A death row inmate became the third ever person to be executed with a new method, which is said to be brutal.

American prisoner Carey Dale Grayson was held at the William C. Holman Correctional facility in Alabama, after he was found guilty of killing and mutilating a mother while she was hitchhiking back in 1994.

He was just a teenager when he carried out the heinous act, and along with three other teens, they offered her a car ride as she was making her way back to West Monroe, Louisiana, from Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Grayson was executed after almost 30 years behind bars (Getty Stock Photo)

Prosecutors stated that the group took Vickie DeBlieux to a wooded area, assaulted her, and beat her.

It was so brutal in fact, that a medical examiner revealed that DeBlieux’s face was so severely fractured that she could only be identified through an X-ray of her spine.

The teenagers became suspects after one showed a friend a photo of one of the mother’s severed fingers, bragging about the killing.

It is believed that they threw her off a cliff and returned to mutilate her body, stabbing her a total of 180 times.

He was the only teen to face a death sentence, as the rest of them were under 18 at the time of the crime, while he was 19.

But on 21 November this year, Grayson, now 50, was executed after consuming his final meal, a selection of Mexican food with some Mountain Dew Blast.

Grayson was killed through oxygen deprivation (Alabama Department of Corrections)

He was executed via nitrogen gas hypoxia, meaning he would die from oxygen deprivation.

Grayson became the third ever person in the US to die this way, in a method that has been compared to ‘torture’.

It works by putting a gas mask on someone’s face, replacing breathable air with nitrogen as the criminal suffocates.

When asked by the prison governor if he had any final words, Grayson spat at him, saying: “For you, you need to f*** off.”

The 50-year-old showed him both of his middle fingers as he was fed a wave of nitrogen gas, choking him and killing him, and he was pronounced dead at 6.33pm.

Alabama only introduced nitrogen gas as an execution method earlier this year, and Grayson’s death came just hours after his request for a stay was denied by the US Supreme Court.

Grayson’s legal team said that the method needed further examination before being administered again.

Nitrogen gas is fed to the inmate via a mask (Getty Stock Photo)

Directly following the execution on Thursday, Governor Kay Ivey said that she was praying for Deblieux’s loved ones to heal and find closure, following 30 years of pain.

She stated: “Some thirty years ago, Vicki DeBlieux’s journey to her mother’s house and ultimately, her life, were horrifically cut short because of Carey Grayson and three other men.

“She sensed something was wrong, attempted to escape, but instead, was brutally tortured and murdered,” Ivey said.

Describing Grayson’s crimes, she went on: “(They were) heinous, unimaginable, without an ounce of regard for human life and just unexplainably mean. An execution by nitrogen hypoxia (bears) no comparison to the death and dismemberment Ms. DeBlieux experienced.”

The father of an Australian teenager killed by suspected methanol poisoning has now shared a heartbreaking tribute to his daughter.

19-year-old Bianca Jones was holidaying in Laos with her friend, Holly Bowles, when the two women took ill after consuming alcohol in the popular tourist town of Vang Vieng.

Jones would later pass away on Thursday (21 November), while Bowles would become the sixth person to die from the suspected poisoning a day later.

Other casualties include 28-year-old British national Simone White, Danish friends Anne-Sofie Orkild Coyman, 20, and Freja Vennervald Sorensen, 21, as well as US tourist James Louis Hutson, 57.

Bianca Jones is one of the six tourists who passed away (7 News)

Meanwhile, the manager and owner of Nana Backpackers hostel, where several of the tourists taken ill were believed to have been staying, have since been detained by local authorities. The hostel is said to be still operating but no longer accepting new guests.

The 19-year-old’s father, Mark Jones, has now shared a heartbreaking tribute to his young daughter, saying that she had been on ‘the trip of a lifetime’ with Bowles.

“This was meant to be a trip full of lifelong memories, and was to be the first of many,” the grieving father said in a statement.

“Bianca wanted to explore the world, meet new friends, lead and create change for good.”

Jones then went on to make a direct plea to the government of Laos, urging them to not let his daughter’s death be in vain.

She had been travelling with her friend Holly Bowles, who has also passed away (Facebook)

“I would like to take this opportunity to urge the Laos government to investigate this to the fullest extent, to make sure this incident doesn’t happen again,” he said (via The Age).

“Young men and women should be able to travel, create their own life experiences and be safe. We’ll forever miss our beautiful girl and hope her loss of life has not been in vain.”

An official statement released by the Laos government has since offered their ‘deepest condolences’ to the families of the six victims and promised to bring the perpetrators ‘to justice’.

The parents of Simone White have also spoken publicly about the death of their daughter in a heartbreaking tribute.

The family of Simone White have also shared a tribute (Facebook)

“Simone was one of a kind and had the most wonderful energy and spark for life.” the statement said.

“She was a soul who gave so much to so many and was loved by her family, friends and colleagues.

“Simone has been taken from us too soon, she will be sorely missed by her brother, grandmother and entire family.

“Our hearts go out to all other families who have been affected by this terrible tragedy.”

It’s been eight years since survivalist Justin Alexander Shetler disappeared in India’s ‘Valley of Death’ without a trace, but his family’s hopes of finding him still haven’t wavered.

The travel blogger headed into the Parvati Valley in the north of the country in August 2016 armed with only a woollen wrap and a walking stick which he had fashioned into a sort of flute – and has not been seen since.

He told the final people who ever spoke to him that he was heading on a ‘spiritual journey’ through the infamous spot in the Himalayas which has earned itself an extremely sinister nickname.

Justin Alexander Shetler disappeared while travelling India in 2016. (Facebook/Adventures of Justin)

But the then-35-year-old Justin never emerged from Parvati Valley and has since become one of the dozens of lost souls who have never returned from an expedition there.

Now, eight years on and with most leads exhausted, the chilling cold case is gaining renewed popularity thanks to it being the subject of the Tenderfoot TV podcast that is titled Status: Untraced.

Valley of Death

Host Liam Luxon has made it his mission to try and uncover what happened to the avid explorer from Oregon, who had been enjoying trips into the wilderness since his teen years and was more than equipped for surviving outdoors.

He began by piecing together information from Justin’s blog posts on his page titled ‘Adventures of Justin‘, which came to an abrupt stop shortly after he announced to fans that a Sadhu had ‘invited him on a pilgrimage high in the Himalayas’.

According to reports, people flock to Parvati Valley each year for spiritual experiences as it is believed to be a spot where Hindu gods meditated for 3,000 years.

Although it may be beautiful, it has a fearsome reputation and has been dubbed the ‘Valley of Death’ due to the staggering amount of tourists who have disappeared there, never to be seen again – including Justin.

The survivalist’s final blog post chillingly read: “I should return mid September or so. If I’m not back by then, don’t look for me,” alongside a wink face.

The survivalist had been living in a cave before he vanished. (Facebook/Adventures of Justin)

‘Nothing adds up’

Speaking of the case to Fox News Digital, Luxon said: “The story itself is just so intriguing and bizarre.

“Justin is a survival expert, so if somebody was living off the grid, it would be him. He has all the training for it.

“He knows how to speak bird language, which is crazy. He lived in a cave. He can start a fire from anywhere.”

According to the amateur sleuth, Justin had been staying in a cave which was just outside an encampment during his journey and had been in touch with some explorers in the area too.

Luxon continued: “In the last month that we know where he was, he was living in a cave…which is in a camp in the Himalayas. It’s gorgeous. It looks like this medieval, military town.

“He was staying just outside this camp, but it was four hours from the nearest road. You have no choice but to hike there.”

But if anyone was built to survive in a region like Parvati Valley, Justin’s loved ones say it would have been him.

Luxon explained: “Other people had passed him on the trail. They said he was heading down and there was only one path going up and down. I’ve made the trek now, and it certainly seemed like he would’ve made it back to the camp.

“And again, this guy is a survival expert. It wasn’t like he was deep in the desert with no water and nothing around him for days. He should have made this trek. Nothing added up.”

Podcast host Liam Luxon hopes he can unearth new information on the case.(Facebook/Adventures of Justin)

Family efforts

Justin’s family are still desperate for answers about what happened to him and still post updates on his former Facebook account to keep his name alive.

His mother wrote a poignant tribute to her missing son on his 36th birthday in 2017, a year after he first vanished.

She described him as a ‘remarkable man’ and a ‘fierce lover of life’ in the sweet post.

It continued: “He was a passionate man who celebrated the diversity and uniqueness of others.

“He was a tender-hearted guy from the very beginning and always cared deeply about others, especially homeless, abused and victimized children. He sought to make the world a better place, and I want to honour his efforts.”

Various theories have been put forward about what may have happened to Justin, including that he was targeted by the local mafia, may secretly be living off grid or could have been murdered.

Luxon hopes that his podcast will help unearth some new evidence to crack the unsolved case.

“I think one of the weirdest things about this entire thing has been grieving for somebody I’ve never met,” he added.

“But I do feel like I know him now. I spent hundreds of hours talking to loved ones…Justin also changed my life.”

Scientists were left baffled by what they found under the ruins of the two World Trade Center buildings that collapsed during the devastating 9/11 attacks.

The terrorist attacks on New York City’s World Trade Center shook and horrified the world.

Over the years, a greater focus was homed in on terrorism from politicians and security specialist with military efforts ramped up.

People across the globe grieved the 2,996 lives lost, with the falling of the twin towers having a tragic impact.

And that’s probably why it wasn’t until several years later from the 11 September 2001 attacks that something rather mysterious was found beneath the ruins.

When construction workers were rebuilding the site in 2010, they stumbled upon an old wooden ship. Yes, a literal shipwreck beneath the World Trade Center.

LMDC/Columbia University

Obviously the main question was just how did a centuries-old ship end up 22 feet beneath the New York landmark? Archaeologists immediately got investigating.

After four years of digging, analysing, and studying, scientists were able to determine that the ship had been built in the 1770s – around the same era as the Declaration of Independence.

Researchers also determined that the type of oak used to build the ship would have come from Philadelphia.

Strangest of all was that the rings on the wooden hull matched other samples of wood rings that had been used to build Independence Hall, where both the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution were signed.

Jeremy Walker/Getty Images

The mysterious ship was later identified as a Hudson River sloop, which would have been designed by the Dutch to carry cargo and passengers over the Hudson river’s rocky floor.

So, how on earth did it end up there?

Well, it’s believed that after 20 to 30 years of service, the ship was sailed to the lower Manhattan area where it sunk.

Historians still aren’t sure whether the ship sank accidentally or was purposefully submerged.

In the decades that followed, the ship’s remains were covered with rubbish, debris, and other materials like rock and soil that were used to expand the area of Manhattan.

ABC

Oysters were also found on the hull of the ship, suggesting it was submerged for quite some time before it was buried with trash and landfill to form the land that the Twin Towers would eventually be built on.

Speaking to CNN about the discovery back in 2014, archaeologist Molly McDonald, who was among those who first discovered the ship, said: “It’s such an intense site already based on its recent history, so to be in the midst of this urban, modern, very fraught location, and then to be sitting on what was a river bottom, with clams and fish, and the smell of low tide, was really an amazing juxtaposition.”

Today, the remains of the ship are being conserved and exhibited in Albany at the New York State Museum, so you can marvel at the bizarre discovery for yourself.