On March 23, 1994 the coroner examined the body of Ronald Opus, who is the protagonist of one of the strangest deaths that have happened in the world.
One of the most extra deaths that has ever occurred in the world; the suicide of Papus
On March 23, 1994, the medical examiner examined the body of Ronald Opus and concluded that he died of a gunshot wound to the head. Mr. Opus had jumped from the top of a ten-story building with the intention of committing suicide.
He left a note before he jumped, stating his reasons.
During the fall and passing the ninth floor, his life was cut short by a shotgun blast that passed through a window and killed him instantly.
Neither the shooter nor the suicide bomber was aware that a safety net had been installed just above the eighth floor to protect construction workers and therefore Ronald Opus would not have completed his suicide, at least in the manner he had intended.
“Usually,” Dr. Mills continued, “a person who intends to commit suicide and succeeds, even though the mechanism may not be what he intended, is still defined as suicide.”
That Mr. Opus had been shot on his way to a suicide that was likely to be unsuccessful prompted the medical examiner to rule it a homicide.
Investigation of the case
The room on the ninth floor from which the shotgun was fired had been occupied by an elderly man and his wife. While they were having a loud argument, he threatened her with the shotgun.
The man was so upset that when he pulled the trigger, a bunch of pellets flew through the window and lodged in Mr.
Opus’ head.
When one intends to kill subject A and accidentally kills subject B, one is responsible for subject B’s death. When the old man was charged with murder, he and his wife did not hesitate. They both said they thought the shotgun was unloaded, that it was an old habit of the old man to threaten his wife with his unloaded shotgun.
He had no intention of killing her. Therefore Mr. Opus’ death appeared to be an accident, i.e., the gun had been accidentally loaded.
Subsequent investigation revealed, according to eyewitness accounts, that the couple’s son had been seen loading the shotgun a few weeks before the fatal accident. Allegedly the old woman had taken financial support away from her son and the son, knowing of the old man’s propensity to target his mother, loaded the gun in the hope that his father would kill his mother. The murder of Mr. Opus was now the son’s responsibility.
And here comes the exquisite touch, further investigation revealed that the son was, in fact, Ronald Opus. He had become so depressed by the attempted murder of his mother that it led him to throw himself from the 10th floor on March 23, only to be killed by a gunshot through a window on the ninth floor. The son had murdered himself
The coroner therefore closed the case as a suicide.
