NCJ Number
229295
Journal
Journal of Forensic Sciences Volume: 54 Issue: 6 Dated: November 2009 Pages: 1463-1465
Date Published
November 2009
Length
3 pages
Annotation
This paper reports on the case of a death that resulted from a jump or fall down basement stairs that resulted in extensive skull fractures and brain expulsion, which suggested a forceful thrust down the stairs and suspicion of homicide, but was subsequently determined to be a suicide head-first jump after the victim engaged in self-inflicted hammer blows to his head.
Abstract
Given the severity of the skull and brain damage, an accidental fall down the stairs was deemed unlikely. The subsequent police investigation clearly showed that the man, in a paranoid psychotic state, attacked his wife with a knife and then, according to the eyewitness testimony of his children, hit himself in the head with a hammer several times. Next, the children saw him running to the top of the basement stairs and diving head-first down the flight of basement stairs. The body of the 43-year-old man was found lying on his back on the basement floor at the foot of the stairs (12 steps). The basement floor was concrete covered by a thin carpet. The case investigation involved correlating the autopsy findings regarding features of the injuries to the body and information obtained in the police investigation. Although the circumstances were highly unusual, the injury and death were determined to have resulted from at least five self-inflicted hammer blows, causing distinct small, slightly curved scalp lacerations, followed by a jumping fall in a particular context. It is well-known that once a linear fracture has been sustained, relatively little energy subsequently applied will produce additional fractures and complete skull destruction, which in the current case occurred from the jump-fall. 2 figures and 16 references