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A young woman in England who was trampled to death in 2022 by a herd of cows shared a photo of her location with her family before she died, helping authorities find her.
In a tragic case that’s been described by UK officials as a “freak accident,” Rebekah Morris, 29, was trampled to death in 2022 by a herd of cows while out walking her dog. As part of a jury inquest into the incident which began this week in Leicester, England it was revealed that Morris sent a photo to her mother of the cows minutes before she died.
According to the BBC, Morris’ parents, who testified at the inquest, grew concerned after Morris stopped responding to messages after sending the photo. The picture of the field Morris was walking her dog through showed some cows in the far distance. Morris included the caption “Cowz.”
According to RWKGoodman, a law firm based in the UK, “an inquest is a coroner’s investigation to seek out and record the facts concerning a death.”
Morris’s family used the photo to identify the field Morris was walking through where she was later found fatally injured. Locals who also found Morris gave her CPR before emergency services arrived. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Despite initial suggestions that Morris was attacked by another person, the BBC reports that all the forensics experts heard at the inquiry state the injuries are consistent with being trampled by the cows.
“The nature of the injuries and the severity of them are too excessive to have been caused by another person,” forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Biggs stated. “They are consistent with a large heavy creature such as a cow.”
As the inquiry is ongoing, it is yet to be determined just what might have spooked the cows into charging. From the phone picture provided by the BBC, it doesn’t appear that Morris was close to the cows or putting herself in danger by taking the picture.
However, a notable takeaway from this tragic incident is how easy it was for Morris’s family to locate her thanks to a photo. As new generations of smartphones continue to roll out, features like embedding location information in image metadata, or using AI to scan a picture and show its location on a map could continue to come in handy or even possibly save someone’s life.
Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.