Journal List > Korean J Leg Med > v.41(3) > 1088022

TOOLS
Lee, Park, Jung, Kim, and Ha: Drowning with Bound Wrists: Report of Two Autopsy Cases
Case Report

Korean Journal of Legal Medicine 2017; 41(3): 78-82.

Published online: 31 August 2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.7580/kjlm.2017.41.3.78

Drowning with Bound Wrists: Report of Two Autopsy Cases

Taebum Lee1, Hyun-do Park2, Yong-Han Jung3, Jung Hwan Kim4, Hongil Ha4

1Department of Pathology, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.

2Busan Metropolitan Police, Busan, Korea.

3Division of Forensic Medicine, National Forensic Service Busan Institute, Yangsan, Korea.

4Division of Forensic Investigation, National Forensic Service Seoul Institute, Seoul, Korea.

Correspondence to: Hongil Ha. Division of Forensic Investigation, National Forensic Service Seoul Institute, 139 Jiyang-ro, Yangcheongu, Seoul 08036, Korea. Tel: +82-2-2600-4611, Fax: +82-2-2600-4629, sanchee@korea.kr

Received 21 May 2017       Revised 3 June 2017       Accepted 17 August 2017

© Copyright 2017 by the Korean Society for Legal Medicine

(open-access):

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Drowned bodies with bound wrists are occasionally observed in forensic practice. Suicidal victims may bind their hands or feet with a rope to ensure success of the suicide attempt, but the possibility of homicidal drowning cannot be excluded. We report on two autopsy cases of drowning with bound wrists. A 51-year-old man (case 1) was found in the bathroom beside the bathtub, with his head under the water in the bathtub. His wrists were tied with a green bath towel. An 83-year-old man (case 2) was found dead in a reservoir. His wrists were loosely bound with blue nylon traps on the back, and both ankles were loosely tied with socks, with a simple knot on the left ankle. At autopsy, the lungs were hyperinflated, and foamy fluid was exuded from the bronchi in both cases.

Keywords: Drowning, Suicide, Autopsy

Figures and Tables

Fig. 1

Case 1.

(A) The deceased was found aside of the bathtub in the bathroom, with his head under the water in the bathtub. (B) His wrists were tied with a green bath towel.
kjlm-41-78-g001
Fig. 2

Case 2.

Ropes and knots of wrists (A) and ankles (B).
kjlm-41-78-g002
Fig. 3

Case 2.

Lungs were hyperinflated (emphysema aquosum, A) and foamy fluid was exuded from bronchus (B).
kjlm-41-78-g003

Notes

Conflicts of Interest No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.

References

1. Statistics Korea. 2015 Causes of death [Internet]. Daejeon: Statistics Korea;2016. [cited 2017 May 1. Available from: http://www.kostat.go.kr.
2. Statistics Korea. 2013 Suicide investigation [Internet]. Daejeon: Statistics Korea;2014. cited 2017 May 1. Available from: http://www.kostat.go.kr.
3. World Health Organization. Injuries and violence: the fact 2014 [Internet]. Geneva: World Helath Organization;2014. cited 2017 May 1. Available from: http://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/other_injury/drowning/en/.
4. Ajdacic-Gross V, Weiss MG, Ring M, et al. Method of suicide: international suicide patterns derived from the WHO mortality database. Bull World Health Organ. 2008; 86:726–732.
5. Bierens JL. Drowning: prevention, rescue, treatment. 2nd ed. Berlin: Spinger-Verlag;2014.
6. Armstrong EJ, Erskine KL. Water-related death investigation: practical methods and forensic applications. Boca Raton: CRC Press;2016.
7. Behera C, Karthik K, Singh H, et al. Suicide pact by drowning with bound wrists: a case of medico-legal importance. Med Leg J. 2014; 82:29–31.
8. Todt M, Ast F, Wolff-Maras R, et al. Suicide by drowning: a forensic challenge. Forensic Sci Int. 2014; 240:e22-4.
9. D'Ovidio C, Rosato E, Carnevale A. An unusual case of murdersuicide: the importance of studying knots. J Forensic Leg Med. 2017; 45:17–20.
10. Piette MH, De Letter EA. Drowning: still a difficult autopsy diagnosis. Forensic Sci Int. 2006; 163:1–9.
TOOLS
Similar articles