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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MajorLeagueEating.com has sad and shocking news: an obituary for Juliet Lee has been posted. No details about her passing are provided and I have not been able to track down any additional sources of information.

update Fox 5 has an article with these quotes from George Shea

“Juliet was in very good health and if you think of the number of times competitive eaters attend contests each year, it might be 3-10 contests a year so its not over the course of a year, an extraordinary addition of calories or both. …i have never heard of any impact like that. I can say that it certainly had nothing to do with competitive eating,” said Shea.

update Sept 23 A commenter gives the date of Juliet’s passing as August 16, more than three weeks before the date of September 9 in the MLE obituary. A comment on a Germantown Pulse facebook post also gives August as the month of passing.

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Rich Shea announced that Gideon Oji (25 hot dogs) and Juliet Lee (23) won today’s Nathan’s qualifier at the Giant National Capital BBQ Battle in Washington, DC. Juliet Lee extends her streak of years with a qualifier victory to 13.

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update May 20 Darron Breeden has a video
update May 14 Videos: Frank Godfrey Jr. | K Womble introduction video

Darron Breeden practice session video

Official results

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update June 29 WTOP has a longer report and video

WTOP has an article

Results
Full results Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

1W) Juliet Lee 28
2W) Van Tran 5

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update April 4 Jen Eats has a spectator video

update Washington Post gallery | NBC Washington article & video | ABC7 article & gallery | Periscope video

Results: Part 1 | Part 2

1) Matt Stonie 200 in 5 minutes
2) Geoffrey Esper 160
3) Juliet Lee 140
4) Michelle Lesco 135
5) Brian Dudzinski 116
6) Gideon Oji 110
7) Crazy Legs Conti 75
8) Larell Marie Mele 58
9) “Wild” Bill Myers 51
10) John Gonzalez 40
11) Nick Ricci 17

Juliet Lee appeared on WJLA yesterday with John Gonzalez, who will be the celebrity entrant.

The Joey Chestnut / Matt Stonie non-compete streak will reach 6 months tomorrow (last meeting October 3, 2016 in Toronto poutine)

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Results Part 1 | Part 2

1) Marcos Owens 27
2) Brian Dudzinski 25.5
3) Micah “Wing Kong” Collins 19
4) Nathan Biller 16
5) Jack Diamond 14
6) Wild Bill Myers 12
7T) Joey Haughey 8
7T) Bryan Sheppard 8

1W) Juliet Lee 24.5 Juliet Lee, Danielle Gioia, Brian Dudzinski, Nate Biller and Bill Myers are expected to compete.

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update Oct 13 Joseph Cerulli has a video

update Oct 2 Berks County Eats has a contest report

update #2 Joseph Cerulli has a video

update Official results Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

1W) Juliet Lee 35

1M) Eric “Badlands” Booker 32
2) Dave Wood 27.5
3) Micah Collins 23
4) Eric “Steakbellie” Livingston 20
5) “Wild” Bill Myers 17
6) Mike Barton 16
7) Tony Colbert 10
8) Eric Senzer 8
9) Lee Bibb 5
10) Jim Holloway 3

I have yet to see any results for today’s Nathan’s qualifier in Dover, Delaware. According to this picture, Eric “Badlands” Booker had at least 32 and Juliet Lee had at least 28.

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update June 8The Pocono Record has a gallery

update The Times Tribune has a blog entry & gallery

update Marcos Owens won the men’s contest with 28. Juliet Lee appears to have won the women’s

Official results | Part 2
1) Marcos Owens 28
2) Brian Dudzinski 22
3) Micah Collins 21
4) “Wild” Bill Myers 15 updated
5) Eric Livingston 14
6) Andrew Kossuth 9
7T) Chuck Bush 8
7T) Jimmy Coponi 8
9) Scott Long

1W) Juliet Lee 27.5
2w) Andrea Giramonte 4.25
3W) Sarah Garwood 3
The Times Tribune has a contest preview. Bob Shoudt says he will not be able to come due to work issues.

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update June 14 WTAE has a video, TribLive has a gallery and Rake & Herald has a contest report

update The Pittsburgh Post Gazette has an article and TribLive has a video. WPXI also has a video

(Results) Men
1) Marcos Owens 30
2) Brian Subich 20
3) Crazy Legs Conti 19.5
4) Bill Myers 17 (personal best)

Women
1) Juliet Lee 30

update Catherine Tsavalas reports that Marcos Owens and Juliet Lee both qualified for the finals with a total of 30.

Juliet Lee is at the contest and should qualify easily

Jennifer “The Wiener Slayer” Grabner is the first announced female contestant.

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update July 15 Results Part 1 | Part 2

1) Juliet Lee 137
2) Steve Hendry 117
3) Erik Franks 105
4) Yasir Salem 100
5) Dax “The Ginger” Swanson 89
6) Tony “The Tiger” 86
7) Tyler Morrow 59
8) Ken Douglas 49
9) Mark Garcia 44
10) John Artal 41
11) Kayla Rowe 29

Hooters of Bakersfield has a gallery

Juliet Lee has been announced as the winner of tonight’s Hooters wing eating qualifier at the California State Fair in Sacramento with a total of 137 wings. Joey Chestnut will not participate in the finals July 26 unless he receives a sponsors exemption. (A picture of Joey Chestnut and 1999 Women’s World Cup hero Brandi Chastian at tonight’s San Jose Earthquakes game).

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update July 5 Juliet Lee’s official total is 33

update 12:20 The AP has a short article

update 11:50 Full Results Part 1 | Part 2

1) Sonya Thomas 45 HDB, women’s record
2) Juliet Lee 43, 33 personal best, second woman to hit 40+
3) Michelle “Cardboard Shell” Lesco 25.5, personal best, fifth woman to hit 25+
4) Meredith Boxberger 21.5 probable Canadian record
5) Larell Marie Mele, 21.25 personal best
6) Marie “Edible” 18.5
7) Nicole Anderson 16 (via Nathan’s Famous Canada)
8) Dee Martin 9.5
9) Neslie Ricasa 9
10) Mary Bowers 8.5
11) Theresa Subich 7
12) Mia Davekos 6
13) Molly Nemunaitis 5.5
14) Janice Deregla 3

No-show: Heather Osthoff

update 11:45> The preliminary totals are Sonya Thomas 45, Juliet Lee 41. Both values are personal bests.

update 11:42 Sonya Thomas has surpassed her record of 41

Irving DeJohn of the NY Daily News is live-tweeting from the contest site

Direct link for ESPN3 viewing

Last minute coverage for Nathan’s womens competitors

• Times-Georgian article about Dee Martin
• Mary Bowers podcast
• Short article about Meredith Boxberger
• Zap2It blog entry about Sonya Thomas

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update Apr 30 The Las Vegas Sun has a gallery

update Apr 29 Haute Living has an article and NCAADave has a video

Men
1) Sean Gordon 30 HDB, defends Las Vegas qualifier title
2) Rich LeFevre 27 HDB, takes wild-card lead
3T) Juan “More Bite” Rodgriguez 22 HDB, MLE debut
3T) Ron Koch 22 HDB

Women
1) Juliet Lee 27 HDB, will compete in Nathan’s finals for 6th straight year
?) Mary Bowers 9.5 HDB, takes apparent lead in women’s wild card race

update 6:51 Winners have been announced. Sean Gordon has repeated as the male champion w/30 HDB. Juliet Lee is the female winner w/ 27.

The contest is about to start.

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