10 Chilling Stories Of People Who Were Buried Alive

An unthinkable scenario many have sadly endured.

Buried Ryan Reynolds
Lionsgate

There are few things quite as awful to imagine as the notion of being buried alive.

Stuck underground in an airtight box with limited oxygen and no way to contact the outside world isn't exactly the way most of us would like to go out, given the choice. But people can and do find themselves in this situation, and while some survive - with severe mental and physical scars - most people's first grave is also their last.

From everyday citizens being placed in a coffin after a false declaration of death, to criminals holding their victims hostage deep underground, it might seem like a rare occurrence, but there are a shocking number of recorded incidents from as far back as 100 years ago, all the way up to the present day.

The fear of this happening is so great that it led to a coffin with a built-in communication device being manufactured - let's pray you never have to use one. And if you weren't scared of being buried alive already (for some reason) then these ten cases will probably turn you.

10. Rosangela Almeida Dos Santos

A recent incident that gained significant media traction due to its horrifying nature, the 37-year-old Rosangela Almeida Dos Santos was thought to have died of septic shock on 28 January 2018.

As a result, funeral arrangements were prepared and the ceremony took place in the town of Riachao das Neves, located in the northeast of Brazil.

However, residents who lived near the burial site reportedly began to hear screams coming from Santos' tomb, according to Brazilian news site G1.

Video footage shows her coffin being retrieved, and upon opening it, Santos' dead body was found with bloody injuries on the hands and forehead, evidence of the fact that the woman had tried to force her way out of her grave. She was estimated to have been trapped for 11 days.

Those involved have since been accused of needlessly violating Santos' resting place, after doctors claimed it was impossible for them to not notice the woman was alive before she was buried.

Because of how recently this all took place, only time will tell who's really at fault here.

Contributor
Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.