How can a faulty USB charger kill you?
This was one of those crap Chinese-made Mains-to-USB chargers that can be purchased for as little as US$1.50. 

I've taken them apart, and they are bad, criminally bad. The isolation from mains to output is not taken seriously- not enough creepage distance, and in one of the samples I examined, there was debris inside that could cause a direct short if you shook the charger just right. 

She could have been touching the earphone plug while unplugging or plugging the earphones into the phone, and perhaps a grounded Ethernet port on an otherwise plastic computer. Once you're connected to the mains, any grounded bit of metal can be lethal. Perhaps the computer was metal and grounded.. most laptops these days have a grounded chassis so either the metal, trim, an exposed screw or anything like that would suffice. Whatever the current path, the muscle contractions probably caused her to grip the conductive bits more tightly rather than flinging them away, and sealed her fate.