45-year-old man with a history of borderline personality disorder was found in his apartment with fatal head injuries caused by the explosion of a firecracker in his mouth.
The noble gas helium is used in medicine, technology, and industry as a breathing, protective, or carrier gas. When inhaled, it replaces the oxygen in the air, leading to rapid loss of consciousness and hypoxemic suffocation. This property is now being exploited worldwide as a "modern and safe" method of suicide, requiring forensic scientists and criminologists to examine the methods and characteristics of this form of suicide, as well as the possibilities and limitations of its detection.