HANGING WITHOUT A KNOT: PECULIAR EVENT OR SIMULATED SUICIDE?

Abstract

Among the methods of self-harm with suicidal purpose, hanging is the most common; classically, the subject fixes the end of a cable to a support placed at a higher height, on which the traction force given by the weight of the suspended body is applied, while the other end is passed around the subject's neck and secured with a knot. We present the case of a 56-year-old man found dead in his own home by his wife with an exercise rope fixed to a window and passed around his neck without a knot, with a discontinuous transversal groove, which, due to the absence of a knot and the furrow situation, had initially raised suspicions of being a simulated suicide.

Keywords

• hanging out
• simulated suicide
• knot