Suicide in a cemetery

Italy. A 62-years old man, with a depressive syndrome in pharmacological treatment, was found dead in the parking in front of a cemetery (where the wife was buried) of a small village near Milan, with his head under the hub of the anterior wheel of his car. On the anterior seat, next to the driver, there was a farewell letter for his family, in which he motivated the suicide to the loneliness, due to the recent death of his wife; he also explained the modality of the suicide: he lifted the car by the jack, then he positioned himself under the car and lowered it on himself.

At the autopsy, the main injuries were localized at the head, that appeared deformed with a huge depression of the left side of the face. The internal exam revealed a complex of irregular fractures involving the cranial vault and basis, with blood-infiltrated edges that were also soiled by a black substance (sludge). The right hemisphere of the brain was destroyed with bilateral temporal and cerebellar sub-arachnoid haemorrhages. The cause of death was determined in a contusive traumatism that produced cranio-cerebral and facial injuries.