Dateline: MaineShortly after getting lost in a state park and being found by search and rescue, two women drove their car into an ocean cove and drowned. The Washington County Sheriff’s Office says that 37-year-old Amy Stiner of Machias, Maine, and 38-year-old Melissa Moyer of Sunbury, Pa., and a dog got lost on the hiking trails of Roque Bluffs State Park around 9 p.m. on Tuesday, July 23. The Maine Warden Service started a search for the women and contacted a nearby landowner, who was an off-duty firefighter and a member of Sunrise Search & Rescue. The landowner volunteered to drive his ATV along the park’s shoreline and help find the women. After a short time, the volunteer called in and said he had located the two women and their dog. Maine Warden Service picked up the women and transported them back to their vehicle. Around 10 p.m. the State Police got another call from the women saying that Stiner had taken a wrong turn and driven her Dodge Minivan off a boat landing and into Pond Cove. “They called on the phone that they were in the water and the car was filling up. Then the phone went dead,” Washington County Sheriff Donnie Smith told reporters. Following the phone’s GPS coordinates, police determined Stiner and Moyer were calling from less than a mile from where they were last seen. Officials say multiple crew searched for the women and their vehicle. It was eventually located underwater about 175 feet off the end of the Pond Cove boat ramp. Police say both women and the dog died inside the vehicle.Dateline: BrazilJoao Maria de Souza, 45, was sleeping next to his wife in their home in Caratinga, southeast Brazil, when a 1.5 ton cow fell through the roof and crushed him to death. The brother-in-law of the deceased, Carlos Correa, told Brazil’s Hoje em Dia newspaper, “Being crushed by a cow in your bed is the last way you expect to leave this earth.” Local officials believe the cow escaped from a nearby farm, broke through the fence of the de Souza home, climbed up on the roof and fell through the corrugated tin. Mr. de Souza was pulled from the cow-filled bedroom by firemen with a fractured leg, several injuries to the chest and abdomen and internal bleeding. He later died of his injuries at the hospital. His wife, Lena, and the cow, unnamed, both reportedly escaped without injury. Local media has speculated that the cow’s owner could be charged with involuntary manslaughter. “I didn’t bring my son up to be killed by a falling cow,” de Souza’s grieving mother told SuperCanal TV.Dateline: MichiganA Canadian man has apologized for getting intoxicated and trying to swim to Detroit. John Morillo, 47, told The Windsor Star that his attempt to swim from Windsor, Ontario, to Detroit via the Detroit River was “really stupid” and should not have been attempted. “I was drinking, but I wasn’t really drunk,” said Morillo, who admitted to having eight beers before his late night swim on Monday, July 22. “The thing is, I’ve been telling people I’m going to swim across the river for years and they’re like, ‘yah, yah, blah, blah, you can’t make it.’ So, I don’t know, last night I just decided it was time to go.” Morillo’s attempt created a major international incident with three boats and a helicopter from both Windsor police and the U.S. Coast Guard showing up to pull him out of the river. “As soon as I saw the helicopters going by and the boats looking for me, I was like ‘oh, this is really stupid,’” Morillo told the newspaper. The drunk diver actually made it across the water and emerged near downtown Detroit’s Renaissance Center before law enforcement caught up to him. “The harbor master was extremely mad at me,” Morillo pointed out later, also admitting that his mother told him, “You’re so stupid” before hanging up on him. Morillo was cited for being intoxicated in a public place and released from jail the next day. He could still be fined for swimming in a shipping channel, which carries a fine of $5,000 to $25,000.Dateline: PennsylvaniaAuthorities near Philadelphia say a 62-year-old patient was shot by a stray bullet while sitting up in bed in a hospital. According to The Mercury in Pottstown, the unidentified woman was struck by a bullet in the abdomen while recuperating from a previous injury at the Crozer-Chester Medical Center, located on the southwestern edge of Philadelphia. Delaware County District Attorney Jack Whelan is reportedly investigating if the bullet came from a notoriously crime-ridden area several blocks away from the hospital.
Compiled by Devin D. O'Leary. Email your weird news to devin@alibi.com.
