The Man Who Died From Eating Roaches

 

October 6th, 2012, there was a roach eating contest at the Ben Siegel Reptile Store, in Deerfield Beach, Florida. For beating the other contestants in eating more bugs (worms and roaches and other insects) the most, the prize winner would win one of four female Ball pythons, of which was valued at 850 dollars.
The winner of the contest was Edward Archbold, of West Palm Beach. Once Edward won the contest, he started throwing up, and then collapsed. Edward was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. None of the other contestants fell ill though.

According to his autopsy, he was not on any drugs. Edward died of "asphyxia due to choking and aspiration of gastric contents". His airway was blocked by roach body parts, which prevented him from breathing. The medical examiner stated, "There is a flap called the epiglottis that is supposed to stop objects from going into the lungs, Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work. In the video you could see him trying to swallow and breathe at the same time. We can’t do both simultaneously.".
In an article by the miami herald, it was stated that he had eaten 2 ounces of meal worms, 35 horn worms, and a bucketful of discoid roaches. A Floridian entomologist stated that the discoid roaches were a large insect to eat. "When you bite into it, you're going to get a gush of fat bodies, the gut content and the hemolymph-essentially insect blood. As you bite down, that's going to put pressure on the exoskeleton, so when it's ruptured, it's going to squirt.".

The bugs were the same sterile food given to the reptiles. The autopsy also concluded that Edward did not have an allergic reaction to the bugs. This was also the store's first bug eating contest.
Edward worked at Busch Canvas & Interiors for four years prior to his death. He was described as a "Smart good guy who was really good friends to people."

The store owner, Ben Siegel, stated, "We feel terribly awful. He looked like he just wanted to show off and was very nice. [Edward] was the life of the party.". Despite the accidental death, all the contestants signed a waiver accepting responsibility for their participation in the contest.
Edward's funeral was at St. Maurice Catholic Church, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He was later cremated.

As for the reptile store, it appears to have closed sometime in 2015. The last review on yelp was from 2015, and most were not very good overall. The store had an instagram account with pictures dating before the accident, and there are still photos that advertise the event that Archbold died at. Their last post was from August of 2018, where they were selling their reptiles. 

In 2015, Ben Siegel was arrested for abusing a reptile on January 2nd. Apparently, he had put the bearded dragon in his mouth, then tossed it into the air and swung it around several times. He then hit people inside the store with the animal, before squirting them with Gatorade. He was held on bond for 4500 dollars, and faced two charges of, "touch or strike battery and one count of causing death, pain, and suffering to an animal". It is unknown if the reptile died. Siegel had been arrested before, with three other battery charges from 2014, and a possession of coke from Christmas 2014. It is unknown what the ultimate result of these charges were.

But it doesn't stop there. Sometime around 2017 (according to the first Yelp Review), they opened up a new shop in Palmetto Bay, Florida, calling themselves the Miami Reptile Company. They have a facebook page where they post reptiles every day that they are holding for auction. The auctions are held on the website BSRAuctions.com 

[SOURCES]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/ondeadline/2012/10/08/roach-eating-contest-death/1621507/
https://www.jacksonville.com/article/20121127/NEWS/801242825
https://www.jacksonville.com/news/crime/2012-10-09/story/florida-man-dies-after-winning-roach-eating-contest
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/98524588/edward-archbold
https://www.miamiherald.com/latest-news/article1944869.html
https://www.yelp.com/biz/ben-siegel-reptiles-deerfield-beach-2?sort_by=date_desc
https://www.instagram.com/bensiegelreptiles/?hl=en
https://www.yelp.com/biz/miami-reptile-company-palmetto-bay?sort_by=date_asc
https://www.facebook.com/miareptiles/?ref=page_internal
https://bsrauctions.com/

Mariesa Weber's Unusual Death

 

Mariesa Jean Weber was born on August 17th, 1968 in Brooklyn, New York. She had one sister named Gina, and a loving mother and father. In 1977 her family moved to Florida. Her mother describes her as having been a blonde bundle of joy, that was an honor student who loved to read. In her youth, Mariesa wanted to become a teacher. She had a love for music, taking pictures with Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, and Sebastian Bach from Skid Row. She is seen in pictures with posters covering her room of various band members such as Mick Jagger and Kurt Cobain; one source even states that she had a tattoo on her ankle, "Hutch", in memory of the singer from INXS. 

On October 28th, 2006, Mariesa came home and greeted her mother, to not be seen again. When she first disappeared, her family thought that she had been kidnapped. They searched the house all over, and did not find a trace of her. Through all of their searching for 11 days, they had no idea where she had went, though there was a smell, which the family blamed on rats. 

One night, Mariesa's sister, Gina, went into Mariesa's room and looked behind a bookcase. She saw a foot, and her father used a flashlight to find that Mariesa had been wedged upside down underneath it.
Mariesa's mother, Connie, stated, "I'm Sleeping in the same house as her for 11 days, looking for her, and she's right in the bedroom.". It was stated that both sisters would adjust the TV plug by standing on a bureau next to the shelf leaning over the top. It was believed that Mariesa may have fallen headfirst into the area, where the 6ft bookshelf collapsed on her. Mariesa was 5'2" and 79 pounds at the time of her death. Articles have also listed her as having been 5'3" and 100 pounds.  Every article about the incident quotes the mother, "She's a little thing," her mother reportedly said. "And the bookcase is 6ft tall and solid. And she couldn't get out.". It is interesting to note that either at 5'2 or 5'3 with either weight, Mariesa's BMI would be considered underweight. 

Interestingly, once the autopsy came back, it was revealed that Mariesa had multiple drugs in her system. It was revealed that she had recently taken morphine, codeine, marijuana, an antihistamine, an anti-inflammatory, an antidepressant (Celexa), and Xanax. Overall, her death was ruled an accident, with the drug combo being a potential contributing factor (I have seen people argue online though that some of these drugs may not have actually be from the time she passed away, as of course some drugs stay longer in the body than others). 

After the family found Mariesa, many people questioned how they couldn't have smelled her decomposing body sooner. In an article by the Tampa Bay Times, it was stated that the "conditions were so squalid inside the house when the body was found - trash all around, birds, cats, and dogs in cages". That the sheriff's Deputy had to call the Code Enforcement and Animal Control. Allegedly, Mariesa's room was "chocked with clothing and debris". The deputy stated, "The piles of clothing in some areas of the bedroom were as tall, if not taller than me.".

Mariesa's death was the first in her immediate family. In 2009 her father passed away, and in 2015 her sister Gina passed away.

Mariesa was buried in Meadowlawn Memorial Gardens, in New Port Richey, Florida. 

[SOURCES]

https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna15895965
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/americas/6185854.stm
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/17343120/mariesa-jean-weber
https://www.tampabay.com/archive/2007/01/23/trapped-woman-had-taken-drugs/

Larry Murillo-Moncada: From Lost to Found

 Larry Moncada: Lost Then Found

 

Larry Murillo-Moncada, presumably born in 1984, was last seen by his parents on November 28th, 2009 in Council Bluffs, Iowa. He had left his parent's house wearing only his blue jeans and a long sleeved shirt, leaving behind his wallet, medication, and any other personal belongings. He was described as 140 pounds, and 6 feet tall, though one source states that he was 5'6" for some reason.
Prior to this,  Larry had come home after a working a Thanksgiving shift at the supermarket, 'No Frills'. He came home disoriented, his heart was beating fast, was experiencing hallucinations and hearing voices that were telling him to eat sugar He believed that someone was following him. That same day, his mother took him to the doctor where he was prescribed medicine, one source stating anti-depressants to treat anxiety, but he seemed have had an adverse reaction. On the 28th, Larry allegedly got into an argument with his parents, and fled his home. When he did not return the next day, his mother filed a missing person's report. 

For years, no-one knew what happened to Larry, and in 2016, the store that he worked at closed down.
Ten years after his disappearance, Larry's body was found. There were no signs of trauma, but the context of his death became even more of a mystery. In January of 2019, contractors went to the closed grocery store to remove fittings and tear apart the freezer unit. Between the freezer and a wall, was an 18 inch gap of which Larry's body was found. At the time of discovery, authorities stated that the body had been there for a long period of time. When the body was first found, Sgt. Brandon Danielson stated that Larry was the first person to come to mind. After DNA testing, it was proved that the body was indeed Larry Moncada's. 

The question beyond this is...how? How did he fall behind the freezer, and how did nobody notice his body was there? While the space was 18 inches wide, he had fallen 12 feet, and the loud sound of the freezers may have muffled any cries for help. As for why Larry even ended up in the freezer area, it was stated by many of the former employees that used to work there that they would climb on top of the freezers since the space was often used for storage and to pass time. The employees would climb the coolers to hide from customers and take breaks. 

 

An autopsy showed no signs of trauma. 

Early in the investigation for Larry, authorities and his parents went to the store looking for him. Both his mother and father had the feeling that the store would reveal some sort of answer, though nothing came to fruition. Even the authorities had asked Moncada's boss where he might have been, to which they stated that they didn't know, and Larry wasn't scheduled to work at that time.

His death is considered accidental, with the case being closed.

Since the news has come out that he was stuck behind the freezers, there have been many people on social media from the area stating that they had been to that exact store. During this time period, there are reports of people having smelled something odd, and even talking to employees about what the possible smell was, though it was usually fanned off.

 [Afterword]

While people wonder how Larry was able to get in the store, I personally think that he must have went straight to the store after leaving his parents' house. Despite not having any shoes or keys, some sources state that he left the house around 6 pm. Most stores would have been open during that time. Though, you would think that perhaps he would have been asked about why he wasn't wearing any shoes. I believe it is possible that he went to the store hiding spot to potentially sort out his thoughts, and of course met his fate by accident. Perhaps he slipped because his feet would have been wet from the snow?

Some people wonder what type of medicine that Larry was on. I have not seen any confirmed records as to what type of medicine that he had taken, though I do want to acknowledge that he allegedly had only tried the new medicine for one day before going missing. If the medication was an anti-depressant as they said, I am unsure how one day of medicine could make a person react in such a way. Typically, a medicine needs at least 2-4 weeks to course through one's body before knowing any sort of effects.
I do acknowledge though, that when looking at the side effects of Sertaline (a generic version of Zoloft which is also used to treat Anxiety) extreme side effects consist of:

-seizures
-abnormal bleeding or bruising
-hallucinations, fever sweating, confusion, fast heartbeat, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea
-rash, hives, and swelling and
-difficulty breathing.

I am not trying to come off as condescending, but since we don't know what type of medicine he was prescribed, it's tough to gauge whether it could have been the medicine or mental illness. Further, considering the way the story is represented, it seems that Larry was experiencing most of these symptoms before the medication, and not after. What I am most curious about are the voices that he heard in his head. Hearing voices is atypical of anxiety disorder, which makes me believe that if Larry was prescribed an SSRI, and had a different mental illness, then the anxiety medicine may have very well caused him to have his final freak out. A quick google search shows that a person could hear voices for either being schizophrenic or having bipolar disorder.

In the end, we will never truly know what went through Larry Moncada's mind when he left his parent's house that night. Rest in peace.

[SOURCES]

https://7news.com.au/news/world/dad-of-man-who-lay-dead-behind-iowa-supermarket-fridge-for-10-years-wants-answers-c-366886

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn82vqdn1Ok&ab_channel=KETVNewsWatch7

https://nonpareilonline.com/news/local/family-of-man-who-died-in-bluffs-store-everyone-has-questions/article_aec8ef32-c295-11e9-9f7f-e7282b7518a6.html+

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7274293/Remains-man-supermarket-freezer-10-years.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/07/23/larry-ely-murillo-moncada-council-bluffs-disappearance-cooler-no-frills-supermarket/

https://allthatsinteresting.com/larry-ely-murillo-moncada-body

https://iowacoldcases.org/case-summaries/larry-murillo/

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/cgkzy8/resolved_body_of_man_missing_for_10_years_found/

https://medlineplus.gov/druginfo/meds/a697048.html