Byard Roger W, Veldhoen David, Kobus Hilton, Heath Karen
Discipline of Pathology, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia.
J Forensic Sci. 2010 Sep;55(5):1375-7. doi: 10.1111/j.1556-4029.2010.01407.x.
Homicide where a perpetrator is found dead adjacent to the victim usually represents murder-suicide. Two incidents are reported to demonstrate characteristic features in one, and alternative features in the other, that indicate differences in the manner of death. (i) A 37-year-old mother was found dead in a burnt out house with her two young sons in an adjacent bedroom. Deaths were due to incineration and inhalation of products of combustion. (ii) A 39-year-old woman was found stabbed to death in a burnt out house with her 39-year-old de facto partner deceased from the combined effects of incineration and inhalation of products of combustion. The first incident represented a typical murder-suicide, however, in the second incident, the perpetrator had tried to escape through a window and had then sought refuge in a bathroom under a running shower. Murder-accident rather than murder-suicide may therefore be a more accurate designation for such cases.
