THE shocking death of a former Miss America contestant's husband this week sparked an outpouring of grief for the young family.
Thomas Hand, 37, and his wife former Miss Mississippi Christine Kozlowski, 33, were reportedly preaching in Montgomery, Alabama when he was shot.
Pregnant Kozlowski and the couple's two-year-old son Roman watched on as Hand was killed, a close friend told The Sun.
Jerimiah Walker, 17, was arrested at the scene and is charged with capital murder.
But Kozlowski's heartache is certainly not the first time a pageant queen has seen her life marked by tragedy.
Here The Sun explores the dark curse of beauty queens with contestants accused of rape and torture and others horrifically murdered.
'TORTURED' BOYFRIEND
In 2010 Kumari Fulbright was accused of orchestrating the kidnapping and torturing of her ex-boyfriend.
The former University of Arizona law student had been named Miss Desert Sun beauty just a year earlier.
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Her shocking mugshot stunned fans after she appeared completely unrecognizable from her pageant days.
Fulbright was sentence to two years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit kidnapping and aggravated assault, according to reports at the time.
Her ex Joshua Conway spoke out in 2016, telling Fox 17 about his hours long kidnap nearly a decade earlier.
Conway said: "They're hitting me, they're pistol whipping me and they're telling me really sick stuff."
'KILLED BY PRIEST'
Irene Garza was found dead at the age of 25 after her body was found in a canal.
She had won Miss All South Texas Sweetheart just two years earlier in 1958.
Garza had been sexually assaulted and suffocated after going to confession, police said.
It was not until 2017 that Catholic priest John Feit was convicted of murdering the Texas schoolteacher, the Associated Press reports.
Feit, who was 28 at the time of her death, came under suspicion early on, telling police that he heard Garza’s confession – in the church rectory, not in the confessional – but denying he killed her.
Prosecutors presented evidence that elected and church officials suspected Feit killed her but wanted to avoid prosecuting him because it might harm the church’s reputation and elected officials politically.
CHILD ABUSE IMAGES
In 2017 Meghan Alt pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography and lewd acts with a minor, The LA Times reports.
The former Mrs. Orange County – who was crowned in 2014 – was sentenced to 300 days in county jail, records show.
Prosecutors said she took explicit photos of a four-year-old girl before sending them to a Marine for money.
Alt had also competed in Mrs. California.
ACCUSED OF RAPE
Former Miss Wyoming World Joy McKinney is said to have followed Mormon missionary Kirk Anderson from Utah to Britain in the later 1970s.
She was accused of kidnapping him at gunpoint before allegedly raping him.
The incident achieved infamy and became known as the “Mormon Sex in Chains Case”.
McKinney told a magistrates in 1977 that the sex was consensual.
Anderson said: "I didn’t wish it to happen. I was extremely depressed and upset after being forced to have sex.”
After being freed on bail McKinney reportedly fled to Canada.
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