The victim was discovered in a New York City hotel room lying on the floor with his leg and hands bound in a hog-tied fashion. There was a ligature consisting of dress ties wrapped around his neck and joined with a bathrobe sash that was secured to his ankle, which he used to pull the ties tight around his neck to create hypoxia. At first the authorities thought that they had a robbery homicide. However, the investigation indicated that the deceased had a history of engaging in autoerotic activities while on business trips. He had bound himself with neckties and towels from the hotel room. He had placed the sheets, pillows, and blanket from the bed on the floor to make himself more comfortable. He died from asphyxia.
Fig.1 The victim was discovered in a New York City hotel room lying on the floor.
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.
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