Let’s say there was someone who was pretty obnoxious to you, not just unfriendly, but for reasons you never quite understood, was mean every single time you dealt with him, although not in ways that caused you any real lasting pain because the guy was just kind of harmless. One day, on his way to work, he tramples through your garden, as he does every day even though you’ve frequently asked him not to, and someone, who actively hates you and/or anyone associated with you, sees him and assuming only a friend of yours would be walking through your lawn, shoots him, killing him instantly.
I suspect, that 1. You’d be willing to forgive much of the obnoxious guys previous behavior, on account of the horrible way he dies, and 2. You’d feel a sense of closeness to the guy who died just because of his connection to you.
L’Havdil, but also really all the more so in the cases he unfortunately hear about.