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We present a unique case of suicidal hanging. The deceased was a 31-year-old male who was found hanging from a tree in a dense thicket, with his lower limbs in contact with the ground (partial suspension). There was an apparatus similar to a facial mask placed around his nose and mouth. A strong chemical smell was emanating from the apparatus, which was identified as chloroform (Formyl trichloride/CHCl). A ligature with a soft cloth beneath it was around his neck. A ligature mark was present around the neck. The decedent's blood alcohol levels were 112 mg/dl. The blood and stomach contents were negative for chloroform. A complete death investigation, including scene investigation and complete autopsy examination, confirmed the cause of death as hanging. The manner of death was suicide. This case highlights how the deceased had used several methods whilst committing suicide to minimize pain, including the inhalation of chloroform, which would have also resulted in the inability to engage in protective actions during the act.

Stwierdzenie przypadku samozadzierzgnięcia powinno zostać poprzedzone kompleksowym badaniem okoliczności zgonu, ponieważ do zadzierzgnięcia z reguły dochodzi w wyniku zabójstwa. W pracy opisano przypadek 33-letniego mężczyzny cierpiącego na depresję. W czasie leczenia stwierdzono jego nieobecność na oddziale psychiatrycznym. Znaleziono go następnego dnia na parkingu przeznaczonym dla lekarzy oddziału. Zmarły znajdował się w pozycji na brzuchu, a wokół jego szyi owinięty był pasek materiału pochodzący z jego sarongu. Stwierdzono cechy zadzierzgnięcia. W wyniku badania miejsca zdarzenia oraz autopsji w połączeniu z analizą przebiegu choroby psychicznej stwierdzono samozadzierzgnięcie. Do opisania tego przypadku skłoniła nas rzadkość samozadzierzgnięcia, zwłaszcza w warunkach szpitalnych, a także rodzaj opaski zaciskowej zastosowanej przez zmarłego (fragment materiału z sarongu).

Introduction: Sex determination using human skeletal remains is a challenging task for forensic practitioners and foramen magnum is used at lesser extents for this purpose. The aim of this study was to determine the sex by evaluating the parameters of the foramen magnum in a Sri Lankan population using computed tomography (CT).Methods: CT images of 300 individuals aged between 20 to 60 years, comprising 146 males (49%) and 154 females (51%), obtained from the Radiology Department of National Hospital, Kandy, Sri Lanka were retrieved for the study. Four parameters of the foramen magnum, namely length, width, circumference, and area, were measured/calculated using the RadiAnt Dicom Viewer 2022.1 software and analyzed using SPSS 26 software.Results: The analyses indicated that all four measurements were significantly higher in males than in females. All the parameters showed positive correlations with each other. Discriminant function analysis indicated that length was the most dimorphic single parameter for males, with an accuracy of 76%, and for females, the length also provided an accuracy of 71%.Conclusion: Results of this study show that the parameters of the foramen magnum, mainly the length, can be used for sex determination. By combining other parameters of sexing human bones, more accurate results for sex determination can be obtained.

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