Bees Kill Texas Couple

An elderly couple was killed and their son injured when they messed with a swarm of bees at their Texas ranch. William Steele, 90, was spraying to kill bees that had built a hive in the fireplace of a small house he owned in a remote area of the ranch when they swarmed and attacked him, his wife, and his son, reports the Valley Morning Star. Steele tried to run from the cabin but collapsed and was stung hundreds of times.

The couple's 67-year-old son was also stung but he managed to escape and get to the nearest phone to call authorities. Deputies without any protective equipment braved the swarm to rescue Myrtle Steele, 92. She had been stung some 300 times and died several days later in a nearby hospital. "It was a terrible thing," an investigator with the Jim Hogg County Sheriff's office tells Reuters. "You don't prepare for something like that. " (More killer bees stories.)