24 Wildest Family Secrets

17.

“My drug-and-alcohol-addicted cousin strangled his equally-troubled fiancé with an apron in their kitchen after an argument. He tried to play it off like she strangled herself in an act of suicide, but was arrested and charged, then released on bond to be under constant supervision in my aunt and uncle’s house.”

“They went on a planned trip to California anyway, left him alone in the house with a fully stocked liquor cabinet, and found his decomposing body … upon their return. He had gotten drunk out of his mind the first night my aunt and uncle were gone, left an illegible note, and took his own life out of grief and shame. Pro tip: mental health and substance issues need to be spoken about, not swept under the rug when your family doesn’t like how it looks.”

Their choice to leave him behind while they went on their trip, and his resulting suicide, caused a huge rift in my family between my aunt/uncle and everyone else. Basically, we thought they were out of their minds and they thought we were accusing them of being responsible for all of this (yes and no).”

—problematik