8/28/2023 0 Comments Bathtub diogenes syndrome![]() ![]() She and her husband resolved to clean up and, with Helen fighting them all the way, they gathered a mound of rubbish bags and seven car loads of possessions for recycling. There were "plates full of hard-as-a-rock spaghetti," she writes, "containers of motor oil, calculators and flashlights and key chains still in their packaging, knitting needles, magazines, bunches of brown bananas, and fast-food soda cups bleeding brown stickiness". Sholl describes the details of that scene in her gripping memoir, Dirty Secret: A Daughter Comes Clean About Her Mother's Compulsive Hoarding. "I could tell she wasn't able to cook, because the stove was piled high with pans and dishes, so I said: 'What's going on? Why haven't you cleaned?' And she just said: 'I don't have time to clean.'" The proximate cause of death in all cases was attributed to CO2 intoxication, based on the scene findings, the reconstructed sequence of events, the autopsy, and results of toxicological studies.On one memorable trip to her mother's house, "The scene was just pathological," she says. The rapid increase in CO2 concentration would render a victim helpless, with no time to wake and defend themselves, or others. Inhalation of pure CO2 ensured their rapid unconsciousness due to hypercapnia and severe anoxia. It is hypothesized that the husband placed an inhalation mask over the mouths and noses of his wife and children while they were sleeping. Two synthetic inhalation face masks and tubing were also found, which tested positive for the DNA of all four deceased family members. The container was almost empty and according to the label had been sold as a CO2-fertilizer for aquarium plants. A 500 g single-use CO2 cylinder was standing on the floor. The police found the wife and two sons lying in their beds and the husband in a supine position on the floor with a plastic bag over his head tied loosely around his neck with a rope. The bodies were those of a father (a 69-year-old business consultant), his wife (aged 26-years), and two sons (aged 3 and 6 years, respectively). Four bodies were discovered in an apartment in midsummer 2012 in Berlin, Germany. This report demonstrates how carbon dioxide (CO2) may be a potent weapon in murder-suicide, where the death scene offers virtually no clues as to the lethal modality and the autopsy findings are nonspecific. However, the theories presented must be experimentally verified, since the topic is to a certain extent still under-researched. Several feasible methodologies to asses assumed live burials, both ancient and current, are presented, detailing benefits that may be gained from multidisciplinary and comparative investigations. The thesis argues that combining insights from both forensic and archaeological disciplines and applying them to live burials, it will be possible not only to reveal vital information about behaviour, ideas and convictions of people who are no longer with us, but also become more conscious about what happens to victims confined in sealed, tiny spaces and thus increase the chances of survival for individuals affected by such emergencies. Features such as internal soil compaction, positions of human remains and marks on both them and their immediate environment have to be considered as well, realised through careful investigations of the context of a burial. The body becomes the centre of an account of causes and mechanisms of death and how these can be detected and described by meticulous examinations of the inside and outside of a corpse and be connected to assumed live burials. The study approaches the mind through descriptions of attitudes influencing customs and notions behind deviant and live burials, burial practices and concepts like liminality, sacrifice and punishment. A live burial takes place in a specific place at a specific time, mirroring notions connected with fear of death and dying, feelings originating from the mind, causing specific impacts in and on a body, which is influenced by, as well as affecting the context. Particularly important is the collaboration between pathologists and archaeologists. ![]() Live burials constitute a point of departure and centre of this study, where the use of multidisciplinary approaches is emphasized, highlighting the importance of combining forensic and archaeological science with other areas of research while investigating such a complex phenomenon. ![]()
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