U.I.L.S.

, PANJAB UNIVERSITY

Deaths from Asphyxia

Forensic Science

Submitted By :- Karnika Bansal

Roll No. – 217/10
9th Semester
 2
Deaths from Asphyxia

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT..............................................................................................................3

Chapter: An Introduction..............................................................................................................4

Chapter: Classification.................................................................................................................5

1. Hanging......................................................................................................................... 5
a. Introduction.............................................................................................................. 5
b. Ligature.................................................................................................................... 5
c. Post mortem Appearances.......................................................................................5
d. Types of hanging......................................................................................................6
e. Fatal Period.............................................................................................................. 7
2. Strangulation................................................................................................................. 7
a. Introduction.............................................................................................................. 7
b. Medico-Legal Indicators...........................................................................................7
c. Strangulation – Suicidal / Homicidal / Accidental......................................................8
3. Suffocation.................................................................................................................... 8
a. Introduction.............................................................................................................. 8
b. Environmental Suffocation.......................................................................................9
c. Medico-Legal Indicators...........................................................................................9
4. Drowning..................................................................................................................... 10
a. Introduction............................................................................................................ 10
b. Injuries/Signs/Circumstances of Drowning Persons...............................................10
c. Drowning – Accidental / Suicidal / Homicidal..........................................................10
d. Post Fatal Period....................................................................................................11

Chapter: Forensic Pathology – Legal Scenario..........................................................................11

Conclusion................................................................................................................................. 12

BIBLIOGRAPHY........................................................................................................................ 13
 3
Deaths from Asphyxia

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I wish to express my sincere gratitude to Prof. Ajay Ranga, for providing me

this opportunity to do my project work on the topic of “Deaths from Asphyxia
Introduction, Hanging, Strangulation, Suffocation, Drowning”. This project
helped me understand the concept of the same.

I also wish to express my gratitude to the Library staff of University

Institute of Legal Studies who rendered their help and co-operation during the
period of my project work.

Last but not least I wish to avail myself of this opportunity to express a
sense of gratitude to my parents and friends for their endless support and faith.

Submitted by: Karnika Bansal

Roll No: 217/ 10
5th Year, 9th Semester
 4
Deaths from Asphyxia

Chapter: An Introduction

A sphyxia or asphyxiation can be defined as a condition in which there is

interference in the uptake or release of Oxygen thereby leading to
failure to eliminate Carbon dioxide. Many rapid deaths of Medico-
legal importance are fundamentally due to an interference with oxygenation of
the times. For practical purpose such deaths may be classified by the manner in
which the hypoxia (O2 deficiency) or the anoxia (total lack of oxygen) is
initiated. Many incidents have been reported on asphyxia as death and coma.
The asphyxia in legal aspect can be caused by a number of events i.e. hanging,
strangulation, suffocation, drowning, etc. Strangulation, the deliberate
squeezing of the neck, can cut off oxygen to the brain, drowning, where the air
in the lungs is replaced by water. The airway can also be blocked when a victim
chokes on an object such as a small toy or piece of food. Finally, the airway can
also be physically be blocked by hanging, when a person is suspended in the air
by a rope or other object wrapped around their throat. Asphyxiation from
hanging can occur quickly if the trachea is compressed, or can occur as a result
of strangulation if the carotid arteries are compressed.

When investigating a suspected case of asphyxiation, a forensic investigator

will look for telltale signs. Some of the general pathological changes are:

- Capillaries are particularly susceptible to hypoxia and anoxia, and such

injury of the capillaries will result in their dilation. This is followed by
stagnation of blood in the dilated capillaries and in the venules, which
accounts for the capillo venous engorgement which is a major feature of
the general pathological findings in rapid hypoxic and  anoxic death

- Injury to the capillary wall is often accompanied by small red to purple

spots on the skin surface which can vary in size and distribution

- Post mortem fluidity of blood

- Cardiac dilatation

- Abnormal blue discoloration of the skin called Cyanosis

 5
Deaths from Asphyxia

Chapter: Classification
1. Hanging

a. Introduction
Hanging is that form of asphyxia which is caused by suspension of the body by a ligature
which encircles the neck, the constricting force being the weight of the body. The whole
weight of the body is not necessary, and only a comparatively slight force is enough to
produce death. In ‘partial hanging’ the bodies are partially suspended, the toes or feet
touching the ground, or are in a sitting, kneeling, lying down, prone or any other posture. The
weight of the head acts as the constricting force. In ‘typical hanging’, the knot is situated
over the nape of the neck  ligature runs from the midline above the thyroid cartilage
symmetrically upward on both sides of the neck to the occipital region. When the body is
completely suspended by a Ligature with full weight acting as constricting force it is termed
as ‘Complete Hanging’.

b. Ligature

The ligature, that is, the material used to make the noose and suspend the victim, like a rope,
metallic chains and wires, leather strap, belt, bed sheet, scarf, dhoti, saree, turban, sacred
thread, etc. It should be noted whether the mark on the neck corresponds with the material
alleged to have been used in hanging and if it is strong enough to bear the weight and the jerk
of the body. The texture and length should be noted, to know whether it was sufficient to
hang.

c. Post mortem Appearances

The ligature mark in the neck is the most important and specific sign of death from hanging.
Ligature mark on the neck depends on:
1. Composition of ligature: The pattern and texture is produced upon the skin, e.g., if
thick rope is used etc.
2. Width and multiplicity of ligature
3. The weight of the body suspended and the degree of the suspension: Heavier the body
and greater the proportion of the body suspended, the more marked is the ligature
impression.
4. The tightness of encircling ligature
5. The length of time body has been suspended: Longer the suspension, deeper is the
groove.
6. Position of the knot
 6
Deaths from Asphyxia

Ligature mark:
- The ligature produces a furrow or groove in the tissue which is pale in color, but it
later becomes yellowish or yellow brown and hard like parchment, due to the drying
of the slightly abraded skin. The mark is situated above the level of thyroid cartilage,
between the larynx and the chin in 80 percent of cases.
- When fresh, the ligature mark is less clear, but becomes prominent after dying for
several hours.
- When a folded cloth has been used, there may be great difference between the
appearance of the neck mar and the size of the ligature.
- In obese persons or infants, skin folds on the neck may resemble a ligature mark
- When there is swelling of the neck tissues due to decomposition, marks may be
produced by jewellery or clothing.
- In cases of partial hanging, the constricting face is less and congestive changes are
more marked. Hanging may occur when pressure is applied only at the front of the
neck, e.g. by the arm of a chair, rung of a ladder, etc. in such case, the marks on the
neck may be indistinct or absent

Other signs:
1. The neck is stretched and elongated and the head is always inclined to the side
opposite to the knot
2. The face is usually pale
3. The tongue is usually swollen and blue especially at the base, and usually forced
against the teeth when the jaw is shut, or the tip may be found projecting between the
lips. The protruding part of the tongue is usually dark-brown or even black due to
drying. The lips and the mucous membrane of the mouth are blue.

d. Types of hanging

Accidental hanging:
Accidental hanging may occur during play or at work. Some padding between ligature and
neck suggests accident. The ligature need not completely encircle the neck to cause death.
Cases of accidental hanging are:
- Workmen in falling from scaffolding may be hanged by becoming entangled in ropes
- Infants wearing restraining apparatus may wriggle partly out of it, and become
asphyxiated by its tightening around their neck as they try to crawl away

Suicidal Hanging:
Hanging is a common method of committing suicide. A typical method of self-suspension is
to attach a rope to a high point, such as a beam, window-casing, ceiling fan, branch of a tree,
etc. The lower end is formed into either a fixed loop or a slip-knot which is placed around the
neck. The victim stands on a stool, chair or other platform and jumps off or kicks away the
support, due to which the body is suspended. It is important to examine the point of
 7
Deaths from Asphyxia

attachment and the surrounding area.

Homicidal Hanging:
It is extremely rare. It is difficult for a single assailant to carry it out unless the victim
becomes unconscious by injury or by a drug, or is taken unawares, or is a child or a very
weak person. Homicide should be suspected
- where there are signs of violence or disorder of furniture or other objects,
- where the clothing of the deceased is torn or disarranged,
- where there are injuries, either offensive or defensive. Any definite scratches,
especially nail marks point to manual strangulation, and if associated with bruising of
neck structures and fracture, the probability of murder is strong. In all doubtful cases,
circumstantial evidence is important.

Post-mortem Hanging:
A person may be murdered, and the dead body suspended to simulate suicide. Such hanging
shows signs of dragging to the place of suspension. When a dead body is suspended, the rope
is usually tied first around the neck, and then around the beam, branch of a tree, etc. The
beam shows evidence of the rope having moved from below upwards as the body has been
pulled up. In true suicidal hanging, the rope moves from above downwards.

Judicial Hanging: 
A rope to allow a drop of 5 to 7 meters according to the weight, age and build of the person,
is looped round the neck, with the knot under the angle of the jaw. It results in immediate
unconsciousness, but heart beats and respiratory movements may continue up to 10 to 15
minutes and spasmodic muscular jerking may occur for a considerable time.

e. Fatal Period

The usual period is 3 to 5 minutes.

2. Strangulation

a. Introduction

Strangulation is that form of asphyxia which is caused from constriction of the neck by
ligature without suspending the body. Pulling a U-shaped ligature against the front and sides
of the neck while standing at the back can cause death. It is of two types: Strangulation by a
ligature, and manual strangulation or throttling.

b. Medico-Legal Indicators

- In death due to strangling, the general features of asphyxial death are present. Their
local distribution in the head and neck is strongly presumptive of strangulation. This
 8
Deaths from Asphyxia

is confirmed by the ligature mark on the neck. Evidence of violent compression or

constriction of the neck during life is obtained from the presence of bruising or the
marks on the neck, hemorrhages in the strap muscles, under the skin, in the sides of
the tissues around the trachea and larynx.
- Certain marks on the neck produced after death may simulate ligature mark
- In cases of putrefaction, a medical opinion about strangulation can be given fairly, if
there are signs of mechanical violence applied to the neck, e.g., fracture of the larynx,
bruising of the muscles and visible skin impressions. Indistinct marks on the neck,
patches of discolouration or signs of asphyxia cannot be relied upon as evidence of
strangulation in a putrefied body.

c. Strangulation – Suicidal / Homicidal / Accidental

Suicide by strangulation is rare. Various methods of tightening the ligature are employed by
the victims. A person may strangle himself by leaning with the whole weight of his body on a
cord passed round the neck and attached to a fixed point. In suicidal strangulation, the signs
of venous congestion are very well developed above the ligature. Injuries are usually less
marked because less force is used and the body should not show signs of violence or marks of
struggle.

Homicidal Strangulation is a common form of murder. There may be more than one ligature
mark, each of varying intensity and crossing each other, in parallel or at an angle to each
other. Abrasions are usually seen due to movement of the ligature across the neck. Fingernail
marks may be seen, either from the victim attempting to remove the ligature. Ligature marks
produced after death do not show bruising. Either a grooved impression is seen on the skin
which is not injured, or yellow or brown abrasion without signs of vital reaction. There may
be ligatures or other marks around the limbs especially wrists and ankles, which may be
placed either before or after death.

Examples of Accidental Strangulation are:

- Children may get entangled in ropes during play, or the neck may be caught in
window cords, etc. infants are sometimes strangled in their cots when the neck is
caught inside bars, in restrainers, braces, etc.
- Persons under the influence of alcohol, epileptics, and individuals with mental
challenges may be strangled either by a tight scarf or collar and neck tie. It may occur
if an intoxication person rests the neck against a bar or other hard object.
- In industry, belts, ropes or parts of clothing may be caught in the rollers or other parts
of the moving machinery and cause accidental strangulation.

3. Suffocation

a. Introduction
 9
Deaths from Asphyxia

Suffocation is a general term to indicate that form of asphyxia, which is caused by

deprivation of oxygen, either due to lack of oxygen in the environment or from obstruction of
the air-passages.

b. Environmental Suffocation
- Asphyxia is due to insufficient oxygen in the environment. Deaths are almost always
accidental. An oxygen concentration of 16% or less is dangerous, and with 5%
concentration, consciousness is lost rapidly and death occurs within a few minutes.
- In a confined space, such as tanks, grain-bins, silos, deep tanks of a ship, fermenters,
tanning vats, unused wells, sewers, etc., hazardous gases, vapour, dust or fumes may
accumulate or the oxygen may be deficient. A person may be suffocated on entering
such a confined space.
- Inhalation of irrespirable gases, such as CO2, CO, hydrogen sulphide, or smoke from
a burning house, or entering into disused wells produce suffocation. CO2 and methane
are the most commonly encountered suffocating gases.
- Suffocation may occur in decompression, such as cabin failure of aircraft at high
altitudes. It also occurs in ship’s tanks or other industrial metal chambers, in which
oxygen is replaced by nitrogen. In deaths associated with replacement of oxygen with
an inert gas, rapid death is common before hypoxia had any physiological effect. In
hypoxic death petechial hemorrhages are absent. Congestion and cyanosis may or
may not be present.

c. Medico-Legal Indicators

- Obstruction by bed clothing, a pillow, a cushion, etc., applied with skill, may not
leave any external signs of violence, especially in the young and the old, except signs
of asphyxia. When the face is pressed into a pillow, the skin around the nose and
mouth may appear pale or white due to pressure, with cyanosis of the face. Saliva,
blood, and tissue cells may be found on the pillow.
- The lips, gums and tongue may show bruising or laceration. slight bruising may be
found in the mouth and nose,
- The fatal period is 3 to 5 minutes
- Blood may ooze out from the mouth and nose. The tongue may be protruded and may
have been bitten.
- The head and face enclosed in a plastic bag are pale, with few petechial hemorrhages
in the eyelids and pericardium. In some cases, death is rapid due or reflex cardiac
arrest, and asphyxial signs are absent.
- Homicidal suffocation or smothering is extremely difficult to detect. The autopsy may
reveal asphyxia, but there may not be any corroborative medical evidence to prove
foul play. The pathological changes must be interpreted keeping in view the medical
 10
Deaths from Asphyxia

history of the deceased, the scene of death, and the specific circumstances
surrounding the death.

4. Drowning

a. Introduction

Drowning is a form of asphyxia due to aspiration of fluid into air-passages, caused by

submersion in water or other fluid. Complete submersion is not necessary, for
submersion of the nose and mouth alone for a sufficient period can cause death from
drowning.

b. Injuries/Signs/Circumstances of Drowning Persons

The reliable signs of drowning at autopsy are:

- Fine, white froth at the mouth and nose.

- The presence of fine froth in the lungs and air-passages.
- The voluminous water-logged lungs.
- The presence of water in the stomach and intestines,
- Findings of diatoms in the tissues.
- When a person receives an injury during fall into the water which prevents him from
struggle, the signs will be slight. A body removed from water undergoes rapid
decomposition. If the post-mortem is delayed for a few hours, or if any appreciable
delay has occurred before recovery of the body from water, the signs of drowning will
not be found to great extent.
- If the body remains in water, lividity appears in the head, neck and chest, and
putrefaction begins in the same place and produces the appearance of diffuse scalp
hemorrhage. The blood becomes more fluid and water is found in gradually
increasing quantity in the pleural cavities. In moderately advanced putrefaction the
diagnosis is difficult, the only evidence being the presence of water in the pleural
cavities due to diffusion of water from the lungs, which finally collapse, and froth in
bronchi. In advanced putrefaction the signs are completely absent. Algae get attached
to exposed portions of drowned bodies, multiply and from a layer over the skin, which
may be seen in 3 to 4 days in summer.
- Bodies recovered from water may have died of: natural disease before falling into the
water, natural disease, while already in the water, injuries before being thrown into
water, injury while in water, drowning. The manner of death cannot be interpreted
 11
Deaths from Asphyxia

from an autopsy alone. The findings have to be viewed together with the
circumstances.

c. Drowning – Accidental / Suicidal / Homicidal

Homicidal drowning in shallow water is possible, if the assailants hold the victim’s head in
such a position as to cover the nostrils and mouth. Signs of struggle or marks of violence on
the body are likely to be found in such cases. If a person is taken unawares or rendered
senseless and defenseless by alcohol or hypnotic drugs, and head is submerged in water for 5
to 10 minutes, no marks of violence will be found on the body.

Drowning is a common method of committing suicide. Suicidal drowning may be preceded

by the swallowing of the poison, cutting the throat or other suicidal attempts. Sometimes,
suicides tie their hands or legs together, and in such case the manner of tying, and the knot of
the rope or ligature should be examined to determine whether they could have been made by
the suicide himself. Injuries may be caused during fall, especially if the bodies are found in
the wells. Unless there are strong currents, the body will not move very far from its initial
position.

Occasionally, swimmers, fishermen and dockworkers may be drowned accidentally, but it is

common in non-swimmers. It also occurs while bathing in tanks, rivers or sea. Accidental
drowning in the swimming pool sometimes results from jumping off the diving board. Impact
of the forehead on the floor of the pool may cause hyperextension of the head and loss of
consciousness with subsequent inhalation of water. In such cases, haemorrhages are seen in
the deep neck muscles

d. Post Fatal Period

The time of floatation of body varies greatly. Very obese persons and infants float more
readily than thin or heavily-framed persons. The body floats in about 12 to 18 hours in
summer, and 18 to 36 hours in winter in India. In cold countries the body floats in about 2
days to one week or more, depending on temperature of the water. The epidermis and nails
are loosened and the skin of the hands and feet may be peeled off in 2 to 4 days. In advanced
decomposition, the body usually floats belly up.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Online Resources:-
 12
Deaths from Asphyxia

1. http://www.legalserviceindia.com/article/l153-Forensic-Evidence.html
2. http://www.forensicpathologyonline.com/E-Book/asphyxia
3. http://www.slideshare.net/soemdy/a-introduction-to-forensic-medicine

Journals & Research Papers:-

1. Anil Aggrawal's internet journal of forensic medicine and toxicology;

Introduction to forensic medicine and legal procedures prevalent in India
- part I; 2001;
http://www.anilaggrawal.com/ij/vol_002_no_001/ug002_001_1.html

2. Adarsh M. Dhabarde; “Forensic evidences in criminal trial: need of the

hour”; July 18, 2012;

Statutes:-

1. Criminal Procedure Code 1973

2. Indian Evidence Act 1872