At first, there were 18 dead. All members of the Hmong tribe, all from a mountainous province of Laos. They fled their homeland at the end of the Vietnam War and made their way to the United States as refugees. They shared a difficult life – and they shared a terrifying death. Each of them was found in their beds, killed in their sleep by a mysterious affliction that looked like nothing at all.
SHOW SOURCES & SUPPLEMENTALS
Nightmares Suspected in Bed Deaths of 18 Laotians, Wayne King, The New York Times, May 10, 1981
Men of Hmong Dogged by Death, Evan Maxwell, Los Angeles Times, July 12, 1981
Sudden Death in Sleep of Laotian-Hmong Refugees in Thailand: A Case-Control Study, Ronald G. Munger, 1987
Hmong Sudden Unexpected Nocturnal Death Syndrome: A Cultural Study, Bruce Thowpaou Bliatout (Thojpov Npliajtub), 1982
Sudden Unexplained Nocturnal Death Syndrome: The Hundred Years’ Enigma, Jingjing Zheng, Da Zheng, Terry Su & Jianding Cheng, 2018