Couple's honeymoon tragedy as hippo bites woman's heart in front of husband

A newlywed couple’s happiness was short lived when they met with unimaginable tragedy on their honeymoon. A hippopotamus attack claimed the wife’s life as he husband watched in horror in the Botswana Delta.

Janice and Bruce Simpson had been married for just two weeks when they went on a guided canoe excursion at Eagle Island in the Okavango Delta in 2003.

During the trip, the group had to stop because a herd of elephants blocked their path. After waiting for the animals to pass, the guide opted to abandon the original route and navigate through the nearby reeds instead.

According to accounts from the couple’s relatives, about 200 meters from their camp, a hippo charged into the middle of their canoe, throwing all three occupants into the water.

Bruce suffered a dislocated shoulder in the incident and managed to resurface, only to witness the animal clamping its jaws around the 32 year old woman’s chest, crushing through her heart and lung, reports the Daily Star.

The grief-stricken husband then remained with his wife while the guide departed to call for assistance, but Janice had already died.

Bruce escorted his wife’s remains from Botswana back to South Africa, where the couple had resided.

Janice’s sister, Lauren Salters, reflected on the woman’s final days, sharing with IOL: “They got married at Zevenwacht wine estate on November 29. The next Thursday, they left for Maun, Botswana, for their honeymoon.”

She recounted that the pair had met as colleagues and “were absolutely besotted with each other.”

She also saidher sister was a “vibrant, bubbly person – so full of fun.”

Weeks afterwards, another woman suffered an attack by the same species of animal, also occurring in the Botswana Delta.

Diana Tilden-Davis, a former Miss South Africa pageant winner, operated a safari company in the region alongside her husband, Chris Kruger.

While navigating a mekorro (dugout canoe) in the remote northern sections of the same Delta as the Simpson couple, Diana inadvertently startled a hippo that was in the channel.

Her husband detailed in a statement that the hippo subsequently bit Diana in the lower leg, just above the ankle, though she was rescued and airlifted to Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg, where she underwent medical treatment.