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Gender-Reveal Party Turns Deadly After Accidental Pipe Bomb Explosion

The tragedy in Iowa is the latest in a series of gender unveilings gone catastrophically wrong.

Gender-reveal parties have often been the source of deep mockery among many LGBTQ people, but authorities in Knoxville, Iowa, are not laughing this week after a family accidentally killed a woman during one such celebration.

Pamela Kreimeyer, 56, died Sunday after an explosion, intended to send up pink or blue powder to signify the sex of the expected baby. The blast inadvertently turned out to be a pipe bomb, and she was struck in the head with shrapnel, reports KCCI-8 News.

"They had a metal base plate along with a two-by-two metal piece connected to the stand in the bottom," Marion County Sheriff Jason Sandholdt told the station. "They put in gunpowder with a fuse, put in a piece of wood in between as a buffer and powder on top of that."

It’s not the first time a gender-reveal party has caused chaos and devastation. Last July, another couple tried to reveal the gender of their little one by setting off pink fireworks that literally exploded in the faces of their guests.

Last October, one gender-reveal event at an Applebees in Ohio devolved into a full-on brawl after 20 people were asked to clean up the blue confetti poppers they had exploded outside the restaurant.

And in April 2017, a gender-reveal party in Arizona caused a 47,000-acre wildfire when an off-duty Border Patrol agent fired an explosive with colored powder at a target on state-owned land near Madera Canyon. Instead of an unveiled gender, the agent took home a $220,000 restitution bill and five years probation.

As NewNowNext previously reported, the woman credited with originating the gender-reveal party actually has a child who defies gender norms. How's that for a twist?

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