost certainly knew everything there was to know about this strange, new phenomenon sweeping the United States. To some, it was this knowledge that made him a target of an unknown dark government agency.^[8]

2 Morris K. Jessup – A Sudden, Suspicious End?

An early name in UFO research is Morris K. Jessup, author of the 1955 book, The Case for the UFO. Unknown to Jessup, the release of the book would spark a series of events that would result in his tragic death. Jessup began receiving correspondence from a mysterious gentleman named Carl Allen, who eventually claimed to have been involved in the legendary Philadelphia Experiment. This correspondence caught the attention of the U.S. Navy, who questioned Jessup at length about it and his UFO research in general.

However, following the meeting, Jessup began receiving strange phone calls. This caused him to be much more guarded in his research. Then, on April 19, he made arrangements with Dr. J. Manson Valentine to meet him the following day regarding a “breakthrough” he had made. Jessup never arrived at that meeting.

He was discovered the following day, dead in his car, a hosepipe coming out of the window leading to the exhaust. Some believe the suicide was actually murder. Perhaps one of the reasons was the soaked towels wrapped around the hose pipe. Not only did they not belong to Jessup, but there was also no water source anywhere nearby for him to have soaked them in.

The real circumstances behind his death are still debated today.^[9]

1 Phil Schneider – Murder Covered-Up as Suicide?

Of all the people on this list, without a doubt, the most controversial is our last entry, Phil Schneider. In the early 1990s, Schneider began a series of public lectures where he claimed to have worked for the United States government at various underground facilities. It was during this work that he stumbled into a full-on battle between underground aliens and a military unit below Dulce. He would even claim to have suffered an injury during the fight from a futuristic alien weapon, scars he displayed publicly several times.

As you can imagine, many scoffed at Schneider’s claims, even some from inside the UFO community. Others, however, seemingly bought into what he was saying entirely. And his talks still circulate around the Internet today. He would also state during these talks that “how long I will be able to do this” was not known.

Officially, Schneider took his own life on January 17, 1996. His body was discovered with a piece of wire flex wrapped several times around the neck, an apparent hanging. Many people, including some members of his family, dismissed the suicide claims.^[10]