USA. This case involved a woman who was discovered in this position on her bed in her apartment. The original call was a report of a possible sexual assault. However, subsequent investigation revealed that the victim, who was into the bondage scene, had been experimenting with autoerotic activities. There were numerous sex toys and paraphernalia recovered from her apartment.
Fig.1 The woman had been experimenting with autoerotic activities.
Autoerotic death refers to the accidental death of individuals of either sex due to failure of devices, or unexpected effect 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.
According to a study that examined 408 cases of autoerotic deaths there was a male predominance, with 390 male victims for 18 female ones (21.7:1 male to female ratio). The victims reported were aged from 9 to 77 years.
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