Forest Nightmare: 5-Year-Old Spends Night With Dead Father and Unconscious Mother

Some stories are painfully real and one such story is about a 5-year-old boy who spends a terrifying night beside poisoned parents in a dark forest.

This happened in Odisha, where a five-year-old child spent an entire night alone in a forest, sitting beside his father, who had died, and his mother, who lay unconscious after consuming poison. There was no shelter and, unfortunately, no understanding of what was happening.

What Happened

According to police and local reports, the boy’s parents — identified as Dushmant Majhi and his wife, Rinki Majhi  were returning home on their motorcycle after visiting Rinki’s parental home when a dispute broke out between them. During their journey, they parked the motorcycle near a roadside and walked about one kilometre into a nearby forest, where the couple consumed a poisonous substance which was believed to be pesticide.

Within about an hour, Dushmant died from the poison, while his wife Rinki fell unconscious. Police said the parents had also given the poison to their young son, although he somehow survived.

Left alone beside his parents in the chilling forest, the five-year-old stayed with them through the entire night. In the darkness and cold, he remained close to his father’s body and his unconscious mother, unable to move them or call for help.

In the morning, the brave little boy walked out of the forest onto a nearby road and approached passing people to seek help, alerting locals to the horrifying situation.

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The Rescue

Locals immediately contacted authorities, and the police reached the scene. The child, his mother, and the body of his father were taken to a hospital. Sadly, Rinki Majhi later died during treatment at Chhendipada hospital in Angul district.

Despite being given the poison, the child survived and was reported to be in stable condition after medical care. Authorities said he was later handed over to his grandparents for further care.

A Night No Child Should Ever Have to Live Through

At five years old, children are supposed to fear the dark and this innocent boy stayed there in a dark forest, the whole night.

Sometimes, children become the silent victims of adult actions. This child didn’t understand suicide or poison. What he understood was just that his parents were not responding. And he didn’t want to leave them alone in the forest, so he just stayed there.

In moments like these, children carry trauma long before they have words for it. Spending a night next to a dead parent is not something that fades easily. It stays in memory forever.

Many children who experience such trauma struggle later with nightmares and anxiety. They find it difficulty in trusting adults and have a fear of abandonment.

And often, these signs go unnoticed because children don’t always know how to express pain.

This Is Not Just One Family’s Tragedy

Stories like this surface briefly in the news and then disappear. But they point to larger realities of society. They remind us that when adults collapse, children fall hardest.

This is why conversations around emotional distress are necessary - not just to save lives, but to protect the ones who are left behind.