coffin

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There's a New Most-Tracked Flight in History

5M people followed queen's journey home to London, per Flightradar24

(Newser) - The plane carrying the body of Queen Elizabeth II to her home in London just became the most-tracked flight ever—by a long shot. Five million people tracked the Royal Air Force plane as it flew from Edinburgh, Scotland—about 100 miles south of where the queen died at Balmoral...

Museum: Here's Your $4M Coffin. Sorry About That

New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art returns the antiquity to Egypt

(Newser) - New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art says it's returning a prized artifact to Egypt after learning it was stolen from the country in 2011, the AP reports. The Met said Friday that the Manhattan District Attorney's office found evidence that the museum was given a false ownership...

Six Flags Offers Macabre Challenge, With a $300 Prize

If you can tough it out in a coffin for 30 hours, your wallet could get a cash infusion

(Newser) - If you've been dying to take a 30-hour nap in a coffin and wouldn't mind getting $300 at the end of your repose, Six Flags St. Louis has just the Halloween-themed happening for you. Per the St. Louis Post-Dispatch , that's how much the theme park is offering...

Man Suffers Death by Coffin at Mom's Funeral

Coffin fell as it was being carried up a ladder in Indonesia

(Newser) - An Indonesian man died at his own mother's funeral. It wasn't a broken heart but rather death by coffin. Samen Kondorura, 40, had been helping carry his mother's coffin up a bamboo ladder to a funeral tower called a lakkian on Sulawesi island Friday when "suddenly...

Egyptian Coffin Is 'Dowdy,' but the Inside Is 'Astonishing'

An Egyptian sarcophagus is found to contain mummified remains

(Newser) - An archaeologist a continent away from Egypt made what he calls an "unbelievably astonishing" discovery: a 2,500-year-old coffin that had always been assumed to be empty actually wasn't. Australian scientists led by Dr. Jamie Fraser of the University of Sydney's Nicholson Museum tells the BBC the...

Job of Making Billy Graham's Casket Fell to Inmates

Evangelist's family had requested his final resting vessel years ago from La. prisoners

(Newser) - Billy Graham died on Feb. 21, 2018, but his casket has been waiting for him since 2006. WAFB reports that a final resting vessel was commissioned long ago for the renowned evangelist, with a request it be built by the inmates at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, aka Angola. The Advocate ...

Family Breaks Museum's 800-Year-Old Coffin

They lifted child into it for a photo

(Newser) - And this is why you should always pay attention to those signs in museums asking that you please not touch the exhibits. A family visiting England's Prittlewell Priory Museum recently broke an ancient coffin when they lifted a child over a barrier and into it to take a photo,...

No One Knew Body in Coffin Wasn't Grandma— Except Little Kids

Adults thought Val-Jean McDonald's body looked odd but didn't say anything

(Newser) - With eight sons, more than 20 grandkids, and nearly two dozen great- and great-great-grandchildren, it wasn't surprising there were lots of attendees at Val-Jean McDonald's funeral after her death in December at the age of 81, the New York Times reports. What was surprising: Not a single adult...

Family: Wrong Woman Was in Casket at Grandma's Viewing

And no one seems to know where Virginia Gray's body went

(Newser) - When Virginia Gray's grandkids went to Horton's Funeral Home last Friday to pay their respects to the DC matriarch, who had died at the age of 83 in mid-February, they were prepared to say their final goodbyes, News4 reports. But although her family recognized the clothing on the...

Family Fears It Buried Pregnant Teen Alive

Relatives say Nelsy Perez, 16, had bruises on her fingers as if she had tried to escape

(Newser) - If you suffer from taphephobia , you may not want to read on. The family of a pregnant teen in Honduras who died and was buried yanked her body out of her tomb a day after the funeral, convinced she was still alive, the Guardian reports. The incident reportedly happened in...

Man Hit With Reburial Fee After Floods Unearth Wife's Coffin

Richard Lee files suit against funeral home after wife's casket floats out of vault

(Newser) - Richard Lee got a disturbing call last week that was quickly followed by even more disturbing news: The coffin of his wife, Carolyn, buried in 2007, had floated to the surface after intense flooding in Houston , the Houston Chronicle reports—and to rebury her, Lee would have to pay a...

Wreck of WWII 'Flying Coffin' Bomber Found in Italy

The aircraft appears to have lived up to its nickname

(Newser) - The World War II-era B-24 aircraft was so stiff, heavy, and hard to control that its American crews dubbed it the "flying coffin." Not only was its only exit hard to reach at the tail—leaving many trapped before being able to parachute out—but it was intended...

Woman Finds Wrong Body in Mother's Casket

Daughter believes she was cremated in Ottawa by mistake

(Newser) - A Rhode Island woman wants answers after discovering the wrong body in a casket that should have contained her mother, who died unexpectedly while on vacation in St. Maarten. Lisa Kondvar, of Warwick, and her family discovered another woman's body in the casket at a New Jersey funeral home...

Oswald Brother Furious About Coffin Sale

Coffin should have been destroyed, not sold, brother says

(Newser) - Lee Harvey Oswald's brother says he bought the pine box the presidential assassin was buried in and a funeral home had no right to auction it off earlier this month. The coffin—which was replaced when Oswald was reburied in 1981—fetched $87,469. But Robert Oswald says it's not...

Oswald's Coffin Up for Auction

Funeral home hoping to get thousands for battered old coffin

(Newser) - A funeral home is selling off maybe the creepiest piece of Kennedy memorabilia ever: the coffin Lee Harvey Oswald was originally buried in. The coffin was dug up in 1981 to settle a dispute between Oswald’s widow and brother over whether a lookalike Russian agent had been buried in...

Prince Charles Pushes Woolen Coffins

It's a greener way to go!

(Newser) - Prince Charles—who recently stressed the value of woolen clothes for sustainable living —believes the material is perfect for sustainable dying as well. The prince asked for a selection of woolen coffins, which are reinforced with recycled cardboard and can feature a personalized embroidered nameplate, to be displayed prominently...

Woman Hides in Coffin to Escape Police

Nicole Kelly decides she can't go to jail, so she finds another tiny spot

(Newser) - From the brilliant criminals department: Upon arriving at a correctional facility after being arraigned on two outstanding warrants, a Philadelphia woman decided she "just couldn't do this," wrestled free, and ran away. A still-handcuffed Nicole Kelly, 19, managed to shake the authorities who chased her, ducked into the...

Jack Nicholson Wouldn't Mind Being Eaten by Vultures

Actor, 72, mulls Native American 'sky burial'

(Newser) - At 72, Jack Nicholson has been thinking about death, or, more particularly, burial arrangements. One option he finds appealing, he tells German TV, is a Native American practice that would leave his body to the vultures. “I liked the nature of the Indians who haul their bodies up into...

Wal-Mart Enters Coffin Biz
 Wal-Mart Enters 
 Coffin Biz 
Oct 30, 2009 2:08 AM CDT

Wal-Mart Enters Coffin Biz

Funeral homes face competition from discount caskets

(Newser) - America's leading big-box store is now also a pine box store. Wal-Mart has started selling a range of discount coffins on its website and plans to expand its death products to include pet urns and memorial jewelry. Prices start at just $895 for a steel coffin. Funeral home owners say...

Media Lose Interest in War Dead: Only AP Shoots Coffins

Photo ban lifted, but photographers aren't bothering

(Newser) - Back when George W. Bush was president, the media made a big fuss about the administration’s refusal to allow the press to photograph soldiers’ coffins, saying it hid the true cost of the war. President Obama lifted the ban in April, and the media flocked to snap shots of...

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