Alteration of the Death Scene After Self‐stabbing: A Case of Sharp Force Suicide Disguised by the Victim as a Homicide?

Pelletti, Guido; Visentin, S.; Rago, C.; Cecchetto, Giovanni; Montisci, Massimo

doi:10.1111/1556-4029.13440

Cited by 17 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 25 publications

(27 reference statements)

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“…Among these, 7 were case reports [13][14][15][16][17][18][19], 3 case series [6,20,21], 19 original articles [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40], 4 were technical notes [41][42][43][44] and 8 were reviews [1,10,[45][46][47][48][49][50].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Crime scene and body alterations caused by arthropods: implications in death investigation

et al. 2018

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The activity of arthropods on corpses has been largely investigated, since they can produce information to reconstruct the perimortem events. However, the feeding/movement activity of insects around the crime scene, among the clothes and on the body, can also cause some alterations that can lead to wrong reconstruction and misinterpretations. This article summarises all the postmortem arthropods artefacts related to the scene (i.e. fly artefacts and floor stripes) and the body (i.e. skin and other soft tissue alterations, bone alterations and hair alterations) that can mislead the forensic pathologist, discussing macroscopic and microscopic findings derived from forensic casework and from experimental laboratory studies, in order to provide a useful instrument to avoid misinterpretations and evaluation errors. Finally, some procedural notes for the documentation and the interpretation of findings are proposed.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…transfer, contact and drip patterns, expired blood or high velocity spatter), and they could allow the reconstruction of the criminal acts [19,48,51]. Problems can arise when other modifications, such as those produced by the insect activity, alter the bloodstains and consequently their interpretation.…”

Section: Crime Scene Entomological Alterationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Crime scene and body alterations caused by arthropods: implications in death investigation

et al. 2018

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“…Sharp force violence is, nowadays, an uncommon method of suicide, constituting only 2-3% of all self-inflicted deaths with a frequency almost equal to stabbing and cutting injuries (respectively, 40% and 37%, with both present in around 25% of cases) (8,16,(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23). In Italy, in the period 2000-2014, the use of a cutting weapon represented 2.1% (SD 0.32%) of self-inflicted deaths in males and 1.8% (SD 0.47%) of self-inflicted deaths in females (7).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…In forensic practice, the differentiation between suicidal and homicidal sharp force violence is often achieved by the integrated evaluation of data derived from a crime scene investigation as well as from well-established necroscopic signs described in the literature (11). Nevertheless, some cases may present unusual findings (23)(24)(25) with a difficult interpretation of the dynamics.…”

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confidence: 99%

Criminological and Medico‐legal Aspects in Homicidal and Suicidal Sharp Force Fatalities

Terranova

Doro

Zancaner³

et al. 2020

Journal of Forensic Sciences

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The interpretation of sharp force fatality dynamics may be difficult in some cases, but a contribution to analysis of the phenomenon may be provided by case studies. Therefore, the purpose of our study is focused on identifying, in observed sharp force fatalities, reliable parameters that can differentiate a homicidal and suicidal manner of death, with particular reference to criminological parameters. Data derived from sharp force fatality cases in Padua and Venice from 1997 to 2019, anonymized and collected in Excel, included personal, circumstantial, clinical, and psychopathological–criminological data, as well as crime scene investigation, necroscopic, and toxicological data. Statistical analyses were performed using chi‐square and Wilcoxon rank‐sum tests. Possible predictors of homicide were analyzed by logistic regression. Six parameters (bloodstains distant from the body, clothing lacerations, hesitation/defense wounds, number of injuries, and potential motives) were significantly different in the two groups (p < 0.05). An independent statistical association between potential motives explaining the crime (p < 0.001; OR 27.533) and homicide on multiple logistic regression analysis was highlighted. The absence of clothing lacerations was inversely related to homicide (p = 0.002, OR 0.092). To the best of our knowledge, this is one of very few Italian studies concerning the differential diagnosis between homicidal and suicidal sharp force fatalities. The dynamics of the event is established in most cases by the integrated evaluation of data from crime scene investigation and the autopsy. Nevertheless, in an atypical scenario, a psychopathological–criminological analysis may provide essential elements, and particular attention should be given to the identification of potential explanatory motives.

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“…Studies show that suicide by sharp instruments, especially by injuring the abdominal area, is not common [3,9,10]. However, few reports of suicide by abdominal stabbing have been reported in the literature [2,9,11].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fatal Abdominal Stabbing: A Confusing Picture in Differentiating Homicide and Suicide

Gharehdaghi

Ghadipasha

Hedayatshodeh

et al. 2019

IJMTFM

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Differentiating between homicide and suicide can be difficult and even impossible. In this report, we presented a fatal stabbing injury, which made a challenge in the verification of the manner of death. Case Report: A 45-year-old man was found dead in his workplace with a knife beside him. His mouth was closed with a scarf, his clothes were intact, and no evidence of a struggle was observed in the scene investigation. There was a vertical stab wound on the midline of the victim's belly and his intestines were tangled out of the wound. In the autopsy, no defense wound was found. There was blood in the abdominal cavity and retroperitoneal region and several perforations were observed in the intestine and liver along the superficial wound. Painful death and torturous extraction of visceral organs resembled homicide, but nothing indicative of hostility and homicide was found by the forensic exploration and police investigation. Finally, the manner of death was assigned as suicide and the cause of death was a hemorrhagic shock as a result of sharp force injuries. Conclusion: This case represents a bizarre suicide, which is rare and highly suspicious of homicide. In such mysterious cases, the evidence of autopsy and crime scene and police investigation should be regarded to make a decision.

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Alteration of the Death Scene After Self‐stabbing: A Case of Sharp Force Suicide Disguised by the Victim as a Homicide?

Cited by 17 publications

References 25 publications

Crime scene and body alterations caused by arthropods: implications in death investigation

Crime scene and body alterations caused by arthropods: implications in death investigation

Criminological and Medico‐legal Aspects in Homicidal and Suicidal Sharp Force Fatalities

Fatal Abdominal Stabbing: A Confusing Picture in Differentiating Homicide and Suicide

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