Archiv für Kriminologie
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Archiv für Kriminologie · May 2008
Case Reports[Lethal intoxication with arsenic using prepared butter].
The present case report deals with a lethal intoxication with arsenic mixed into butter. It describes the course of events over about two days on the basis of the statements by the persons involved, the clinical findings after the belated hospitalisation of the victim, the results of the first pathological autopsy, the forensic autopsy performed after exhumation and the results of the chemical-toxicological investigations. The results are discussed in relation to the later confession of the female perpetrator and her statements regarding a previous unsuccessful murder attempt by poisoning. It also presents the judgement pronounced by the court and the reasons given for it.
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Archiv für Kriminologie · May 2008
Case Reports[Suicide by means of a charcoal grill. Casuistic report with review of the literature].
Due to the conversion of the gas supply from city gas to CO-free natural gas and the introduction of the catalytic converter technology for motor vehicles the number of suicides by CO poisoning has decreased considerably. Nevertheless suicides by CO poisoning are still committed once in a while. In the described case from the autopsy material of the Institute of Legal Medicine at Münster, the suicide used a charcoal grill as the source of carbon monoxide.
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Archiv für Kriminologie · May 2008
Case Reports[Perforating gunshot to the head with a power-actuated tool].
The article describes a shortly survived suicide with a powder-actuated tool. A 51-year-old man shot all through his head from the right to the left temple. ⋯ The suicide instrument was a powder-actuated tool firing a metal pin after igniting a cartridge. Unlike a nail gun using compressed air, pins fired by means of a propellant reach a velocity of up to 150 m/s thus developing a higher destructive potential.
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Archiv für Kriminologie · May 2008
Case Reports[Unusual circumstances in a fourfold complex suicide].
Complex suicides are defined as suicides using more than one method, which may sometimes suggest homicide. We present the case of a 27-year-old man who killed himself by using four different methods. The man was known as a loner and sufferd from bipolar psychosis. ⋯ The CO-Hb value in the blood amounted to 7%; the other toxicological tests were negative. Death was found to be due to exsanguination from a deep stab wound in the abdomen and multiple trauma caused by the fall from a great height in the course of a suicide. Homicide could be excluded due to the circumstances of the case, which demonstrated again that both the medical findings and the investigation results of the police are indispensable for the differentiation between suicide and homicide.