Shadowing Practice: Every Disturbing Encounters Explained in 18 Minutes - Learn English Speaking with Video
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These are 10 of the most disturbing encounters you will ever watch.
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From the brutal murder of a pregnant woman, to the brutal kidnapping and assault of an innocent woman by a police officer.
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These are stories that are definitely bound to give you nightmares.
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Let's get started.
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Doreen Erbert It was Halloween night in San Jose, California on October 31st, 1984.
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The neighborhood was festive and fun, and children filled the streets dressed up in costumes for trick -or -treat.
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And on that cold Halloween night, 31 -year -old Doreen Erbert was at home with her toddler while waiting for her husband,
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Charles, to come back home from the store.
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She was also eight months pregnant, and according to the sonogram, it was going to be a baby boy.
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But then, a few minutes before 9 p .m., the doorbell rang.
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Unfortunately, opening that door would be the most fatal mistake Doreen could have made.
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This is because as soon as she opened it, she was immediately attacked with a machete by a man wearing a Halloween wolf mask.
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She was violently attacked multiple times, which ultimately led to her miscarriage.
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According to the first responders, the scene was one of the most gruesome crimes they'd ever seen.
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When the investigations began, all the evidence pointed to Michael Dennis, aka Doreen's ex -husband.
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The two had been married for six years, but they went through a bitter marriage,
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and even worse divorce, especially after their infant son Paul tragically drowned in a pool.
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The grief tore them further apart, and Michael turned to alcohol.
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It then spiraled into rage and mental instability after Doreen got remarried to Charles.
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He hated her new life and was determined to make her suffer as he was.
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According to the prosecutors, the man was completely obsessed with revenge.
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Michael tried to run after the horrible murder, but was quickly apprehended when the police tracked him to his house.
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Even though he seemed calm and collected, the wide gash on his hand gave him away, and just like that, his perfectly rehearsed story started unraveling.
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The evil murderer was tried and found guilty of first -degree murder and killing multiple victims.
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Yes, Doreen's unborn child was included.
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Dennis was sentenced to death in 1988, but when California overturned the death penalty, his sentence was converted to life in prison,
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and he's still locked up to this day.
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The murder of Doreen is so sad, and to this day, it is listed as one of the most horrifying Halloween murders in American history.
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Kidnapping Murder of Sarah Everard Some people seem like they're just born plain evil, and on the evening of March 3rd,
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2021, 33 -year -old Sarah Everard would be a victim of this evil firsthand.
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You see, Sarah was a marketing executive who lived in South London, and that evening she was walking home from a friend's house.
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At around 9 .30pm, as she was past a well -lit road, she was stopped by a rented police vehicle.
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He came down, identified himself as Wayne Cousins, a serving metropolitan police officer,
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and claimed he was arresting her for breaking COVID -19 lockdown rules.
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That sounded very suspicious to Sarah, but there was nothing she could do at the moment.
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He had shown her his ID, had a real warrant, and even had handcuffs to make the whole thing authentic.
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There were even witnesses on the street who saw the woman being handcuffed and taken into the police car.
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However, instead of being driven to the police station, he drove her to a remote place in Kent which was over 80 miles away.
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There, he brutally attacked and then killed her with his police belt.
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Cousins then set her corpse on fire and dumped the charred remains by an area of woodland he owned.
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When she didn't come home, her boyfriend reported her missing, and the authorities launched a missing persons report.
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They were able to track her cell phone to the exact location she was arrested, and just like that, the rented police car was identified.
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It didn't take long to figure out who was behind those wheels, so Cousins was picked up and brought in for questioning.
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Police checked his mobile data, and it placed him at exactly the same area where Sarah vanished.
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From there, everything just started adding up.
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One week later, the young woman's remains were found burned beyond recognition.
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The only way they could even prove it was Sarah was from her dental records.
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The country exploded in outrage and grief, and Cousins was later found guilty of Sarah's murder.
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He was charged and sentenced to life in prison with no parole.
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If you want to know more disturbing stories like this one, why not consider subscribing?
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Let's get on with the next one.
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The Zushi Stalker A young Japanese woman named Rie Miyoshi worked as a hostess in Japan.
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However, being a hostess here, especially in the nightlife industry, could become tricky as the relationship between clients can become a little blurry.
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Well, for Rie, one of those clients was Hidetou Kotsusumi.
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He was a man with influence, money, and access.
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He would shower Rie with gifts, money, and jewelry, and to everyone, he seemed like the perfect gentleman who really liked Rie.
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The two started dating, but after two years, Rie decided to break.
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She said she was uncomfortable with a lot of his actions and even told her friends he was very possessive.
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After the breakup, she tried to cut off contact completely.
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Kotsasumi didn't like that at all, and his solution was to begin stalking her.
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He would show up at her home and workplace.
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He sent threatening emails saying he'd kill her for leaving him.
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He even started harassing her friends too.
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It was an insane obsession.
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Rie filed numerous police reports, but after she presented the emails, Kutsusumi was finally arrested.
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However, during this time, Japan's laws on stalking were very weak, and since no physical harm had occurred, the police let the man go.
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She eventually got married, changed her name, and moved away with her husband, but this guy hired a private investigator to track her down.
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He started sending her emails again, but this time there were no threats.
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Once again, the police didn't take it seriously.
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It was an obsession.
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Well, in 2012, Kotsasumi finally snapped.
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He broke into Rie's apartment and stabbed her 12 times, then took his own life on her balcony, and she was only 27.
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Her death was a terrible tragedy, and the man who made her life a living death finally got the twisted control he always craved.
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Kotsasumi never faced the consequences of what he did.
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The private investigator was sentenced to two and a half years in prison with a five -year suspension on his license.
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Bandit Attack Lauren and Bryant Swenson were an American couple who had been living in Kenya for a couple of years.
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They had a business and had built a life in the country.
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In 2018, they decided to open a new venture with their two business partners, Shiv and Collins.
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The plan was to open a new gym and by November of that same year, it was time to film a promo for the CrossFit gym.
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On the way to the filming location, the group decided to take a detour to avoid traffic.
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Well, as you'll soon know, that was a very bad decision.
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A few minutes into the detour, they started to notice some really suspicious events.
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First, they spotted a Kenyan public van blocking the road.
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This was very weird as the van was packed awkwardly and even the passengers inside were all strange and acting unusual.
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Something was very, very wrong.
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Before they could say
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Jack, masked men with machetes came running out of the bushes and toward the group.
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It became obvious that the whole thing had been a setup plan from the start.
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Now this is where survival instincts kicked in because Bryant, who was behind the wheel of their land cruiser, threw the car into drive,
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hit the gas, and charged forward.
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The group could hear a bang indicating that they had probably hit someone, but Bryant didn't dare stop.
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He hit the gas harder and barreled out of there at full speed.
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Soon police sirens were heard in the background while the group breathed a sigh of relief.
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Thankfully, no one in the car was injured, but Lauren was deeply shaken by the event.
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She later described the whole incident as like a slow -motion action movie, but with real lives at stake.
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Women in the Attic So, for the last couple of months, a man in his late 50s living in Fukuoka,
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Japan, started to notice that there was something wrong in his home.
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Food kept disappearing from his fridge.
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Things would also randomly be out of order even when there was no sign of forced entry or a break -in.
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It was all very bizarre.
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At first, he suspected his ex -girlfriend of being the food thief, but after he confronted her, she insisted she wasn't the one.
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So with nothing else left to do, the man decided to buy a security camera
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and installed it in his home so he could figure out who was playing games with him.
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Well, he was in for a big surprise because when he checked the camera the next day, a woman he didn't recognize appeared.
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A complete, literal stranger could be seen climbing out of a cupboard in the ceiling.
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Then she starts moving around the home like she owns the place.
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She eats, drinks, and even showers before crawling back into the attic space like this was completely normal.
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He called the authorities immediately, and when the cops showed up, they searched the entire house.
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That's when they found Tatsuko Horikawa, a 58 -year -old woman in the attic.
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She had been living there for a year now.
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According to her, she'd been homeless but came into his home one day after he left the door unlocked.
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She just never left after that.
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Well, obviously, she was arrested for trespassing and taken to the police station.
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However, the case became a public matter very quickly.
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It shone a light on how scary the entire situation really was.
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The idea that someone could secretly live with you for months undetected was a terrifying nightmare.
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The Empty Apartment Complex A TikToker by the name ATL Cody,
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also known as Cody, shared some very creepy footage of his suspicious apartment building in Midtown Atlanta.
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According to him, the building was advertised as a bustling apartment.
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But when he moved in, everything about the place seemed strange and very eerie.
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The first red flag he noticed was that there was not a single neighbor in the complex.
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He had never seen anyone come or go out of any of the flats.
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In fact, the only time he heard footsteps was when delivery workers came to slip menus under apartment doors,
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and yes, those menus remained untouched for days.
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Which meant no one was opening their doors at all.
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The situation gets even more bizarre as Cody carries on with his investigations.
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He moves to the car park and notes that there are way more cars parked than apartments occupied.
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Some of the cars there looked like they hadn't even been moved in years because they were extremely dusty.
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Some even had expired tags and flat tires.
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Cody also scanned the network and noticed something else.
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No one had customized their Wi -Fi name.
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The passwords were still all in their default names, like ATTWiFi1236.
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I mean, for a building supposedly filled by young professionals, that was extremely suspicious.
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When he asked the lease officer about the other tenants, he was given very vague and consistent answers.
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He finally got a staff member to talk and they admitted
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that there were basically only four occupied rooms in the entire building.
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The remaining 194 were apparently being renovated or held for corporate leasing.
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This explanation just fueled the eerie fires more.
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After this story hit the internet, theories spread all over TikTok and Reddit.
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Some believed the building was probably doing some shady business like money laundering, but whatever the truth is, nobody truly knows.
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Jacob Cockle Jacob Cockle was a very popular YouTuber who loved to do daring stunts like swimming in whirlpools
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and cliff diving in horse masks.
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He would go on these wild adventures seeking out dangerous waves and whirlpools in Cornwall.
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His work got him recognized by National Geographic and the Sunday Times.
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At age 28, he was a celebrated award -winning sea photographer
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and even went viral multiple times on YouTube for diving into whirlpools and Karnsou Pool.
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Well, on the 28th of May, 2013, a very rare tide whirlpool appeared at Karnsou Pool.
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This particular sluice was rare because it was manually created during the colonial era to flush sand from the harbor.
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Anyway, Jacob suited up, jumped in the whirlpool with his camera and signature horse mask, and asked a friend, David Rain,
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to hand him the GoPro for one final underwater picture.
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However, as Jacob dived in, he never resurfaced.
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Sadly, he had been sucked through the sluice tunnel
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that was about 12 meters and then dragged 80 yards into the Karnsou pool.
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By the time he was flushed out, he came floating face down.
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Jacob was immediately rushed to the hospital but declared dead on arrival.
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It was ruled an accidental death by the coroner.
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The authorities later warned about the dangers of whirlpools and cautioned swimmers to stay away from fenced -off sluice gates.
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Accidents like these would never happen if swimmers could heed the warning signs.
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Man discovers lost GoPro Diver and YouTuber Rich Aloha visited
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Foster Falls State Park in Tennessee to film a diving video in August 2021.
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While he was there, he ventured into the depths of the water, hoping to find lost underwater treasures.
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And in a way, he did.
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Rich stumbled upon a muddy GoPro camera buried under the lake floor in mud.
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It was in bad shape, but he still picked it up and brought it to the surface.
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He then popped the camera to find the SD card, which was surprisingly still in very good shape.
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On playing the SD, Rich soon discovered that the video was playing the final moments of another diver.
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22 -year -old Richard Ragland, who had drowned two years ago in those same waters.
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The footage showed
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Rich having such a fun time hanging out with his friends.
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He's then seen swimming happily with his friends near the waterfall, but in the next minute, Richard disappears underwater and doesn't resurface.
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The whole situation was so disturbing because Richard was so full of energy and happiness throughout the trip,
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with no knowledge that those were going to be his last moments on Earth.
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Rich realized what he had and quickly made efforts to track down the family of the late Richard.
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He found them and handed over the footage, and this gave them a way to finally have closure and say goodbye.
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It was such a beautiful thing, and according to Rich, God led him to the GoPro.
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Mom of Four Christina Spicuza was an Uber driver and dedicated mother of four beautiful kids, And on February 10, 2022,
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she picked up a ride in Pitcaim, Pennsylvania around 9 p .m.
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And unfortunately, it would be the last time anyone would physically see her alive.
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This is because the person that got into her cab wasn't a regular customer, but a criminal who wanted to rob her.
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The man, who was later identified as Calvin Crew, booked the ride, pulled out a gun, and then placed it against Christina's temple.
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Dashcam footage in her car caught some of the horrific interaction.
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Calvin demanded that she keep driving, and you could hear the woman beg him repeatedly to please spare her.
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She kept telling him she had kids and a family, but he coldly responded that he had a family too.
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It was reported that
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Crew was finally able to disable the dash cam
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and forced Christina to drive over an hour away from where she picked him up.
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Her GPS showed that she drove through multiple neighborhoods, and investigators found that during that time she was accessing all her bank accounts and credit cards.
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The motive here was robbery.
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Sadly, her dead body would be found two days later on February
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12th with a single gunshot wound to the base of the skull.
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The dash cam was used to track and capture Calvin, and after a few hours of deliberation, he was found guilty of first -degree kidnapping,
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robbery, firearm violations, and evidence tampering.
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He was sentenced to life without parole and an additional 12 years to cover the related charges.
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Christina is survived by her mother and four beautiful children.
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Woman Attacked by Tiger In 2016, at the Badaling Wildlife World near Beijing, a man, his wife, his daughter,
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and his wife's mother were driving through a drive -by zoo.
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The man could be seen arguing with his wife,
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Mrs. Zhou, and then she angrily got out of the car and tried to switch places with her husband.
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It was at this moment that everything went horribly wrong.
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You see, this particular zoo lets animals roam freely, and the number one rule given to customers is to never get out of the vehicle.
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Sadly for Mrs. Joe, she broke this rule.
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As soon as she stepped out from the car, she was immediately attacked by a tiger and dragged off into the bushes.
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The husband and her mom quickly get out of the car to help Joe.
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The girl's mother, in an effort to protect her child, begins to beat the tiger, so it leaves
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Joe and sets its sight on her mom.
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She is mauled to death immediately.
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However, help arrives and Cho is taken to the hospital for medical attention.
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She sustained serious injuries from the attack, but thankfully she survived.
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The husband and daughter were also left unharmed, but the tiger had to be put down by the zoo.
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If you like this video, then you should definitely check out this video on the disturbing movie accidents.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Every Disturbing Encounters Explained in 18 Minutes”. This video has 210 sentences and 3044 words to shadow. The speech runs for 17:21. The speaker talks at a natural 175 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. Only 80% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| footage noun | /ˈfʊtɪd͡ʒ/ | An amount of film or tape that has been used to record something, or the content of the recording. |
| tiger noun | /ˈtaɪɡə/ | Panthera tigris, a large predatory mammal of the cat family, indigenous to Asia. |
| suspicious adjective | /səˈspɪʃ.əs/ | Arousing suspicion. |
| disturb verb | /dɪˈstɜːb/ | to confuse a quiet, constant state or a calm, continuous flow, in particular: thoughts, actions or liquids. |
| sadly adverb | /ˈsædli/ | In a sad manner; sorrowfully. |
| dive verb | /daɪv/ | To swim under water. |
| underwater adjective | /ʌndɚˈwɔtəɹ/ | Beneath the surface of the water; of or pertaining to the region beneath the water surface. |
| investigator noun | /ɪnˈvɛs.tɪˌɡeɪ̯.təː/ | One who investigates. |
| attic noun | /ˈætɪk/ | The space, often unfinished and with sloped walls, directly below the roof in the uppermost part of a house or other building, generally used for storage or… |
| mask noun | /mæsk/ | A cover, or partial cover, for the face, used for disguise or protection. |
| drag verb | /dɹæɡ/ | To pull along a surface or through a medium, sometimes with difficulty. |
| menu noun | /ˈmɛn.juː/ | The details of the food to be served at a banquet; a bill of fare. |
| swim verb | /swɪm/ | To move through the water, without touching the bottom; to propel oneself in water by natural means. |
| brutal adjective | /ˈbɹuːtəl/ | Savagely violent, vicious, ruthless, or cruel, often in an unintelligent manner. |
| grief noun | /ɡɹiːf/ | Suffering, hardship. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| get out of verb | To leave, exit or escape from; to become free of. | |
| figure out verb | To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce. | |
| pick up verb | To lift; to grasp and raise. | |
| add up verb | To take the sum of; to total. | |
| check out verb | To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.). | |
| come back verb | To return to a place. | |
| come down verb | To descend, fall down, collapse. | |
| cut off verb | /ˌkʌt ˈɔf/ [ˌkɐɾ ˈɔf] | To remove by cutting. |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | are definitely bound · was tried · was included |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | Kent which was · man who made · card, which was |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 15 contractions and reduced forms, such as didn't, wasn't, doesn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: authentic /ɔˈθɛn.tɪk/, threaten /ˈθɹɛt.n̩/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: suspicious /səˈspɪʃ.əs/, dash /ˈdæʃ/, obsession /əbˈsɛʃən/, rush /ɹʌʃ/, recognition /ˌɹɛkəɡˈnɪʃ(ə)n/
- Long words — get the stress right: underwater /ʌndɚˈwɔtəɹ/, investigator /ɪnˈvɛs.tɪˌɡeɪ̯.təː/, recognition /ˌɹɛkəɡˈnɪʃ(ə)n/, unusual /ʌnˈjuːʒ(u)əl/, explanation /ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like footage, tiger, suspicious.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.