Hanging_Murder or Suicide: A crime scene investigation

Murder or Suicide: A crime scene investigation

 

Securing the crime scene

It is the responsibility of the first police officer on the scene of a murder or suicide to take whatever steps that may be necessary in making sure that the scene is kept undisturbed as mush as possible. If there is a great deal movement at or around the scene by too many people, vital evidence could be moved or destroyed.  Securing any scene can be very difficult i.e. the case of a road traffic accident or a fire as the preservation of life will take priority over anything else.

 

 

Hanging

While accidental hanging is rare, and homicidal hanging is even rarer, hanging is the third most common form of suicide and accounts for 16% of all male, and 13% of all female suicides. Most people, who commit suicide by hanging, jump from a chair or a ladder, choking to death slowly. Rarely is the neck broken. In order to break a neck, a drop of six feet or more is required, which rarely happens except in execution hanging.

 

Hanging, whether done with rope, an electrical cord or a belt, always leaves an inverted V bruise, and are easy to tell from ligature strangulation (murder), which leaves a straight-line bruise. Hanging compresses the veins, but arterial blood flow continues, causing small bleeding sites on the lips, inside the mouth and on the eyelids. As with ligature strangulation, the face and neck are congested with blood and become dark red.

 

Ligature strangulations are almost always homicide and the victims are almost always women. Often the murderer uses more force than necessary to kill the victim, causing deep bruises and abrasions around the neck. The victim will usually struggle, which results in damage to both the interior and exterior structures of the neck and throat.

 

Accidental strangulation is rare, but does happen, usually when a tie or a scarf gets caught in power machinery. Consider causing a murder that looks like an accident by catching a woman’s scarf into machine gears. Alternatively, hanging a man by pushing him off a chair and making it look like suicide? The police would have a very tough time proving it wasn’t.

Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com