Silent but Deadly

I’ve just been doing a bit of research through Trove newspapers and came across this article which has absolutely nothing to do with my family but I couldn’t resist adding it here. I’ve heard of some unusual deaths but this one has to take the cake!

Bathurst: On Sunday, the 18th, an inquest was held by J. Sutherland, Esq., at Evan’s Inn, on the body of a man named John Keafe, who came to his death suddenly the previous night, about twelve o’clock. It appeared that the deceased had been living with a woman named McCourt, a most abandoned character, in the kitchen of a lodging-house kept by a Mrs. Grady. In this house an altercation occurred on the previous evening, and the deceased, being a ticket-of-leave holder, and fearing he might get into trouble, hid himself in the water closet, where he was found in an hour’s time quite dead. After a post mortem examination, the medical gentlemen came to the conclusion that death had been caused by suffocation arising from the noxious effluvia of the water closet, and the jury returned a verdict accordingly. From The Maitland Mercury & Hunter River General Advertiser (NSW: 1843 – 1893) Wednesday 28 January 1846

It begs a lot of culinary and digestive questions I’m sure, but, leaving them aside for a moment, I must ask if this is the most unusual death you have come across or can you do better?!