Man 'boiled alive like a lobster' after falling down drain in horrifying death

Irish Daily Mirror

27-05-2025

Confronting mortality is all in a day's work for those who operate at the sharp end of life's full stop, and there's one vocation that's privy to every secret of our final curtain.
Medical examiners are tasked with piecing together the puzzle of death, often deciphering the narrative of someone's last chapter.
Dr Judy Melinek, a seasoned medical examiner from New York City, has peeled back the curtain on her time spent amongst the departed, including recounting the most chilling demise she's ever encountered.
Her 2014 memoir, 'Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner', lays bare the grim realities of urban demise and delves into the profound theme of mortality through her professional lens.
In a candid chat with the New York Post, Dr Melinek recalled how her chief resident once told that NYC was brimming with 'all kinds of great ways to die'. This offhand remark turned out to be a prophetic guidepost for her career, as she now considers herself well-versed in the myriad ways one can shuffle off this mortal coil, reports the Mirror US.
"The worst nightmares I ever had in my two years at OCME (Office of Chief Medical Examiner) came after I performed the postmortem examination of Sean Doyle," she confessed.
Dr Melinek recounts the chilling tale of Doyle, a bartender in New York City who had been out for drinks with his mate Michael Wright and Wright's girlfriend on a fateful night in 2002. It's thought that Wright became convinced Doyle was making advances towards his girlfriend, leading to a heated argument between the two.
The precise sequence of events that followed remains murky, but what is known is that Doyle ended up at the bottom of an open manhole. Doyle plummeted approximately 18 feet into the gaping hole, landing in a pool of scalding water gushing from a ruptured main.
Astonishingly, he survived the fall without breaking any bones - but this proved to be a cruel twist of fate due to the blistering hot water below.
His demise was far more horrific as emergency services were unable to extract him from the tunnel in time due to the extreme heat. After crying out for help, Doyle tragically succumbed, essentially being boiled alive as temperatures soared to a searing 148°C.
Dr Melinek described the deceased man as appearing as though he'd 'been steamed like a lobster'. His skin had entirely peeled off, and his internal organs were cooked through.
The medical examiner confessed that this was the case that haunted her the most, unsurprisingly giving her the 'worst nightmares' of her career to date.