Complex suicide by drowning and self-strangulation: An atypical “holy” way to die
About 1.5–5% of suicides are committed in a complex way. The present paper reports the case of a 72-year-old man who committed suicide by throwing himself into the sea after tying a large stone with a rope and tying the other end with a slipknot around the neck. The postmortem analysis revealed asph...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2021-07-01
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| Series: | Forensic Science International: Reports |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2665910721000219 |
| _version_ | 1819097643564924928 |
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| author | Marcello Benevento Gabriele Mandarelli Davide Ferorelli Silvia Trotta Giampiero Bottari Cristina Caterino Biagio Solarino |
| author_facet | Marcello Benevento Gabriele Mandarelli Davide Ferorelli Silvia Trotta Giampiero Bottari Cristina Caterino Biagio Solarino |
| author_sort | Marcello Benevento |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | About 1.5–5% of suicides are committed in a complex way. The present paper reports the case of a 72-year-old man who committed suicide by throwing himself into the sea after tying a large stone with a rope and tying the other end with a slipknot around the neck. The postmortem analysis revealed asphyxia as that the cause of death, resulting in a combination of strangulation and drowning. Even if the prevalence of different means of suicide changes widely among different reports, there is a lack of evidence of such a combination in the scientific literature. Surprisingly, in the catholic tradition, several martyrs died by combination of drowning and strangulation. The gospels of Luke and Matthew also describe this particular combination of lethal means, which was also represented in several Renaissance paintings showing the martyrdom of saints. Here we describe the forensic pathological findings of the case that we report, and we make some hypotheses to interpret the possible influence of literary and iconographic representations in the choice of lethal means. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-22T00:18:21Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-0b06543894174ab6900b74347d781c28 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2665-9107 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-22T00:18:21Z |
| publishDate | 2021-07-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Forensic Science International: Reports |
| spelling | doaj.art-0b06543894174ab6900b74347d781c282022-12-21T18:45:14ZengElsevierForensic Science International: Reports2665-91072021-07-013100190Complex suicide by drowning and self-strangulation: An atypical “holy” way to dieMarcello Benevento0Gabriele Mandarelli1Davide Ferorelli2Silvia Trotta3Giampiero Bottari4Cristina Caterino5Biagio Solarino6Section of Legal Medicine, Interdisciplinary Department of Medicine (DIM), University of Bari, Piazza G. Cesare 11, 70124 Bari, ItalySection of Criminology and Forensic Psychiatry, Department of Interdisciplinary Medicine (DIM), University of Bari, Piazza G. Cesare 11, 70124 Bari, Italy; Corresponding author.Section of Legal Medicine, Interdisciplinary Department of Medicine (DIM), University of Bari, Piazza G. Cesare 11, 70124 Bari, ItalySection of Legal Medicine, Interdisciplinary Department of Medicine (DIM), University of Bari, Piazza G. Cesare 11, 70124 Bari, ItalySection of Legal Medicine, Interdisciplinary Department of Medicine (DIM), University of Bari, Piazza G. Cesare 11, 70124 Bari, ItalySection of Legal Medicine, Interdisciplinary Department of Medicine (DIM), University of Bari, Piazza G. Cesare 11, 70124 Bari, ItalySection of Legal Medicine, Interdisciplinary Department of Medicine (DIM), University of Bari, Piazza G. Cesare 11, 70124 Bari, ItalyAbout 1.5–5% of suicides are committed in a complex way. The present paper reports the case of a 72-year-old man who committed suicide by throwing himself into the sea after tying a large stone with a rope and tying the other end with a slipknot around the neck. The postmortem analysis revealed asphyxia as that the cause of death, resulting in a combination of strangulation and drowning. Even if the prevalence of different means of suicide changes widely among different reports, there is a lack of evidence of such a combination in the scientific literature. Surprisingly, in the catholic tradition, several martyrs died by combination of drowning and strangulation. The gospels of Luke and Matthew also describe this particular combination of lethal means, which was also represented in several Renaissance paintings showing the martyrdom of saints. Here we describe the forensic pathological findings of the case that we report, and we make some hypotheses to interpret the possible influence of literary and iconographic representations in the choice of lethal means.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2665910721000219Complex suicideSelf-drowningSelf-strangulation |
| spellingShingle | Marcello Benevento Gabriele Mandarelli Davide Ferorelli Silvia Trotta Giampiero Bottari Cristina Caterino Biagio Solarino Complex suicide by drowning and self-strangulation: An atypical “holy” way to die Forensic Science International: Reports Complex suicide Self-drowning Self-strangulation |
| title | Complex suicide by drowning and self-strangulation: An atypical “holy” way to die |
| title_full | Complex suicide by drowning and self-strangulation: An atypical “holy” way to die |
| title_fullStr | Complex suicide by drowning and self-strangulation: An atypical “holy” way to die |
| title_full_unstemmed | Complex suicide by drowning and self-strangulation: An atypical “holy” way to die |
| title_short | Complex suicide by drowning and self-strangulation: An atypical “holy” way to die |
| title_sort | complex suicide by drowning and self strangulation an atypical holy way to die |
| topic | Complex suicide Self-drowning Self-strangulation |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2665910721000219 |
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