Today marks the one year anniversary of Fox 5 DC’s article about the passing of Juliet Lee, which was announced on the MLE website the day before. This remains the only significant information about the shock death, with no additional salient media coverage, autopsies, or criminal investigations having been promulgated since that date. A statement about the passing was picked up by Patch.com and several other outlets, which gave a date for the tragedy as September 9, 2019. Several social media comments contradicted that infomation, and gave her final date as August 16, 2019.

Searching the Montgomery County (MD) police database for mid-August 2019 events in Germantown, MD (Juliet’s hometown) brings up the following incident on which appears to correspond to Juliet Lee’s passing. The record is of minimal interest until the penultimate field, which is “SUDDENDEATHUNDETERMIND”. [I have redacted the address field even though it has only a street name and lacks a house number]

Direct linking to the entry is not allowed; if you want to view it for yourself, the easiest way is probably to go the police database website and search for Crime Report #190039103. This brings up the question: if the incident was labeled a crime, what was the result of the criminal investigation? Other unanswered questions include:

• If the August 16 date is accurate, why did 24 days elapse between the tragedy and any announcement of it?
• Who contacted Major League Eating about the fatality and when was that information provided?
• Was Juliet Lee transported to a hospital and what medical personnel attended her?
• Other than the Fox 5 article, why was there minimal media coverage of the incident? As far as I know. the Washington Post (Motto: “Democracy Dies in Darkness”) and its associated social media outlets have made absolutely no mention of Juliet Lee’s passing. (Washington Post search link)
• Why was the record in the Montgomery County police database categorized as “WORKING CODE” ?
• Why was Juliet Lee’s husband (or ex-husband), Joe Callow, not mentioned in the statement about her death; Juliet’s daughters are the only relatives mentioned.
• Juliet Lee’s final video for Major League Eating was uploaded on August 22, six days after August 16. When was that video filmed and who recorded and uploaded it?
• Why was there was no posting about Juliet Lee’s passing on MLE social media until the Nathan’s Famous hot dog eating contest in July? A post at the bottom of majorleagueeating.com was the sole mention by the organization.

2019 EatFeats post about the fatality. An anonymous comment appears to have some inside information about the incident.

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Shine.cn has an article about the deprecation of big eating videos on Chinese streaming platforms which mentions the passing of a host in Shenyang, Liaoning Province just before he was to broadcast himself eating a large bowl of pork belly in June. Some Chinese big eaters have rebranded, with @大胃mini (big stomach mini) changing her ID to @梨涡少女mini (dimple girl mini). The article calls into question the authenticity of some of the videos:

In reality, the body simply cannot handle extreme quantities of food every day. To keep viewers, hosts must cheat, either throwing up after the show, or cutting scenes where they spit out food they’ve chewed, making viewers believe they have actually eaten everything.

Loyal followers are very defensive when questions are raised about unusual eating habits, saying their favorite hosts are just “born that way” and there are frequent quarrels with others who question the authenticity of videos.

update Aug 22 The BBC also has an article about the decline of eating videos.

update Aug 24 The New York Times has an article.

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A study by the University of Bath reports that occasional oversized meals do not have an immediate negative health impact on healthy males between the ages of 22 and 37.

Those who volunteered for the trial consumed almost twice as much pizza when pushing beyond their usual limits, doubling their calorie intake.

But the study found the amount of nutrients in their bloodstream kept within normal range.

Researchers say this shows that if an otherwise healthy person overindulges occasionally there are no immediate negative consequences in terms of losing metabolic control.

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