[Self-strangulation?].

Abstract

A sixty year old man was found stangled to death with a part-elastic belt. As the ecchymosis, which are typically found above the mark of strangling, were missing, considerable doubt emerged at first as to the cause of death and to a suicide by strangling. Measurements of the elasticity of the instrument of strangulation, of the size of the neck and the head, as well as self-experiments aimed at reconstruction the circumstances had, in pathophysiological respect, the result of a method of self-strangulation similar to a typical hanging. The remaining circumstances also point to a suicide.