"My dear child is dead, and all I want now is justice so I can close my eyes and know she didn't die in vain, " the mother, Syeda Mohammed Ali, told CNN.

CNN: Saudi Islamist preacher on trial in daughter's slaying

And, if they didn't die, they were less likely to make a full recovery.

WSJ: A Gene Gives a Hint Of How Long a Person Might Hope to Live

Then the viatical company that packaged the contracts went under, the surety company turned out to be a fraud, and the sick people didn't die on cue.

FORBES: The Doctors' Deductions

She sensed that they were going to die and she didn't want to waste precious energy fighting with them.

CNN: Miraculous survivors: Why they live while others die

Afterward, the sheriff said that the admitted killer appeared "very remorseful" and didn't know the other man would die at the scene.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

"I think we both realized that it's a really tough awakening, to realize that your father didn't die instantly, and might have really suffered, or might have had a harder time than we thought", Ernst said.

CNN: Note lets family know 9/11 victim went down fighting

On the other side, these people were suffering and if we didn't deal with it, they'd die, they'd bleed to death.

WSJ: Anne Jolis: The Doctor and the Jihadists

In 1999 the U.S. Treasury shut down a corporate tax shelter, promoted by accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, known as the Bond and Option Sales Strategy, or BOSS. But BOSS didn't die.

FORBES: Hide the Baby

Stark and majestic in steel and poured concrete, sitting on a solitary bluff overlooking the Gulf, it is not the house you'd imagine for a retired couple, but they didn't move south to wither in the sun and die.

NPR: Excerpt: 'City of Thieves'