After suffering an attack of epilepsy, Essie Dunbar was pronounced de@d but as her coffin was lowered into the ground, her sister asked for one last goodbye before getting the shock of her life
A woman was considered to be a “zombie back from the de@d” after she arose from her coffin and smiled at her sister during her funeral.
Essie Dunbar was only 30-years-old when she was pronounced de@d after suffering an epileptic episode. But as mourners gathered to pay their respects the next day, her sibling, who was late to the service asked to see her one last time.
Ministers agreed to dig up the coffin, which had already been lowered six-foot deep. But when the screws were removed and the lid was opened, Essie sat up and smiled.
According to Buried Alive, it caused such a shock that three ministers fell backwards into the grave with one suffering three broken ribs after the others landed on him. Essie’s sister herself believed her to be a ghost and fled in fear along with other mourners as Essie clambered out of the ground.
Ministers were so shocked, they tumbled into the grave
For many years after the 1915 incident in South Carolina, Essie was viewed with suspicion by members of the community, who believed she was a zombie back from the dead.
In later life, she became a popular local personality as her unlikely story of resurrection was told across the globe.
“[Dunbar] has many friends today,” a local doctor, Dr. O.D. Hammond, who treated one of the injured preachers during the funeral, told the Augusta Chronicle. “She gets a nice-sized welfare check monthly and earns some money picking cotton.”
She lived for another 47 years until her second and final de#th in 1955. Local papers reported her death with the headline: “Final Funeral Held For South Carolina Woman.” And, this time, there were apparently no shocking moments during the burial.
People believed she was a zombie
The news comes after a woman was believed to have been buried alive by mistake, laying inside her coffin conscious for 11 days as she tried to get out.
The body of Rosangela Almeida dos Santos, 37, reportedly showed wrist injuries when it was eventually exhumed. Blood was also found inside the coffin.
She was pronounced de@d in January 2018 and buried at a cemetery in Riachao das Neves, north-east Brazil. According to her death certificate she suffered two cardiac arrests before dying from “septic shock”.
People living near the cemetery alerted her family 11 days after she was buried when they heard screams and bangs from inside the tomb.
