NCJ Number
187632
Journal
Journal of Forensic Sciences Volume: 46 Issue: 2 Dated: March 2001 Pages: 402-405
Date Published
March 2001
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This paper presents case studies of suicide that were committed by means of commercial explosives.
Abstract
The use of commercial explosives is an unusual method of committing suicide, and only a few cases have been described in the medicolegal literature. In the two cases of such suicides described in this paper, the two men involved had financial problems and psychological illness. Both of the men committed suicide by detonating an explosive (fireworks). In the first case, the person put the explosive on his head, and in the second case, the explosive was placed in the victim's mouth. In both cases, the cause of death was the destruction of the central nervous system. Despite the low frequency of these types of suicides, such suicidal deaths present important problems whose resolution requires the special skill of the forensic pathologist and the technical assistance of police special teams, particularly in the scene's recognition, the search for explosive residues, the correct evaluation of the laboratory results, and the development of a broad view of the events. In cases of explosions and as a consequence of the detonation of the fulminate, due to the high temperatures and pressures that are reached, microscopic spherical particles with Pb, Ba, and Sb are produced, depending on the composition that the manufacturer used in the priming device. 6 figures and 10 references