Thread: Man Beheads Self in Domestic Dispute

Police in Yorktown, Virginia responded to a domestic dispute call around 10:00 a.m. on Thursday that resulted in a man decapitating himself. Yes, that's right. He decapitated himself.

The couple was divorced, and had two children, both of whom were at school at the time of the incident. The father, unidentified by police save for the fact that he was 46 and from Chicago, had relocated to Yorktown to be closer to his kids. The fight was over access to them.

While a deputy took his ex-wife's statement, another noticed a white Ford Explorer driving by, pulling along a utility trailer that was on fire. The car was being driven by the ex-husband, who had a cable - the kind used to "hoist an automobile engine" - tied around his neck. The other end was tied to a nearby tree. This is the part of the post when you might want to send young children elsewhere, perhaps to the comparatively comforting story of the man with gardening shears in his face.

The deputies asked the man to exit the Ford Explorer. Instead, he accelerated. The cable yanked him out of the SUV, and pulled his head off. The SUV kept traveling for about 150 yards, according to the local NBC affiliate.


"Nobody has ever heard of anything like this," [York-Poquoson Sheriff Danny] Diggs said. "It's a really bizarre incident."
Man Beheads Self in Domestic Dispute