Cologne, Germany. The body of a 66-year-old man was found by his wife wrapped up in plastic garbage bags in the basement. An industrial vacuum cleaner connected to the plastic bags structure was turned on when the wife arrived and had extracted air from the bags, which were tight against the body. According to statements by the wife, the man looked “vacuum sealed”. The corpse was naked except for women’s nylon pantyhose, and a nylon rope was tied tightly around the thighs, buttocks, penis and scrotum. There was a noose made of plastic wrap around his neck.
Fig.1 Body of a 66-year-old man lying in a structure made of plastic garbage bags.
The plastic bag construction was tightly wrapped around the arms and legs and closed from the inside with cable ties in the head area. The other end of the industrial vacuum cleaner hose was near the deceased’s mouth. Another hose protruded from the base of the plastic bags structure; the inner part was perforated with numerous holes in the manner of a drainage tube. This tube was obviously intended as a snorkel, guided through the otherwise sealed bag construction, allowing breathing. The cause of death was suffocation as part of an autoerotic accident. The suffocation can be explained on the one hand by the evacuation of air with the industrial vacuum cleaner, on the other hand by the combination of dead space air volume within the bag and snorkel construction and increased breathing resistance of the hose used for breathing.
Fig.2 Autoerotic activity that ultimately led to asphyxiation.
Autoerotic death refers to the accidental death of individuals of either sex due to failure of devices, or unexpected effects of materials, that were being used to enhance the sexual experience. Although asphyxia from hanging has been described most frequently, a wide variety of other lethal situations have been reported. As there is great variability in the number and types of sexual aids that may be used by individuals, careful death scene examination is essential in helping to exclude suicide and more rarely homicide. The clandestine nature of this paraphilia may, however, make subsequent identification and diagnosis difficult unless the death scene features are typical. This is particularly so in the rare cases involving women.
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