Disney is the epitome of fun. Almost everyone who visits its theme parks leaves with cherished memories and an urge to return.
Far from being a children’s-only thrill, Disney has legions of adult fans who weave its wonder into some of life’s most meaningful milestones. Even marriages.
But behind the fireworks, the princesses, and the whirling rollercoasters lies a darker theme that occasionally breaks through the fantasy.
These are some of the stories of people who went to Disney and never truly made it back. And if they do, they don’t stay long.
#1 Bogden Delaurot – Drowned
On June 20, 1973, two brothers Bogden and Dorian Delaurot, 18 and 10 respectively, had decided to elude staffers trying to close Tom Sawyer’s Island at the end of the day.
They hid out in the woods behind the burning settlers cabin but by 9:30 PM that evening, the boys decided they had had enough and wanted out.
But they did not want to get into trouble, so instead of calling for help, they decided to swim across the Rivers of America.
The fact that Dorian could not swim did not douse the enthusiasm for this plan; they decided that he would cling to Bogden’s back while the latter swam.
The plan worked until they got halfway across the river. Dorain slipped. Bogden could not get to him and was forced to summon help.
Said help searched for the boy through the night with no success, and Dorian was found the next morning, tangled in some fake rocks. Deceased.
According to Cat Leigh, who tells the story, his parents tried to sue, but Disney was cleared of any wrongdoing.
Image source: Movie Viral
#2 Bonnye Mavis Lear – Thrown From A Golf-Cart
An administrator at the park’s Club 33 expired at the hands of a reckless driver after she climbed into a faulty golf cart on a Wednesday in June 2024.
Bonnye Mavis Lear, as a result, struck her head and suffered “grave injuries” at 11:30 a.m. that morning.
According to witnesses, the accident – described by police as a collision – occurred when a vehicle hit a bump in the road.
Lear, who had been sitting in the rearward-facing seat, made to grab at a railing, but it gave way upon touch.
The result was “severe head trauma and a fractured skull,” which was beyond surgical remedy.
Writing in a Facebook post after the incident, a fellow employee by the name of Rae Delgado lamented Lear’s passing.
“It didn’t have to end this way. All of this mess could’ve been avoided if the driver of the golf cart wasn’t driving recklessly,” she wrote.
She also accused Disney management of telling employees not to share information about the accident.
Image source: just_ask_danny
#3 Lane Graves – Alligator Attack
Two-year-old Lane Graves was a foot deep in the water at Disney’s Seven Seas Lagoon on June 14, 2016, near the Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, when an alligator grabbed him by the head.
His father saw the commotion in time to wrestle the cold-blooded predator and try to prise its mouth open.
The animal got away with the boy, whose body police later discovered underwater not far from the attack. It was confirmed that it was the bite that claimed the boy’s life.
The incident had the internet up in arms, especially since there had been visible signs around the water’s edge warning visitors not to swim.
Another mother, Jennifer Venditti Roye, would later post photos of her boy playing in the same spot Lane was snatched in a bid to prove to a judgmental public that the victim’s parents had not neglected their boy.
“There is a time to be critical when parents are doing […] and their children get hurt,” Roye told People. “But this is just not the time. It’s heartbreaking.”
As a result of Lane’s passing, six alligators were fished out of the surrounding waters and euthanized.
Image source: Orange County Sheriff's Department
#4 Marcelo Torres – Fatal Derailment
In September 2003, Disney’s Big Thunder Mountain Railroad rollercoaster partially derailed as it entered a tunnel.
The Tampa Bay Times reported that a 22-year-old, Marcello Torres, of Gardena, who rode in the carriage directly behind the computerized locomotive, lost his life.
It further noted that the train’s cars had separated from each other, resulting in ten people between the ages of 9 and 47 getting injured.
“Among the most severely hurt was Vicente Gutierrez, a 22-year-old Wilmington, Calif., man who suffered facial cuts and chest injuries, including possible broken ribs. He was listed in serious condition,” the outlet reported.
The accident it was referring to was the 10th to transpire at the Anaheim resort in California which had been fatality-free for the previous five years, but racked up ten since its opening in 1955.
According to a follow-up by the Los Angeles Times in November the same year, investigators found that Disney’s maintenance crew had hurriedly designated the ride safe for public use and signed off on it despite insufficient maintenance checks.
The investigation found that the “crew made the same mistakes on other unspecified rides elsewhere in the park.”
Image source: Theme Park Tribune
#5 Mel Yorba – Stabbed By Jealous Boyfriend
On March 7, 1981, 18-year-old Mel C. Yorba was hanging around near the Matterhorn at Disney World, Anaheim, when 28-year-old James O’Driscoll attacked him after the latter’s girlfriend claimed a strange man had pinched her.
The two got into a scuffle that took them to the ground and would end with a knife through Yorba’s heart.
According to the San Francisco Gate, the teen lay bleeding out for 20 minutes before park employees assisted.
Worried about the resort’s aesthetics, the staffers refrained from calling 911 and loaded him into a vehicle.
They left the resort at a leisurely pace, careful not to alarm anyone.
They drove past two medical facilities that could have saved the youngster’s life, and when they eventually deposited him at a hospital in Garden Grove, Yorba was already in cardiac arrest and pass the point of no return.
The public backlash was searing and came from, among others, civil instruments like the Fire Service and Emergency Medical operators.
They found that “Disneyland’s reluctance to summon paramedics was based on the fear that their arrival would mar the park’s image”—which is ironic since the Anaheim resort alone has tallied 68 demises in the last 70 years.
And these are just the ones we know of.
Image source: Sarah J. Boucher/Find a Grave
#6 Javier Cruz – Run Over By A Parade Float
Image source: josie_bee
#7 Luan Phi Dawson – Fatal Sailing-Ship Cleat Accident
Thirty-three-year-old Luan Phi Dawson was standing in line to board the Columbia sail ship at the brand’s Anaheim park on the morning of Christmas Eve, 1998, when a mooring rope ripped a cleat off the replica’s deck and brought it crashing down on him.
The impact resulted in ultimately fatal brain injuries.
He was kept on life support at the University of California, Irvine Medical Center long enough for relatives to fly and say their goodbyes, but doctors noted there was no brain activity.
The flying piece of metal had also struck his 43-year-old wife, Lieu Thuy Vuong, putting her into the ICU.
Doctors at the time expressed confidence in her recovery but noted the necessity for plastic surgery and their belief that she would be paralyzed on one side of her face for the rest of her life.
A worker at the park, Christine Carpenter, was also affected and suffered “serious injuries” to her leg.
But it appeared that this event was not merely another Disney accident, as Anaheim’s police were back at the park less than a week later, this time investigating it as a homicide.
Two years later, the Los Angeles Times reported that a lawsuit ensued, and Disney settled, but officials refused to say how much.
Image source: Disney History 101
#8 Woman In Her 60s – Passed Away In Haunted Mansion
The Anaheim police were summoned to Disneyland on Monday, October 6, when “a woman in her 60s” was observed to be unresponsive.
The attendee had just finished the Haunted Mansion ride, which has since been described as a ride for children.
According to a local outlet, KTLA5 park staffers administered CPR until the emergency services arrived, but to no avail.
She was then moved to a nearby hospital, where she was declared deceased.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Sgt. Matt Sutter would later confirm: “There is no indication of any operating issue with the attraction, which reopened soon after.”
Image source: Disneyland
#9 Robert Johnson Jr – Amoebic Brain Infection
Eleven-year-old Robert Johnson Jr. visited Walt Disney World’s River Country resort four years after its 1976 landmark upgrade.
Photos from the time show a large stretch of territory peppered with water features and characterized by the iconic A-frame structure of the Contemporary Hotel on its island-like parcel of land.
As guests did when at the River Country resort, Robert went swimming. While in the water, an amoeba entered his nose, climbed up to his brain, attacked his nervous system, and caused what doctors called meningoencephalitis.
The boy was the fourth person to have his life cut short by Florida’s water bacteria. The parents sued, and a judge awarded them $2 million in damages.
The facility, which had gained a grim reputation as one of the park’s most common sites of tragedy, shut down permanently in 2001.
Reports indicate that after nearly two decades of standing derelict, Disney began filling its main pool again in 2019 as part of a repurposing effort to transform the area into a lakeside resort.
Image source: Yesterland/Walt Disney Productions
#10 Regina Young – Hit By A Bobsled
Image source: Ellen Levy Finch/Wikimedia
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