Some photos from the past look completely ordinary at first glance, but behind them is a story that’s anything but simple.
These pictures capture moments just before life changed in unexpected ways, making them fascinating and a little unsettling in hindsight.
21-year-old Nicole Carol Miller, boarding Flight 93 on September 11, 2001. She wouldn’t be alive just a few hours later.
In 2019, newlyweds Harley Morgan, 19, and Rhiannon Boudreaux, 20, lost their lives in a car collision just after leaving the courthouse in Orange, Texas. Moments after their wedding, their car collided with a pickup truck towing a trailer.
One of the very last images of Harry R. Truman, posing in front of the volcano that would eventually claim his life. On May 18th, 1980, Mount St. Helens finally erupted and Truman lost his life after a pyroclastic flow that overtook his lodge.
Jan Davis jumping off “El Capitan” in Yosemite on October 23rd 1999. Her parachute failed to open. She didn’t survive.
Jean Harlow, Minutes before she collapsed and fell into a coma. She passed aged 26.
Professional wrestler Owen Hart heading into an Arena in Kansas City on May 23rd 1999 he passed later that night after tumbling 78 feet from the ceiling in a stunt gone wrong.
The last photo taken of George Mallory (left) and Sandy Irvine (right) before they both disappeared while attempting to become the first people to summit Everest in 1924.
Mongolian man with cangue on his neck which stops him for eating, 24 of July 1913. Clear colors by autochrome.
The last image of 3 year-old Madeleine McCann at the Ocean Kids Club, taken on the morning of May 3, 2007, in Praia da Luz, Portugal. Madeleine was on vacation with her family when she disappeared without a trace.
16-year-old John DeReggi lost his life just minutes after this photo was taken after an Amtrak train collided with him.
Image featuring five Cantor Fitzgerald employees taken a few weeks before Sep 11. Among them, Lauren and Christina Giorgiantonio, seated in the middle, were the sole survivors. Jennifer Mazzotta (in blue attire), Lynne Morris (behind Christina), and Laura Angilletta (far right) all tragically passed away.
A pregnant Sharon Tate looking at baby clothes, just three days before being she fell victim to the Manson family.
In 2005, Dave Shaw tried to retrieve the remains of Deon Dryers from the Bushman’s hole. Unfortunately he lost his life trying shortly after this photo.
In 2015, a 4-year-old girl from Colorado called Naomi was at the park with her family. She wandered off and walked over a frozen pond and fell through. This image shows her footsteps as she walked towards the lake.
On December 10, 2021, as a tornado approached their Missouri home, 9-year-old Annistyn Rackley posed smiling with her sisters in a bathroom photo. Fifteen minutes later, the tornado leveled the house and hurled the family into a field. Annistyn didn’t survive. The rest did.
In 2020, Olesia Suspitsina fell from a cliff while posing for a photo to commemorate the end of lockdown with her friend. She didn’t survive.
In 2016, Jia, a visitor at Yeshanko Wildlife Zoo in China, tried to take a selfie with a walrus. The animal dragged him into the water, and a keeper with 10 years’ experience tried to save him. Tragically, both lost their lives.
One of the last photos taken on the Titanic before it sank in 1912. The boy seen in the photo is Douglas Spedden. He actually survived the disaster but passed three years later after he was struck by a vehicle.
In 2012, a Florida reptile store held a bug-eating contest with a $700 python as the prize. Edward Archbold won by eating worms and roaches, but collapsed and passed soon after due to choking on insect parts.
The last image of Maura Murray, who disappeared in New Hampshire in 2004 after draining her bank account at an ATM.
The very last photo of Chester Bennington (Linkin Park’s lead singer) taken by his wife just one day before he took his own life.
40-year-old Roy George Tinashe Dikinyay just seconds before he fell off a cliff at Victoria Falls during an outing with a friend.
This photo captures Gladys Ricart as she glimpses her ex partner, Agustin Garcia, just seconds before he took her life on her wedding day to James Preston Jr. in 1999.
This photo shows the seven crew members of Space Shuttle Challenger walking to board the spacecraft. 73 seconds into its launch Challenger broke apart claiming the lives of all 7 occupants.
Heather Price Papayoti llooking over the Hoover Dam bypass bridge on January 16, 2014. Just moments later, she jumped over the railing.
Princess Diana pictured in the back of her car on the night of August 31, 1997. Moments after this image was snapped by paparazzi, she was involved in a fatal accident that ended her life.
Some of the last known images of Kobe Bryant alive. They were taken by Bradley Smigiel shortly before Kobe got into his helicopter.
Robin Norris, a young child from Butte, Montana, is pictured with his birthday cake adorned with four candles. He celebrated his fourth birthday on July 28, 1952. Just a week later, he was lost his life after being struck by a vehicle.
American folk and rock singer-songwriter Jim Croce pictured right before the plane crash that claimed his life.
Jolee Callan and her ex-bf Loren Bunner went on a hike through Alabama’s Cheaha State Park. Callan was taking in the view when he pushed her off the 40-foot cliff she is pictured on here.
This is the final photo taken of flight MH370, just hours before it disappeared with 239 lives in 2014.
During the filming of Gladiator, Oliver Reed (Proximo) passed away in a bar after challenging a group of sailors to a drinking contest. Reed consumed 8 pints of beer, 12 shots of rum, half a bottle of whisky, and shots of cognac. This photo of him was taken shortly before he passed.
Photo of JAL 123 landing at Tokyo’s Haneda airport in 1985, just hours before it collided with Mt. Takamagahara, taking the lives of 520 people.
This is believed to be the final photo of the nine Soviet Dyatlov hikers alive, taken during their trek through the Ural Mountains. Soon after, they were all found mysteriously scattered outside their campsite, no longer alive, having fled their tents, an event now known as the Dyatlov Pass Incident.
Diagnosed with polio at age 3, Dianne Odell had spent nearly 60 years encased in a 750-pound iron lung, only to pass away when a power outage shut down the machine that was keeping her alive.
The passport photos of tourists Tom and Eileen Lonergan. They were left behind by a scuba diving boat off the coast of North Queensland in January 1998. It took 2 days for the boat crew to realize they had left the pair behind in the Coral Sea. They were never found.
The crew of Apollo 1 relaxing during training, 1966. A cabin fire during a launch rehearsal test at Cape Kennedy Air Force Station Launch Complex 34 on January 27, 1967, claimed the lives of all three crew members, Command Pilot Gus Grissom, Senior Pilot Ed White, and Pilot Roger B. Chaffee.
One of the last known images of Robin Williams taken before he tragically ended his own life.
Christina Grimmie performing on stage just hours before a fan ended her life at a meet and greet after the show.
One of the last known images of Tim Bergling, aka Avicii, taken shortly before he ended his own life.
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