Another hanging autoerotic.
The victim was a 34-year-old white female, who lived alone in an apartment on the north side of the city. She was a schoolteacher, single, heterosexual, and in good physical and mental health at the time of her death. On Saturday she had spent the day with her parents, who were house hunting. She had dinner that evening with them and agreed to meet them the next day to continue house hunting.
Her father told her he would call her for church the next day. Usually she went to church with them. However, she told her father to call her afer church. On Sunday morning afer church her father called her but she did not answer. Knowing this to be strange he drove over to her apartment to check on her well-being. He entered the locked apartment with a key she had given to him for emergencies. He called out her name, and when she didn’t answer began to search the apartment. He opened the closed bathroom door and found her. She was hanging from the back of the door with a belt. She was nude with her breasts bound with rope very tightly and was hanging by her neck from a belt. Te belt had been secured to a hook in the back of her bathroom door. Te distraught man backed out of the apartment, locked the door and called the police.
Initially the death appeared to be sex-related homicide. Tere wasn’t any forced entry, the apartment had been locked, and there were no signs of any struggle. Te next suggestion was that the death was a possible suicide. However, that was quickly ruled out based on her victimology. Closer examination revealed the death to be accidental, involving autoerotic activities.
Te rope used was nautical rope. Additional nautical rope was found in her closet. Te belt came from a dress she owned and hadn’t worn in some time. Directly across from the victim was a full-length mirror in which she could view herself from the door. Te death was properly classifed as accidental. Many of the considerations as outlined in this chapter were present in this particular case. Tis provided the authorities a basis upon which to make a determination of accidental death involving sexual asphyxia