Accidental Mummies

 

Mummies happen sometimes by accident. They aren't prepared, they simply had the right conditions to dehydrate over time in arid places. Some of these mummies are modern-day which makes them even more chilling as they are our peers.

The boat owner who not only created a ghost ship when he passed away at his desk while at sea, but was the ghost that haunted it - 

This German boat owner wasn't heard from. His boat was found adrift in the sea around the Phillipines. This 59-year-old looked like he was asleep in the radio room. He had been sailing the world and hadn't been heard from since 2009 and was found in 2016. At least, he passed doing something he loved. 

An actress well known for her role in "Attack of the 50 Foot Woman" and other films, as well as her sexy photo spreads in magazines, was found dead for about a year in her Beverly Hills home, completely mummified. She was known as a recluse, but that no one checked on her that long is just stunning. Rest in peace, talented lady.

We can head out west for the next accidental mummy who likely had a more active life dead than alive - 

"Sylvester" was the adopted name of this mummy found in the desert outside of Gila Bend, Arizona. He was found in 1895 by a couple of travelers in the desert and appeared to have died by a gunshot wound. He simply dehydrated in the desert.

In 1909, he was on exhibit in San Francisco and Alaska. He became an attraction in a Yuma, Arizona barbershop. A doctor kept him on a sofa as a fun exhibit. When the doctor passed away, he was hired out to sideshows. By 1955, he ended up in a Seattle's Ye Old Curosity Shop (still there). In 2000 he was scanned and found to have all his organs intact including his brain. They believed it was because the doctor used arsenic to preserve him. 

Next, let's venture back in town - in the Alps in the Austria-Italy border. 

Ötzi, as he has come to be called  lived around 3350 and 3105 BCE. He was found in 1991 and examined thoroughly to learn more about this ancient man. He is considered the oldest known naturally-occurring mummy. He was a petite (by today's standards) 5'3" tall. He had an arrowhead embedded in his shoulder and other wounds. He is presently on exhibit at South Tyrol Museum in South Tyrol, Italy. 

Sadly, another accidental mummy was a prisoner in 1895 who died and was left at a funeral home unattended where he mummified for 128 years. Thankfully, authorities in Reading, Pennsylvania are being sure "Stoneman Willie" (as they came to call him) is buried with dignity. 

Then, there was the sacrifice in Argentina - 

An Incan child sacrifice was stoned and drunk for weeks before leaving her 20,000 feet up on a volcano in Argentina. The 13-year-old "ice maiden" was with a 4-year-old girl attendant and 5-year-old boy attendant, dead in the cave. They had been fed meat and corn, given coca leaf and corn beer for up to a year before death, and heavily sedated when left to freeze within the cave.

DEHYDRATOR