From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!eagle!mhuxt!mhuxi!mhuxj!presley
Newsgroups: net.suicide
Title: Was It Suicide or Not?
Article-I.D.: mhuxj.1093
Posted: Sat Jan  8 00:19:50 1983
Received: Sat Jan  8 07:26:51 1983

In the interest of getting something going on this group, the following
interesting tidbit is from "Murder Ink":

There are fashions in the means of suicide; the current vogue is jumping
from high places.

Myopic jumpers invariably remove their eyeglasses and put them in a
pocket before jumping.  The [NYC] Medical Examiner's Office considers
traces of prescription glass in a suicide's face a sure tip-off that it
was a murder.

Similarly, stabbing suicides never stab themselves through their
clothes, and most of them prefer to do their stabbing in the bathroom,
facing the mirror.

Characteristically, a woman will strip to the waist (sometimes leaving
on her bra), then stab herself in the abdomen 25-30 times with a small
knife until she passes out from loss of blood.  Death from
exsanguination follows.

A man, on the other hand, pulls back his shirt, or removes it, then
kills himself with a single thrust to the heart with a long-bladed
knife.

Variations from these two methods will make the medical examiner think
closely about murder rather than suicide.