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South Korea. Loosely translated from Korean. The deceased is a 48-year-old man who had been suffering from schizophrenia and mental issues after serving in the military. He was unemployed at the time of the incident. Eight days before his death, the man came home with a large box and did not eat.

When his mother had not seen him for some time she decided to check on him in his room. The man was found dead on the floor in a pool of blood. On a small table nearby was a cut-off saw and blood spatters. A nylon string was tied to a window, probably to use for hanging. The high-speed saw was powered on. The man was wearing in-ear earplugs. There was a cut in his left neck by the saw. The deceased had recently purchased the cut-off saw.

Fig.1 The victim was found lying dead in a pool of blood near a small table on which an abrasive saw had been fixed. A suicide note was found beside the glasses on the right table.

The high-speed saw used is equipped with a saw blade that can cut rebar and reaches 3,800 revolutions per minute when no load is applied, so it is useful for cutting rebar or wood. A form of impact spatter was observed on the opposite wall of the site, and it was determined to be blood spatter from the high-speed rotating blade due to cutting in the neck area. On top of a chest of drawers was a will in the form of a memo along with glasses. In the will, it was written, “The date of the suicide, suicide (don’t save me) – the true spirit of God in heaven.” According to the statement of the grieving family, when the deceased took the medicine prescribed by the psychiatrist, it subsided too much, so he stopped taking the drug, believed to be a tranquilizer, two years ago.

In the external examination, a 17 cm (6.7″) incision was observed in the left neck. Next to the incision, frictional epidermal debridement and a sharp cross-section in an oblique shape from the inside of the open wound were observed. There was no other damage to the body surface, and there was no hesitation damage to the wrist. During the on-site investigation, there was no outside intrusion, and an autopsy was not conducted as the death was confirmed to be a suicide.

Fig.2 The left side of the neck shows a large incision wound with jagged edges and a wide abrasion in the center. The left common carotid artery was severed in the wound cavity.

Suicide is the biggest cause of reducing the life expectancy of schizophrenic patients, and in a study conducted by the World Health Organization on 1,056 mentally ill patients, suicide was the most common cause of death. It is known that about 20%-40% of patients with schizophrenia attempt suicide, and 10%-15% end their life by suicide. Depression was found in almost 2 of 3 suicides with schizophrenia.

Depression is the most important risk factor for suicide, and depressive syndrome is present in 66% of all suicide victims. The case is a very specific and rare case of suicide method selection. Common suicides are usually less painful, and they consider methods that are easy to take in their surroundings.

There are cases where alcohol and drugs are used together to reduce pain. However, in this case, a very extreme and violent method was performed, far outside the range of options for ordinary suicides. In addition, among suicide methods of schizophrenia patients, deaths by self-harm methods similar to the case are very rare.

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