10 Times People Saw Dead Bodies In Public And Didn't Even Know It

The "Laff in the Dark" ride at a California amusement park features a tunnel filled with ghouls, demons, and skeletons.The ride contained an actual human corpse.The body was jumbled with the props. The TV show featured The Six Million Dollar Man.The Six Million Dollar Man.Maintenance workers checked the ride's decorations before filming began. People thought a mannequin hanging from a noose was detailed, but an employee broke off an arm, revealing bone and skin.

The body belonged to Elmer McCurdy, an outlaw shot by police 65 years before the "Laff in the Dark" opened in 1976. McCurdy's body stayed in an Oklahoma funeral home. When no one claimed it, the director charged a nickel to view the dead man. He preserved the corpse with embalming fluid.

A carnival man claimed to be McCurdy's relative, seeing the money-making scheme. He took McCurdy's body, toured the country, and charged people for nearly 60 years to see the attraction. McCurdy's body ended up in Long Beach, CA, and the "Laff in the Dark" ride assumed McCurdy was just a prop.

Police notified the body was McCurdy. He rests now at Summit View Cemetery in Guthrie, OK, with concrete over his casket to keep him buried.

On July 4, 2016, shoppers outside a Pembroke Pines, FL, strip mall saw what they thought was a burning mannequin. A witness called authorities around 7 am, claiming a mannequin was on fire on the sidewalk. Authorities found something different.

The fire department realized it was not a mannequin; it was a deceased human. They put out the fire, and police started an investigation into what happened. Captain Al XIques of the Pembroke Pines Police told them.CBS-Miami.People thought this Burning Man was a mannequin on fire.

In October 2009, a dead man on a balcony was mistaken for a Halloween prop.the body of 75-year-old Mostafa Mahmoud Zayed.Everyone thought the body was a Halloween display. It decomposed on his Marina del Rey, CA, balcony. He sat slumped in a chair on the third floor with a gunshot wound through one eye. People saw it for four days before someone realized it was not fake.

A cameraman at the scene said he was not surprised no one called police about Zayed's death. He said, "It did look unreal, to be honest."

April 2, 2014, Ronald Benjamin worked as a desk clerk at Peterborough Apartments. He saw something on the patio resembling a mannequin. Thinking it was an April Fool's prank, he returned to work. Two hours later, a senior home resident reported the odd object to Benjamin. He told her it was just a joke. A 16-year-old paper boy arrived on his route. Benjamin asked the boy to help throw the mannequin in the dumpster. A substance resembling blood was on it, but Benjamin still dismissed it as fake part of the prank.

Hours later, apartment building staff found the object was not a mannequin. It was the body of a 96-year-old resident who jumped from 16 stories the night before.

"I swear to God, the face looked like a rubber mask," said the desk clerk.Benjamin toldThe Tampa Bay TimesHe had no idea he threw a body in a dumpster. "If I had thought for one instant it was a real person I would have called the police, my manager, everyone I could think of."

Two Denver men were arrested after they took their dead friend's body on a joyride. In August 2011, Robert Young and Mark Rubinson found their friend Jeffrey Jarrett dead, andTwo men took their deceased friend on a car ride instead of calling the police., they took Jarrett's body and his credit card on a shopping spree.

They bought food, drinks, and spent $400 at a strip club before putting Jarrett in bed. After returning his body, they reported him to the police. They faced charges for identity theft, criminal impersonation, and abuse of a corpse.

On November 2, 2012, 46-year-old Dale Porch collapsed outside his house, near his mailbox, after a late shift. The next day, the postman delivered mail, saw Porch's body, and thought it was just a Halloween display. He stepped over the body, delivered the mail, and continued his day.

Porch's son found his body andA postman called the police later that day after stepping over a corpse to deliver mail.. The postman felt bad after learning about everything, but Porch's family was angry the postman did nothing.

In October 2015, a 31-year-old Ohio woman namedRebecca Cade's body was left on a fence during Halloween.Rebecca Cade climbed a barbed wire fence and got caught in the barbs. Police said Cade ran from an attacker at the Chillicothe Paper Power Plant when she tried to climb the fence. Cade suffered blunt force trauma to her head and face and was left hanging in the fence.

A nearby Halloween display made passersby think her body was a prop and they ignored her. Fencing contractors arrived the next morning, alerting police to the murder.

What Frederica, DE, residents thought was a Halloween prank was actually the body of aA woman committed suicide, hanging from a tree, and the town thought it was a morbid joke.October 2005. A 42-year-old woman climbed a tree. She tied a noose. She hung herself from a branch, dangling about 15 feet high. People watched her hang there for over 12 hours. The next morning, someone became suspicious and called the police.

Brian Jewell.Brian Jewell, just 17, played a hanging victim at the local New Jersey haunted hayride gallows. He should have given a final speech before jumping. His noose was meant to drop him out of sight. It did not. Jewell hung himself and died. Patrons thought it was part of the show. Co-workers checked on him after the next group missed the speech and found him dead.

In 2001, 14-year-old Caleb Rebh from Sparta, MI, asked the local haunted hayride manager to join the cast despite all roles being filled. The manager agreed. He let Rebh jump out of a coffin to scare people.

Rebh wanted to participate fully. He convinced a coworker to swap roles. His job became hanging a skeleton from a tree to scare people. Rebh hung himself from the tree for more fear. The branch snapped back, tightening the rope around his neck. Patrons saw Rebh thrashing and thought it was just acting.

Other actors and hayriders tried to revive him after they knew it was not an act. They failed.