The Florida Sinkhole That Swallowed a Man Alive While He Sleeping In Bed

In 2013, a quiet night in Seffner, Florida, turned into a real-life nightmare when a sinkhole suddenly opened beneath a man’s bedroom, swallowing him and everything around him into the earth.

The victim, Jeffrey Bush, was asleep in his home when the ground beneath his bed collapsed without warning. The massive sinkhole — estimated to be about 20 feet wide and 30 feet deep — consumed his entire bedroom in seconds. His brother, who was in another room, rushed in after hearing Jeffrey’s desperate screams but could do nothing to save him.

“I heard him scream for help,” his brother later told reporters, “but by the time I got there, there was nothing left — the floor was gone.”

Rescue crews arrived within minutes, but the scene was too dangerous to enter. The hole continued to grow and shift, making recovery efforts impossible. Despite their best attempts, Jeffrey Bush’s body was never found.

The home was later demolished, and the site was filled in — but the tragic event left the community shaken and brought national attention to Florida’s sinkhole problem. The state sits on a foundation of limestone that gradually dissolves from underground water flow, creating hidden voids that can collapse without warning.

Jeffrey Bush’s death remains one of the most haunting and mysterious sinkhole disasters in U.S. history — a chilling reminder that sometimes, nature’s power strikes with no warning at all.

To this day, the site in Seffner stands as a memorial to a man who quite literally vanished beneath his own home — a tragedy that no one could have predicted, and no one will ever forget.