Cats receive $250K, house in owner's will (Video)

A couple of contented cats in Memphis, Tennessee:

"Leon Sheppard, Sr., left his 4,270-square-foot house and $250,000 for the care of his cats in his will. His will states the money should be used for the care of Frisco and Jake and the maintenance of this house they live in. Leon Sheppard's daughter said by phone that the family did not want to talk about it. According to the will, when Frisco dies whatever is left of the estate including the house can be passed to Sheppard's human heirs. However, Jake must be cared for. The heirs will be allowed to move Jake out of the house."
WSMV Channel 4

Man accused of murder had handwritten confession note in his wallet (Video)

From Virginia:

Man burned friend alive for drinking his last four beers

From Darwin, Australia:

Gary Stewart Miles has pleaded not guilty to murdering Paul John Stamp, 47, on September 19 last year.
The men had been drinking at home when Mr Stamp was warned not to take any of Mr Miles' remaining beers.
He drank the last four. When this was discovered, Mr Miles and his friend Gregory Channing beat Mr Stamp, breaking eight ribs and causing extensive internal injuries.
They dragged him into the car boot and drove to an industrial area, where they planned to "teach him a lesson" by dumping him to find his own way home.
But the car ran out of petrol and when the pair returned with fuel, Mr Miles allegedly poured it all over the car and ignited it.
Channing was found guilty in September of assaulting Mr Stamp and depriving him of liberty and is serving a five-and-a-half-year sentence.
Channing told the Northern Territory Supreme Court on Tuesday that Mr Miles had snapped when they had returned to the car, shouting "I'm going to kill this c---" as he doused the car in petrol.

She thought the trash can looked out of place, so peeked inside – and found a dead man (Video)

From Detroit, Michigan:

A 41-year-old woman was walking with her son just after 5 p.m. in an alley behind a bar on Woodward near Parkhurst, north of McNichols, when she spotted the can, Detroit police spokeswoman Kelly Miner said.
“She thought the trash can just looked out of place. She lifted up the lid to see, and she discovered the body,” Miner said.
Miner said authorities don’t know the man’s identity...or what types of injuries he may have suffered. An autopsy is expected

Decomposing body found on express train in India

It happened on the Jhelum Express:

A decomposed body was found in the second class reservation compartment of the Pune-Jammutavi Jhelum Express on Thursday evening when it arrived at the Pune railway station to depart for Jammu & Kashmir. The incident delayed the departure of the train for sometime.

The train arrived at the Pune station at around 5.20pm. Passengers who boarded the train complained of foul smell emanating from the compartment. Officials of the railway protection force (RPF) and government railway police (GRP) while inspecting the compartment found the body that appeared to be two-three days old.

Authorities are puzzled, of course:

Senior RPF officials said they were investigating how the body was not found, while the rakes* were being washed. "It is possible that the body was placed inside the rake after it was cleaned. It will then be a failure on the part of the Carriage and Wagon department, who are supposed to ensure that the SLR bogies are locked."

Another senior railway official, on condition of anonymity, said such incidences were far from rare. "We regularly recover bodies in trains originating from the city. Miscreants want to place such cases of murder or suicide into the railway police jurisdiction."

* Rake is a term used in some countries for 'train car.'

Motorist was fleeing from another crash when he hit and killed bicyclist

Talk about reckless, careless driving! From Flint, Michigan:

Police received a call around 9 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 3, about a driver that struck a pole on East Stewart Avenue and then left the accident. The driver then allegedly drove at a high rate of speed westbound on Pierson Road where he struck a man riding a bicycle near Winthrop Boulevard.

The bicyclist was pronounced dead at the scene. Police have not released his name.

The driver of the vehicle was taken into custody.

Woman who didn't like to swim, swept out to sea and drowned when she bent down to pick up glasses on beach

Sounds like it might have been a sneaker wave that took her:

Donna Pawlowski did not like to swim but turbulent surf along a Cape Cod beach Sunday pulled her into the ocean where she drowned.

Pawlowski and Barbara Coons, who live in Rexford [New York] and had a time share on the cape, were walking along Race Point Beach in Provincetown early Sunday morning when Coons dropped her glasses.

"Donna reached down to get them and the waves came in and took her away," Mary Jane Hodge of Colchester, Conn., who is related to Pawlowski through marriage, said by phone Monday evening.

"She did not swim. It was a freak accident."

Cape & Islands First Assistant District Attorney Michael Trudeau said boat, air and ground search crews quickly converged on the scene and Pawlowski's body was found about 35 minutes later on a beach near the Race Point Lighthouse. Trudeau said the death appears accidental.

 Source: Albany Times Union

Mystery surrounds death of 37-year-old man who collapsed after opening ‘Pandora’s box’

A strange, and rather sad, story from Carlisle, England:

Jason Airey was found slumped unconscious by his parents in the bedroom of their Carlisle home in May this year. A box bearing the words ‘Pandora’s box’ was beside him.

An inquest into his death heard how no drugs were found in his system and the box – which bore the inscription in red letters – contained unused synthetic cannabis. Coroner Robert Chapman said a post mortem showed Jason’s heart had stopped beating, causing his organs to fail – but they would probably never know why. He never regained consciousness and died in the Cumberland Infirmary two days later.

His father, Dennis Airey, told the inquest that Jason had been in a happy mood when he returned to the family home in Crossways, Harraby, on May 2.

“He was just his normal self,” he said. “He had been shopping and said he was going upstairs to get changed.”

[A short while later he] found his son slumped on his knees, face down. Paramedics and an ambulance was called and Mr Airey started CPR, he said. The paramedics worked on Jason for an hour before he was taken to hospital.

His father said he found “a little packet” inside ‘Pandora’s box’ and thought it was cannabis but “it didn’t smell”. Mr Chapman said tests later revealed it was synthetic cannabis.

“I thought [the box] had just been opened,” Mr Airey said.

Mr Chapman said toxicology tests had found no trace of drugs in Jason’s system and ruled that he died of natural causes.