Male

November, 1993
Maryland
SHE Casework – Equivocal Death Analysis
SHE Determination – Suicide

SHE recommendations for professionals involved in case – This case should have been handled as a homicide until proven otherwise. Because the victim was found hanging by a female roommate and the there were no signs of disturbance to the body or to the room, the case was labeled a suicide within half an hour of the arrival of the investigator and medical examiner. Crime scene photos were taken and were of good quality. Because this determination was made and there is no law requiring further proof, no autopsy was conducted, no autopsy pictures were taken and no investigation followed.

This led to speculation on the part of the family that perhaps this was not actually a suicide.

Because there were questions that were not answered and no autopsy report or autopsy pictures to fall back on, the family spent many years trying to understand what had happened, especially since there was no suicide note. SHE examined the photographic evidence and through two crime scene reenactment tests was able to show that the victim was hung and not strangled and then a hanging staged and an imprint on the victim’s hand was matched to a location in the residence where the witness stated he was found prior to body being taken down. There was no evidence of foul play that could be discerned in the photos. The lack of a suicide note is quite common in suicide cases and therefore, frustrating though it is for the family, does not indicate that the victim did not purposefully choose suicide at that point of time in his life.

This case clearly shows that while the determination was correct and even though law enforcement may have great experience in determining such cases quickly and even being correct, families can suffer tremendously for years if questions are not completely addressed.

The Sexual Homicide Exchange
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Minneapolis, MN 55413
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fax 443-342-1277
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