Top 10 Saddest Fear the Walking Dead Deaths

When a riot breaks out in LA, Griselda Salazar convinces her husband to let Liza, Travis and Chris hide inside her family’s store. After a fire forces them to evacuate, Griselda’s foot gets pinned by metal. Her condition worsens as society breaks down. Eventually, she’s taken away from her family to receive treatment. But by the time Liza finds her, Griselda’s foot has been amputated and she’s delirious. Griselda’s family never gets to say goodbye. Even if they were present, her delirium would’ve made that farewell difficult. As a final somber note, Liza shoots Griselda in the head so she doesn’t become an Infected.

After escaping LA on a boat named the Abigail, Strand is hellbent on making it to Mexico. It’s later revealed that he made the trip to reunite with his lover Thomas Abigail. But by the time Strand reaches Mexico, he finds that Thomas has been bit by an Infected. He refuses to leave Thomas’ side, and decides to die with him. However, Strand backs out of his promise at the last moment and shoots his lover so he won’t turn. Colman Domingo and Dougray Scott’s excellent performances elevate every moment. Strand doesn’t show vulnerability often, but when he does, it’s heartbreaking.

Martha and Russell Brown were an older married couple who were always seen in the background. But they’re placed front and center in one tragic vignette. Russell awakes in the middle of the night to find that Martha has turned. Although she tries to bite him, her lack of dentures makes it impossible. Instead of running away from his Infected wife, Russell dances with her. Unable to go on without her, he takes a gun and shoots himself and his wife in the head. The whole scene only lasts for a few minutes, but their deaths still pack a huge emotional punch.

Before the Infected outbreak overtook LA, Alicia and her boyfriend Matt made plans to meet up. But when he fails to show, Alicia visits his house and finds him feverish and weak. Although she and her parents try to help, it’s not long before they realize Matt has been bitten. Alicia tries to stay but Matt encourages her to go and says that his family is on the way to help. The young Matt sending Alicia away was an incredibly mature, and horrifyingly sad, decision that saved her life. Whether his parents arrived to see their son before he became undead is a depressing question that remains unanswered.

Throughout his life, Jake constantly tried to keep his brother Troy’s sadistic side under control. But when Troy plots to lead a horde of Infected right to a ranch of survivors, Jake makes the painful decision to take his brother out. However, Nick intervenes at the last second and knocks Jake away from his brother and right into an Infected’s teeth. Although Nick and Troy amputate the bitten arm, he bleeds out, dies and reanimates soon after. Sadly, Jake’s death doesn’t prevent the ranch from being overrun with Infected. His passing only succeeds in bringing more pain to his loved ones.

As the apocalypse rages on, Chris adopts darker methods to survive. His sinister behavior leads him to abandon his father Travis and start traveling. When Chris falls asleep while driving new allies around, he gets into a horrific accident. Although he escapes the wreck with a damaged leg, his companions decide the injury is too severe and that he must be put down. Chris may have chosen a dark path, but the sight of the teenager crawling, and desperate to live, is still a harrowing sight. And Travis’ extreme reaction was a sad reminder that he still cared about his troubled son.

Even children aren’t immune from the horrors of this grim world. The main group discovers the Geary family is living on an isolated island. While exploring the house, Nick finds pills that were made to cause painless deaths. Unfortunately, the young Willa Geary sees the pills and decides to take one. Her little brother later discovers her body, unaware of what really happened. The tragedy deepens when Willa reanimates and bites into her grieving mother Melissa. The Geary family managed to weather the initial chaos of the outbreak, but it only took one accident to permanently tear them apart.

No one saw this shocking death coming. Travis and his stepdaughter Alicia narrowly escape a fallen military depot in a helicopter. During their flight, bullets punch through the helicopter and hit Travis. We see him grab his neck before revealing a severe stomach wound. Without hesitation, Travis moves to throw himself out of the helicopter so he can’t turn and hurt anyone. This death was absolutely devastating to his daughter as well as fans who had followed him from episode one. Travis always tried to do the right thing for his family. His final sacrifice proves he thought of them until the bitter end.

Liza was a nursing student who balanced her studies with a complicated family life. After the outbreak, she lied about being a professional nurse so she could provide medical assistance to people in need. Liza’s deception takes her to a medical facility that is eventually overrun. After escaping the base, Liza reveals that she’s been wounded by an Infected. Although she intended to shoot herself, ex-husband Travis ultimately pulls the trigger. From her final conversation with Travis, to her son Chris hearing the gunshot in the distance, every aspect of Liza’s death is devastating. Her actions were selfless but cost her everything.

Before we reveal our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.

- Christine
“This Land is Your Land”

- Lola Guerrero
“Sleigh Ride”

- Efraín Morales

“Things Bad Begun”

Ofelia Salazar was willing to do anything for her people. When her group is stuck in a pantry that’s running low on oxygen, she volunteers to investigate the problem. Ofelia discovers the air vent is blocked by an Infected. While clearing it away, she gets bitten. As the virus spreads, we watch Ofelia struggle to fight a losing battle. She tries to hold on long enough to see her father Daniel one last time, but dies seconds before he arrives. Watching the strong-willed Ofelia slowly suffer is hard enough, but seeing her stoic father break down and shoot his only daughter makes this a particularly heartbreaking death.