I have what my friends in Louisiana would call the “red ass” about something and maybe you can help me out. This is a real world occurrence, one which may have passed under your radar, and I am quite frankly puzzled as to the official explanation. I am going to present what has occurred as a writing exercise, in the form of a hypothetical situation, and maybe one of you can explain to me how such a thing could occur. Maybe you can see something that I can’t, and in the course of an imaginative whimsy explain to me what I seem to be missing.
Here we go: a woman was found dead, hanging from a second-floor balcony, a noose around her neck. Her hands were tied tightly behind her back. Her feet were bound as well. I also note, as an element of distraction, that she was naked. A relative who had spoken with her the evening before the discovery of her body stated that the deceased did not seem depressed or despondent. Her death, after a six-week investigation, was ruled a suicide by the local sheriff‘s office. The victim supposedly bound her hands and feet, tied a rope around her neck, and hung herself from the balcony. In that order.
Assuming, arguendo, that the ruling is correct, how was this unfortunate woman able to do this? Any theories among you mystery aficionados?
Note: Stephen King, for his novel GERALD’S GAME, actually had his family handcuff him to a bedpost in order that he could determine whether and how he could in fact free himself from the situation which he devised for his protagonist in the novel. I don’t want you to follow suit in attempting to solve my puzzle, no matter what sort of day you are having. To be honest with you, I just tried to do it and could not. I couldn’t get past tying my feet together. That was a neat trick in itself, since I haven’t seen them since 2001.
There is a prize for the best answer, by the way, which will be awarded at my discretion to the winner of my choice. Start your engines and shake your heads.
I think I saw something similar to this on TV, a crime show. I’m presuming that she goes through this trouble to make her suicide look like murder or else why naked & why bind hands & feet. Did she stage a break in too, to support the murder idea?
She’d have to get naked first (presumably stage an attack scene for her clothes to be strewn about) and set up the rope tied off to something that would support her weight, with noose loosely around her neck. She’d then bind her ankles using her hands, sitting down on a landing. Then she’d tie her hands in front (using her teeth/mouth to tighten the knot). Now here’s the tricky part. She’d have to be limber enough to slip her bound ankles through her tied arms to end up with her hands tied behind her back. Then she’d throw herself over a banister and let gravity take care of the rest.*snap*
Unless I’m missing something, the how isn’t hard to figure. It’s the why that would be tough to come up with. Motivation is the real story. A good CSI guy might test for the victim’s saliva on the rope. Her saliva wouldn’t be there if her hands were bound behind her back. Dead giveaway, so to speak. If her saliva is found on the rope, that would support a suicide finding, but I’d sure want to have a solid motive.) And why naked?
Kinda reminds me of that flick, The Life of David Gayle.
I didn’t believe it was suicide when I heard this on the news, but they’re saying she was, in fact, despondent over the death of her young child. That’s why they’re ruling it a suicide. Frankly, I can see how most of it could be pulled off, but not the hands behind her back. Very fishy indeed.
I’m still trying to figure out how this is a suicide. I’m not sure even a contortionist could manage to pull this.
Another one that’s confusing me at the moment is the case is the Pacific Northwest of the mysterious 11 feet that have washed up on shore. They just found the 11th foot…still in a sports shoe. The coroner said there was no signs of foul play. Really? Did the foot just spontaneously detach? Definitely going to have to ponder both these cases.
My first thought was murder. After all, how could it not be.
But then I wasn’t there to see what the police saw. As far as the hands behind the back, I’d want to know if the knots were where she could have tied them.
Jordan’s saliva idea is great.
I heard a news story not long ago about the problems arising from inaccurate cause of death rulings in the U.S. stemming from unqualified coroners and not enough credentialed medical examiners.
I also saw a program on how some funeral homes have been caught selling body parts, skin, and even bones to medical companies. A big bust happened in New York, very high profile. The funeral home skinned a man’s body & covered it up with his casket clothes. Another incident, that NYC funeral removed a guy’s femurs and other major bones to sell them, replacing them with pvc pipe, then buried him. His body was later exhumed and x-rayed.
I’ve decided. I’m not dying. Ever.
Joe, I’m with you. I couldn’t figure this one out, and I’m usually pretty good with locked room mysteries.
You mention that you tried to recreate this yourself. When can we expect the photos of you, naked and trying to tie yourself up? Or will those be going to an as-yet-unspecified S&M site?
Thanks for sharing this.
Joe’s referring to a real-world incident in San Diego involving a pharmaceutical tycoon, his 6 year old son, and his girlfriend. The boy supposedly fell down stairs and was fatally injured. A few days later, the girlfriend, was found dead, as Joe describes. The county coroner has ruled the boy’s death an accident and the girlfriend’s death a suicide. The latter ruling came just yesterday, based in part on DNA evidence from the scene, evidently ruling out the involvement of another person.
I think where everyone’s getting distracted (perfect for a mystery, no?) is the bit about the wrists being bound “tightly” behind her back. Were they, in fact, bound “tightly?” And what, exactly, does “tightly” mean? If her hands were behind her back, any such binding would only have to be strong enough to keep her from freeing them from a position where her strength and leverage would already be limited. Duct tape might be strong enough. And if that was the last thing she did before she took that fatal step off the balustrade, there’s no need for gymnastics to get the rope around her neck.
Of course, all of this is speculation since the coroner hasn’t, and probably won’t, release the details of how the wrists were bound and with what material. Gruesome speculation, but reasonable, I’m afraid. Of course, that doesn’t mean it’s correct.
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If she had long arms and good hip/back flexibility, she could (1) bind her ankles, (2) wrap a noose around her neck, (3) bind her wrists, and then (4) extend her bound wrists over her feet and behind her back.
Of course, this scenario leaves open the question of why? Why go to all that trouble to make it appear to be something other than a suicide (or, at least, to make the cause and method of death seem ambiguous)?
If this woman somehow felt responsible for the boy’s death (pure speculation on my part), I can conceive how that might cause an (already) emotionally distressed person to commit suicide. What I cannot understand is her reason for doing so in such a bizarre manner that seems designed to mislead.
I can’t help but think that this story still has a few chapters to be written.
The woman in this case, if she were relatively limber would have no problem with the physical juxtaposition. Especially in light of being naked, that may even have been the purpose for the nudity, to enable her sweat slicked skin to slide easy when she moved her tied hands behind her back. If she were desperate enough to kill herself, the temporary pain of the rope cutting into her wrists or shoulders being disjointed in the maneuver may not have even been felt. When I was a much younger man of about 16 or so I was able to perform just such a maneuver without the need to get naked.
She could’ve tied the ankles, noosed the neck, bound the hands, slid them around the back then stood and rolled over the ballistrade.
The most disturbing aspects of suicide to me are the reasons behind it. That reason can of course vary significantly, and as is often the case, it may be impossible even for immediately involved parties to understand the final thoughts that pushed the victim over the edge.
On a similar note, we recently endured what some thought of as a suicide of a friend’s teen son. The thing a lot of folks could not understand is how he hung himself in a kneeling position on the ground with a loosely knotted rope. Some even thought it may have been a murder. In the end the conclusion was that he did not hang himself, and neither was it a case of murder as some had first considered. He had been practicing self-strangulation to constrict the air flow to his brain and produce a high. Sometimes that high can be strong, and some get addicted to it. In his case, he tied the noose to the bathroom door, leaned into the noose, achieved the high, and fainted. That faint normally would have caused him to fall, the noose loosen, and consciousness return. In this case, he fell in the wrong direction and oxygen flow never returned. His poor mother found him after returning home from work. He’d crossed the river more than twelve hours before the discovery and had she not chanced into his room would’ve been even longer. A life lost unintentionally to foolishness at 19.
There’s a term, Murder/suicide
How about murderous suicide
I agree with Joe. My first, second, and third instinct all say she had help, even if it did turn out to be a suicide, which doesn’t readily seem to be the case.
Feet- pretty easy to wrap up.
Rope- would probably have set that up prior so that you could just slip your neck in and go.
Hands are the tough part- especially the fact that you said she was tightly bound.
Although it is possible for some to pull their bound hands back & forth over bound legs, it is pretty tough without some play in the wrists – say handcuffs vs duct tape. You need some room to literally wiggle through. So it would work best if you could rig something to hold the tape like thread in a sewing machine or TP on a roll and put your hands behind your back and then kind of twist wrap them.
Sweat soaked naked- I think that would cause more problems than help when trying to futz with the tape.
Pretty tough to get over a railing with your feet and hands tied without kind of rolling yourself over which would leave perimortem bruising most probably.
There are some things I would want to check-
1. I think the of the arms would be a bit different if I did it to myself, than if someone tied my arms behind me- the angles of the joints (shoulders, elbows, etc) would be different as well as some of the stresses on those joints. Getting the tape tight on the legs, not too tough, but having a smoothish tight wrap on the wrists would be tough with your teeth and whatever else you might try to use to help.
2. Jordan- saliva-good call to check out, but with duct tape you get really good finger prints too- they solved a robbery homicide at a shoe store in Salt Lake because they were able to pull great fingerprints off of the duct tape they’d bound the clerk in. It also captures skin cells and stuff well.
3. Anyone that goes to these lengths for show and there is no nifty suicide note- really? If someone was going to go to these lengths, nudity and all, I’d expect them to be making a more of a complete statement, maybe even on their person.
4. All this being bound up- hands, feet, neck – but no gag or tape on the mouth? Strange. It would take a lot of effort to do that to yourself and you would probably be making some noise of exertion- maybe some snot, spittal, or tears on the face…. unless you were unconscious when someone did this to you- no muss, no fuss, no noise, and no need to tape or gag mouth. There wouldn’t even be the same stress on the joints if the person was out cold to even normally resist a tight, uncomfortable binding.
If it wasn’t murder, I think she still had help. Me thinketh it stinketh and they have some more ‘splaning to do.
You didn’t say how she was bound and looking over the other comments- some are thinking cloth or rope maybe, where I went with tape. Cloth or rope would give more wriggle room than tape, but would also probably not be as tight.
Usually when someone wants to commit suicide they’ve gone from thinker to doer- it’s an action thing- If I felt so bad about something that I was going to kill myself- I would just leap off the landing or do so with a rope- the binding and the nudity and such would be a curious, time consuming distraction for me.
Jordan, that’s excellent. There’s been some reports that her hands and ankles were “loosely” tied, which I guess would give her a bit more wiggle room. I agree with Nancy and Stephanie as to the degree of difficulty involved in doing something like this. You would almost be killing yourself trying to kill yourself. If you know what I mean.
Excellent question as to “why” in the sense of “why that way.” Being a guy, I of course thought that it might have something to with some sort of foreplay which she had her significant other might have engaged in, kind of a “remember me like this” thing. It still seems to be a very, very strange way to end it all, however.
Basil, I’m sorry for your friend’s loss. A similar thing happened to a young man at my daughter’s school. They called it suicide but there were a number of elements that indicated that it was more than likely death by misadventure. The problem with talking to kids about autoerotic asphyxiation and the danger of it is that there is the risk that it will plant the idea in the heads of some of them to try it.
Thanks so much for all the comments (I like the “murderous suicide” classification, John. And Richard, per your inquiry, here is a picture of the aftermath of my research:
http://www.bjwinslow.com/gallery/custom_portfolio/beached_whale_11_sized
(courtesy B.J. Winslow, Sun Valley, CA)
Joe, you’re not alone in questioning this ‘suicide.’ Yesterday’s San Diego Union-Tribune put up an animation of how the woman tied her own hands. It’s a very complicated knot. And she supposedly also bound her ankles with duct tape. If someone has to walk from the bed (where the hanging rope was anchored) across the room, go onto a balcony and over the rail, why would they bind their ankles? Doesn’t make sense. Sheriff’s representatives in the press conference said she leaned over the balcony railing and fell. She was a petite Asian woman and the railing wasn’t low. Just sayin’. A lot of us here have way more questions than answers even after the declaration of suicide. It’s one of those cases that won’t go away.
Since Jordan stole all the good theories, I’ll add a little tale.
About 3 years ago a young man hung himself in our county jail. He pulled threads out of a blanket and wove himself a rope. He tied off on the top bunk and released his knees and hung there, half-kneeling until he passed out and gravity did its job.
I wrote and subbed a 100-word flash fiction based on this incident called “Suicide By State.”
The editor kicked it back, rejected, saying, “no one could kill himself like that, this is too far-fetched.”
Terri
Terri, I’d resubmit that story to a better editor. I can’t remember who, but someone said that if you can think of it, someone has already done it.
JJ, my understanding is that some investigative reporters are already putting boots on the ground in San Diego. The victim’s significant other is very well connected, apparently, with the Sheriff’s Office (and, ahem, much, much higher up). This whole matter might best be looked at by an independent investigator with no skin in the game.
Chaco, I’m with you. One could describe how to do it, but it would be tough to actually DO it.I mean, why not just hang yourself? Or take barbituates?
What does her toxicology look like? Maybe she killed herself before her sick “lover” hog-tied and hung her or perhaps she recruited him to “assist” her. Motive? She thought she was about to be exposed for doing something bad. Being the vain woman she was, she didn’t want to stick around to witness her own demise, so took her life and staged it as a murder.
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Toxicology supposedly came back as normal, Deb, one of the things that led to the suicide ruling. The thought about staging it to look like a murder cum execution crossed my mind as well.
The woman’s lover was apparently at the hospital with his child when this occurred. Of course, that doesn’t rule out the presence of another lover, though there is no indication of that at this point. There are stories in the literature, however, of rough sex of this nature having gone sideways, which is why the responsible guidelines on the subject advise those who are so inclined to be careful, take it slowly, and be aware at all times of what is happening to/with your partner. Which, of course, is good practice no matter what you enjoy.
Joe—I’m figuring that it was suicide. She didn’t die by hanging from the balcony. She killed herself beforehand. Someone else did all the trussing after the fact.
Other than that, I’m stumped. I’m a romance writer, for goodness sake. 🙂
I like Kathleen’s idea. There’s something missing from this story.
And do please keep us informed. I’m curious what else appears with this case.