The idea of dying together comes up at some point in most relationships. For many, the idea of living the rest of your life without your loving partner is unbearable. There have been countless documented cases of people ending their lives to escape their loneliness.
In these 10 cases, people weren’t given this choice. For those who were killed by others, it was not a planned event. For those who took their own lives, the alternative would have separated them from their partners in some way anyway.
10 Couples Who Mysteriously Vanished
10 Julius And Ethel Rosenberg
Julius And Ethel Rosenberg were an American couple with a huge secret: They were spies for Soviet Russia. During World War II, Julius worked for the Army Signal Corps. He had access to sensitive information about the development of the nuclear bomb, which was eventually used as a turning point in the war.
Through contacts made during his involvement with the Communist Party, Julius passed on information about the development of the bomb to the Soviet Union. In 1951, the Rosenbergs were found guilty of conspiracy to commit espionage.
In a move which would cause controversy to this day, they were both sentenced to execution in the electric chair. Although Julius’s sentence was met with little resistance, the decision to execute his wife was seen as a harsh move by those who believed that her involvement was minimal.
On June 19, 1953, 35-year-old Julius was strapped into the chair. He said nothing before the first jolt of electricity entered his body. He was pronounced dead after that first attempt.[1]
Drawing the prison matron toward her as she was strapped into the chair, Ethel kissed the matron before being killed. After the initial shocks, she was examined by a doctor who found that she was still alive. Eventually, she died in the electric chair, too.
Julius’s guilt was later proven, but Ethel’s involvement is still thought to have been minimal.
9 Dennis And Merna Koula
Dennis Koula and his wife, Merna, were enjoying a peaceful retirement in the affluent, scenic area of La Crosse, Wisconsin. On Monday, May 24, 2010, their son, Eric, received a phone call from a local school where his mother worked as a substitute teacher. She had failed to turn up for a day’s work, and they were concerned.
Unable to contact his parents, Eric left for their house. When he arrived, he opened the door to find Dennis on the kitchen floor in a pool of blood. Clearly, Dennis hadn’t gotten far from the entrance to the house when he was shot down by whomever had committed the terrible crime.
Eric called 911 and described the scene to the dispatcher. Partway through the call, he walked further into the house and entered the room where the couple kept their computer. His mother was slumped over the desk with one hand on the keyboard. She had also been shot.
The scene was a mystery. Whoever had killed the Koulas hadn’t disturbed anything else in the house.[2]
A few days after the murders, Eric found a haunting note in his mailbox. It simply read, “Fixed you.” The note wasn’t explained until police began digging a little deeper into Eric’s alibi. It was soon revealed that Eric had written the note himself after murdering his parents to inherit their money. He was in serious debt due to his unsuccessful day trading and saw the murders as the only way out.
In August 2012, Eric Koula was sentenced to two life sentences for the murders of his parents. He maintains his innocence.
8 Nikolai II Alexandrovich Romanov And Alexandra Feodorovna
Nikolai II Alexandrovich Romanov (aka “Nicholas the Bloody” due to his suppression of the 1905 uprising in which thousands died) met his wife, Alexandra (aka Alix of Hesse), through their intertwined families. (The couple was reportedly related to each other through several different lines of nobility).[3]
Under Nicholas II’s rule, Russians watched their country go from one of the world’s major powers to an economic and military disaster. By 1917, the public saw him as responsible for the terrible economic and social conditions in Russia. Having massively fallen out of favor with the Russian people, Nicholas and his family were confined to a government house under guard (supposedly for their protection).
On July 17, 1918, the family was ordered to the basement by a leading “Old Bolshevik.” There, they were met by a number of communist soldiers, who formed a firing squad. A charge was read out loud by lead executioner Yakov Yurovsky. It stated that Nicholas and his family had been sentenced to death for crimes against the Russian people.
Nicholas was bewildered but had little time to comprehend the situation as the bullets were fired. Nicholas, Alexandra, their five children, and four of their faithful employees were killed. Although Nicholas was killed from the hail of bullets, others had to be dispatched with the bayonets of the soldiers’ guns.
Later, the bodies were hastily buried in an unmarked location after the truck carrying them to their intended destination broke down in the ice and snow. The location was only discovered in 1979.[3]
7 Ethan Nichols And Carissa Horton
In 2011, Ethan Nichols, 21, And Carissa Horton, 18, met after Horton moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma. Ethan had a job at Blue Bell Creamery, and Carissa was a freshman at Oral Roberts University (ORU). The parents of the young couple had known each other in Iowa, and Ethan’s mother had asked him to help Carissa become comfortable with her new environment.
Immediately forming a bond, they spent more and more time together. On a late September evening in 2011, the young couple was taking a stroll through Hicks Park. They were approached by two young men and forced to hand over their valuables.
This is where most stories of robbery would begin and end. However, instead of allowing the couple to go, the robbers shot Nichols and Horton execution style. Then the perpetrators took Nichols’s car and left the scene. The victims’ bodies were discovered in the park the next day.
The news crew of a local ABC affiliate arrived on the scene soon after the couple was discovered by a jogger. One man seemingly eager to be interviewed was Darren Price, a local resident who expressed his shock at the murder. He stated that he no longer felt safe living in the area.
Police immediately began the search for the stolen car. It wasn’t long before it was discovered at a local apartment complex. As officers watched closely, Price and Jerard Davis got into the vehicle. The police tried to stop the men, but they sped away. After crashing the vehicle during their escape attempt, Price and Davis were arrested.
The pair was soon charged with the murders. Davis pleaded guilty to the shootings, and Price was convicted at trial. Both were given life sentences.[4]
6 Alexander Obrenovic And Draga Masin
King Alexander I (aka Alexander Obrenovic) ruled Serbia from 1889 until he and his wife, Queen Draga, were assassinated in 1903. Alexander had assumed the throne under a regency after his father, King Milan I, unexpectedly abdicated when Alexander was only 12 years old.
Upon reaching his 16th birthday in 1893, Alexander officially declared himself of age (which would normally happen at 18) and dismissed the regents. In summer 1900, Alexander announced his intended marriage to Draga Masin, a beautiful (and disreputable) widow 10 years his senior. This proved an unpopular move, particularly with Alexander’s parents.
Meanwhile, in France, an exiled Serbian prince, sixtyish Peter Karageorgevich, was gaining momentum in his attempts to overthrow the young King Alexander I. Peter intended to rule Serbia himself. Earlier, he had gone into exile with his father, Prince Alexander, who had ruled Serbia until his abdication in 1858. That occurred after he refused to enter the Crimean War, which made him unpopular with his Council.
Near midnight on June 10, 1903, army officers under orders from Karageorgevich entered the palace of King Alexander I and Queen Draga. To save themselves, the king and queen hid in an upstairs cupboard. However, they were discovered by the group after hours of searching. In the early morning of June 11, the couple was shot dead, disemboweled, and thrown from a second-floor window. They were later buried in a crypt in Belgrade.[5]
10 Deadliest Serial Killer Couples By Kill Count
5 Siddiqa And Khayyam
In 2010, newspapers across the world began reporting the story of two Afghan nationals who were found by the Taliban to have committed adultery. Their punishment shocked the world.
On a Sunday morning in August 2010, the Taliban arrested Siddiqa, 19, and Khayyam, 25, in their village in northern Kunduz Province and brought them to an open area. They were surrounded by members of their community, who had been coerced to attend the public event by leaders of the local Taliban militia.
Dressed in a burka, Siddiqa had been placed in a hole up to her waist. Meanwhile, Khayyam was blindfolded and had his hands tied behind his back. The charge of breaking Islamic law was read to them.
Apparently, Siddiqa had been sold to a rich family with the intention of marriage. Unhappy with this, she ran off and married her true love, Khayyam. Leaders of the local, usually peaceful community responded calmly. They stated that if the couple returned and Khayyam’s family came up with $9,000 (the amount originally paid for Siddiqa’s marriage to the other man), then Siddiqa and Khayyam would be allowed to marry.
Unfortunately, the Taliban intervened. As the charges against the couple were read, members of the crowd began picking up large rocks to commence the punishment.
Siddiqa was murdered first. The rocks smashed against her body, including her head, until she fell. She was also shot. After her death, the crowd moved on to Khayyam. He cried as he was murdered by the same punishment. The crowd then dispersed.
With their murders, Siddiqa and Khayyam had joined a long list of Afghans killed in the most brutal fashion in the name of religion.[6]
4 Nicolae And Elena Ceausescu
Like many ousted political couples, Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu enjoyed a brief popularity when he first rose to power. But their popularity faded long before their country ultimately turned on them in a violent and dramatic denouement to Romanian communism. Nicolae ruled the country from 1967 to 1989 and saw his people suffer terrible economic hardship, which he ignored while living a life of luxury.
The couple lived in a mansion with huge collections of art and antiques. Elena was noted as being the most unashamedly extravagant of the two. She collected furs, couture gowns, and hundreds of pairs of expensive shoes.
In 1989, after years of hardship at the expense of Ceausescu’s economic policies, the populace revolted and the couple was arrested. On Christmas Day, television cameras rolled as the couple was convicted and sentenced in what could only be described as a show trial. Their death sentences were quickly announced. The couple was moved together to an open area and immediately shot by the waiting firing squad.
The events happened so quickly that the TV cameras failed to capture the moment of the execution. Instead, they only recorded Nicolae and Elena’s lifeless bodies in the dust left by the bullets. For Romania, communism was over. The couple was buried on opposite sides of a path in a Bucharest cemetery.[7]
3 The Sumter County Does
We have no idea who these people were—and we may never know. But they met their unfortunate fates together.
On August 9, 1976, trucker Martin Durant made a grisly discovery on a dirt road 0.8 kilometers (0.5 mi) from Interstate 95 and Highway 341 in Sumter County, South Carolina. A man and a woman, both in their twenties, lay on their backs in the dirt. Each had three gunshot wounds: one in the back, one in the chest, and one under the chin (which appeared to have been used to ensure their demise after the other bullets would have sent them to the ground).
Neither victim had identification on them. But police hoped that artist drawings of the young couple would bring witnesses in and at least solve the mystery of their identities.
There were a few clues at the scene. Both were wearing expensive-looking jewelry. The man had a Bulova Accutron watch and a 14-karat ring with the initials “JPF” on the inside. Neither was wearing underwear.
Despite the clues and a witness stating that the couple had been seen at a fruit stand shortly before their deaths, nothing more was forthcoming. The jewelry could not be traced, and even dental records and autopsies revealed nothing new. A suspect was arrested but provided a solid alibi for the time of the murders. The Sumter County Does remain unknown.[8]
2 Adolf Hitler And Eva Braun
Eva Braun’s life could have turned out very differently if she had not become the focus of Adolf Hitler’s attention. Braun was a photographer and, by all accounts, a talented one. She became close to Hitler during his Berghof days and became a regular part of his household high in the Berchtesgaden mountains in the mid-1930s.
Hitler had a notoriously strange relationship with women. His previous obsession, his half-niece Geli Raubal, had killed herself in his Munich apartment, possibly to escape his obsessive, restrictive clutches.
Although Braun had also attempted suicide early in her relationship with Hitler, she eventually swore her undying loyalty to him. By early 1945, World War II was all but lost for Germany. As the Russians closed in on the German capital, Hitler and Braun—as well as numerous servants, assistants, and other leading Nazis—holed up in his bunker. They were determined to avoid capture.
Collectively understanding their unavoidable fates, Hitler and Braun married in the bunker in the early hours of April 29, 1945. Braun enjoyed only 40 hours of being Eva Anna Paula Hitler.
The last sightings of the newly married couple occurred the next day in the mid-afternoon. They said solemn goodbyes to their comrades and staff before shutting themselves away in a room. Shortly after, gunshots were heard, followed by eerie silence.
According to witness reports, Hitler and Braun had bitten down on cyanide capsules. Hitler had also fired a bullet into his own head. (However, there are differing viewpoints as to how Hitler died.)
SS officers later moved the corpses into the open and set them alight to destroy the remains. This was done to prevent them from ending up in the hands of the encroaching Soviets.[9]
1 Joseph And Magda Goebbels
Although Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun’s suicides may have seemed like a simple decision under the circumstances, the fates of Joseph Goebbels and his wife, Magda, are harder to comprehend because they took their innocent children with them.
Joseph Goebbels had been Hitler’s propaganda minister since 1933. Hitler valued Goebbels greatly; his skills at convincing the German public to stand by while the Nazi Party committed unthinkable atrocities were unparalleled.
Magda began dating Joseph in 1930. She had recently split from Gunther Quandt, her husband from 1921 to 1929. Joseph and Magda married (with Hitler as a witness) in 1931. The couple also had six children before their eventual move into the Fuhrerbunker with Hitler and Braun in 1945.
While Joseph’s allegiance to the Fuhrer was unshakable, Magda had become openly critical of Hitler as she watched him take Germany to annihilation at the hands of the Allies. A day after the deaths of Hitler and Braun, Joseph Goebbels realized that the only way out for him was a similar fate.
There are conflicting theories as to how Joseph and Magda Goebbels killed themselves and their children, but we know they all died on May 1, 1945. According to one account, Goebbels ordered his doctor to administer morphine to his six children and crush cyanide capsules in their mouths as they lost consciousness. Another report claimed that Magda administered the capsules. Afterward, the couple retired to the garden of the chancellery and killed themselves.[10]
10 Unsolved Cases Involving Murdered Couples
About The Author: John Sampson is an Internet author who writes about anything that piques his interest. He does not use social networking as he believes this makes him more mysterious and interesting. He is wrong.