STRANGLING
Death is due to pressure made on the neck by any form of ligature carried circularly round the neck, without suspension. The cord in hanging is, as a rule, placed more obliquely than in strangling.
The mode of death is the same as in hanging. The post-mortem appearances are similar to those of hanging, practically those of asphyxia. The mark on the neck is the principal feature. In position it is generally horizontal and situated below or on a level with the thyroid cartilage. It more completely encircles the neck. It may be interrupted in places if an irregular ligature has been used, causing irregular pressure. Its character depends largely upon the nature of the ligature. If the constriction has been uniform a continuous depression is produced which may be marked by ecchymosis. If the skin has been abraded, the line dries, and has a brownish, parchment-like appearance and feeling. If the ligature has been removed before life is quite extinct, the depressed line may disappear or be but slightly evident.
A soft, broad ligature may leave no mark on the neck, if not applied too tightly, or for too long a time. Should the victim have been strangled in the recumbent posture, and dragged upwards and backwards by the ligature, the mark will be on a slant as in hanging. According to the amount of violence used injuries may be caused to the deeper structures of the neck, such as effusion of blood into muscles, fractures of the thyroid or cricoid cartilage; rupture of the tympanum and epistaxis may take place.
Accidental strangulation may occur when a cord suspending a weight on the back and passing across the chest slips and encircles or compresses the neck.
Falling out of bed, with entanglement in the clothes or nightdress, may cause strangling by tightening of the neck-band round the neck.
Homicidal strangling is as common as homicidal hanging is rare. It is difficult to hang a man, but easy to strangle him, because consciousness is rapidly lost, and the victim is unable to offer any resistance once the cord is tightened round the neck. In homicidal strangling the murderer generally uses a great deal more violence than is necessary, and so there is found after death much more local injury in such cases.
Severe local injuries, such as fracture of the laryngeal cartilages or hyoid bone, denote homicide, as they are rarely noticed in suicidal strangulation.
There may also be signs of general violence about the face, neck, chest, or other parts of the body. The position of the knot affords no material help, as the murderer may tie it in any position, but more than one knot, especially if in different positions, points to homicide. It must be remembered that finger-nails or other marks in the vicinity of the ligature may be present in cases of suicides, from the slipping of the cord or the determined attempts of the suicide to carry out the act, or plucking at the cord involuntarily. When a person is first strangled, then hung, there would be two marks—one probably horizontal, the other slanting.
Suicidal strangulation is rare. The knot is generally adjusted at the front or side of the neck, the cord may encircle the neck several times. Injuries to the deep structures of the neck are absent. Signs of general violence are not necessarily present.
If there be two marks upon the neck, one due to an attempt at strangulation, the other to suspension, in a suicide, the first would be the less marked, the latter more pronounced, whereas in homicide the strangulation mark would be most distinct.