Mechanical asphyxia by three different mechanisms.

We report the case of death of a 75-year-old Caucasian woman, produced by three different ways of mechanical asphyxia: smothering and strangulation by hand and traumatic asphyxia by thoracic compression. All these criminal offences were carried out by one single assailant who compressed the mouth and the nose of the victim with the left hand, squeezed her neck with the right hand and pressed her thorax with the knees.