Suicide by self-decapitation

 

From the CBS News, Dallas Fort Worth, December 3, 2014;

"Police are investigating after a body was found in the street Wednesday afternoon at Singleton Boulevard and Vilbig Road.

Witnesses tell CBSDFW they saw a man scribble something in Spanish on his van.  He then tied one end of a rope around his neck and the other end around a fire hydrant. The man then drove off, decapitating himself.

The van came to a stop without hurting anyone.

It’s not clear exactly what the man wrote on the van."

Yeah, people do this.


From the New York Post, September 1, 2014:

"A man decapitated himself Monday morning in a suicide that left his headless corpse lying in a Bronx street, law enforcement sources said.

The 51-year-old man attached a metal chain to a pole on Longfellow Avenue around 9:20 a.m., the sources said.

Sitting in his car, he then wrapped the other end around his neck and hit the gas of the white 2005 Honda Pilot. As the car shot forward, the chain tore his head from his body."

From the Daily Mail (UK), August 7, 2008:

"A businessman decapitated himself in his sports car to get back at his younger wife for leaving him, an inquest has heard.

Gerald Mellin, 54, taunted his estranged wife Mirrielle, 33, with threats of suicide.

He even showed her the rope he was going to use, which he kept in the boot of his open-top Aston Martin DB7.

The court heard that the day before his death Mrs Mellin had been awarded an extra £100 a week in maintenance from her former husband.

Mr Mellin had then sent her a text message which read: 'Congratulations XXX.'

It was the last time she heard from him.

The businessman tied one end of the rope to a tree, then climbed into his Aston Martin and wrapped the other end around his neck.

He then drove the £90,000 car into a busy main road, forcing other drivers to watch his horrific death."

From the March 2014 edition of the Egyptian Journal of Forensic Sciences [WARNING: Gruesome photos]:

"Self-strangulation is a very uncommon method of suicide. Deaths by vehicle-assisted ligature are rarely published and mainly related to decapitation. We report an unusual case of self-strangulation where a body was found dead inside a car with a rope round his neck and tied to a bridge banister. The rope was broken at 20 meters from the vehicle while the victim was driving his car away.

The manner of death was determined as suicide based on objective scene investigation, autopsy and witness testimony.

This case is reported for its rarity due to the method of suicide employed by the victim and because it was not related to decapitation."

From the November 2008 edition of Legal Medicine:

"The victim (59-year-old male) used a long hemp rope tied between his neck and a cherry tree while attempting to drive his car away, resulting in complete decapitation. At autopsy, the decapitation wound of the head and the torso corresponded perfectly; a clear-cut severance plane was found at the bottom of the skull. In contrast to suicidal decapitation by hanging and traumatic railway injury, autopsy findings for vehicle-assisted ligature strangulation are rarely reported. A review of the literature concerning suicidal vehicle-assisted ligature strangulation suggested a striking young or adult male predominance, and the wound margins were usually clear-cut with a sharply-demarcated encircling abrasion zone. The present case presented some notable autopsy findings involving wound morphology and pathological changes in organs related to the mechanisms of injury and death. Despite complete decapitation, the face was congestive, the lungs were congested with findings of acute respiratory distress, and the brain was markedly swollen with diffuse and severe astrocyte injury, suggesting that asphyxiation was involved in the death before decapitation."