If you enjoyed this article, you can get a Free Subscription to Special Reports via email or RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

On March 23rd 1994, a medical examiner viewed the body of Ronald Opus and concluded that he died from a shotgun wound to the head. Ronald Opus had jumped from the top of a 10 story building intending to commit suicide, a known fact because a suicide note was found. As Ronald fell past the 9th floor, He was shot by a shotgun blast through a window, which killed him instantly. Neither the shooter nor the decedent was aware that a safety net had been erected at the 8th floor to protect some window washers and that Opus would not have been able to complete his suicide anyway because of the net.

Usually when a person who sets out to commit suicide ultimately succeeds, even though the mechanism might not be what he intended. That Opus was shot on the way to certain death nine stories below probably would not have changed his mode of death from suicide to homicide. But the fact that his suicidal intent would not have been successful caused the medical examiner to feel that he had a homicide on his hands. “The room on the 9th floor from which the shotgun blast emanated was occupied by an elderly man and his wife. They were arguing and the elderly man was threatening his wife with the shotgun. He was so upset that, when he pulled the trigger, he completely missed the wife and the pellets went through the window striking Opus.

When a person intends to kill subject A but kills subject B during that attempt, one is guilty of the murder of subject B. When confronted with this charge, the old man and his wife were both adamant that neither knew that the shotgun was loaded. The old man said it was his habit to threaten his wife with the unloaded shotgun. He had no intention to murder her, therefore, the killing of Opus appeared to be an accident. That is, the gun had been accidently loaded.

The continuing investigation turned up a witness who saw the old couple’s son loading the shotgun approximately 6 weeks prior to the fatal incident. It transpired that the old lady cut off her son’s financial support and the son, knowing the propensity of his father to use the shotgun threateningly, loaded the gun with the expectation that his father would shoot his mother. The case now, becomes one of murder on the part of the son for the death of Ronald Opus.

Now get ready for the fact that makes this story the strangest death ever.

Further investigation revealed that the son, Ronald Opus, had become increasingly despondent over the failure of his attempt to engineer his mother’s murder. This led him to jump off the 10 story building on March 23rd, only to be killed by a shotgun blast through a 9th story window.

Because the murder of Ronald Opus was the responsibility of the son, the medical examiner closed the case as a suicide.