"Murder-suicide" or "murder-accident"? Difficulties with the analysis of cases.
Homicide where a perpetrator is found dead adjacent to the victim usually represents murder-suicide. Two incidents are reported to demonstrate characteristic features in one, and alternative features in the other, that indicate differences in the manner of death. (i) A 37-year-old mother was found dead in a burnt out house with her two young sons in an adjacent bedroom. Deaths were due to incineration and inhalation of products of combustion. (ii) A 39-year-old woman was found stabbed to death in a burnt out house with her 39-year-old de facto partner deceased from the combined effects of incineration and inhalation of products of combustion. The first incident represented a typical murder-suicide, however, in the second incident, the perpetrator had tried to escape through a window and had then sought refuge in a bathroom under a running shower. Murder-accident rather than murder-suicide may therefore be a more accurate designation for such cases.
Byard
Roger W
RW
Discipline of Pathology, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia. byard.roger@saugov.sa.gov.au
Veldhoen
David
D
Kobus
Hilton
H
Heath
Karen
K
D000059:Accidents; D000328:Adult; D002056:Burns / Q000473:pathology; D002263:Carboxyhemoglobin / Q000032:analysis; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003486:Cyanides / Q000032:analysis; D005260:Female; D005390:Fires; D049429:Forensic Pathology; D005742:Gasoline; D006708:Homicide; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D015208:Smoke Inhalation Injury; D053260:Soot; D013405:Suicide; D014951:Wounds, Stab / Q000473:pathology
D003486:Cyanides; D005742:Gasoline; D053260:Soot; D002263:Carboxyhemoglobin