Simulated suicide by hanging
- The most common method of suicide all over the world is hanging. The factors deciding using this method of suicide are accessibility, feasibility, credibility of method causing death and rapidity of the method.
- Fast and painless death by hanging is easily achieved by using cheap and easily available materials.
- Cases of homicidal strangulation and the simulation of suicide by hanging a victim previously killed or made unable to resist by other means are regarded as extremely rare events, but have been reported. Example: A 23-year-old student strangled his 58-year-old father with an electric cable until he ceased to show any signs of life. Then he hanged the victim at the handrail of the staircase with a running noose.
- From the forensic point of view the following clues pointed to homicide: presence of massive signs of facial congestion in spite of the "typical" situation of hanging, horizontal ligature mark in addition to the noose mark, skin injuries at the head and the upper extremities, traces of blood near the place where the body was found.
- The case history presented emphasizes again that for differential diagnosis the possibility of a dissimulated homicide has to be considered in all cases where a body is found suspended.
(Ref: Institut für Gerichtliche Medizin der Universität Tübingen, Germany).
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