NCJ Number
182167
Journal
Journal of Forensic Sciences Volume: 45 Issue: 2 Dated: March 2000 Pages: 471-473
Date Published
March 2000
Length
3 pages
Annotation
This paper examines two cases of suicide that were committed by using chain saws.
Abstract
The two cases examined occurred in the same rural county 3 years apart. In each case the victim had a history of depression or of a prior suicide attempt and applied a chain saw to his neck to kill himself. With the literature reporting fewer than 15 cases of suicide by the use of power saws and only two of those involving chain saws, the two additional cases examined in this paper contribute to the description of the features of this uncommon manner of death. As with most of the previously reported cases, these deaths have unusual features, including the perceived lethality of the weapon of death and the location and depth of the wounds. These features might raise the suspicion of homicide at the beginning of the death investigation. The wounds in these two cases and most of the others that involved the head and neck share the feature of involving the back or side of the victim's body, a position that might seem awkward or misleading for the investigator trying to reconstruct the scene. These two cases add to the literature on suicides by the use of power tools by further showing that the power saw is most often applied to the back or side of the head or neck, that the decedents usually have a history of psychiatric illness, and that they are more likely male and have occupational experience with the saw. 4 figures and 9 references