Hanging and asphyxiation are other methods that can become ambiguous suicides. Investigators may have trouble distinguishing between accidental death by autoerotic asphyxia and suicide.
A potential downside of disguising a suicide as autoerotic asphyxia is looking like a sexual deviant. And also whatever downsides normally go along with the method.
The "choking game" may be another disguising choice, but that game may be more common among youth than adults.[2]
However, I've done very little research on the topic. I'll just throw out a few things I did find.
The UK Paper
A UK paper suggests coroners use the "beyond all reasonable doubt" standard when deciding to a rule a death a suicide.[1] Where that standard applies, even a little doubt may be enough to sway a coroner from ruling a death a suicide.
That paper also looks at what factors some UK coroners used to identify suicides. An active method of suicide (like hanging, firearms, jumping and stabbing) was the strongest predictor of a suicide ruling.[1]
Intent to die (such as by suicide note or verbally) was another strong predictor.[1] In case it isn't obvious, leaving a suicide note or mentioning suicidal thoughts will increase the chances of a death being ruled a suicide.
Changes in behavior, a history of self-harm and previous suicide attempts were other predictors. Death being caused by drugs and opiate toxicity were also predictors, but seemingly to a much lesser degree.[1]
The Canadian Paper
A Candian paper compares some asphyxiation suicides with autoerotic asphyxial deaths.[3]
It mentions "If one classifies all cases where the corpse was nude, cross-dressed, or found with the genitals exposed or accessible as autoerotic accidents and classifies all other subjects as suicides, then one would correctly predict the coroner's verdict in all but 14 of the 235 cases with information."[3]
So nudity or cross-dressing (for men) may be useful for an autoerotic disguise.
The paper mentions other factors more likely in autoerotic asphyxiations:
- Extra bindings like genital bindings or mouth gags
- Additional props like pornography, mirrors or sex toys
- Material to catch seminal fluid, like tissues or condoms
- Padding on the noose[3]
The usefulness of seminal fluid as an indicator of autoerotic asphyxiation seems somewhat disputed at the time of the paper (1992).
This paper is a wealth of references and information. There's a lot more information I haven't mentioned.
My Musings
I think the topic of disguising suicides is an interesting one. And there seems to be at least a few sources that give clues on how it could be done.
References
You may be able to use Sci-Hub or Google Scholar to find the full papers, if you have trouble.
[1] D. Stanistreet, S. Taylor, V. Jeffrey, and M. Gabbay, "Accident or Suicide? Predictors of Coroners' Decisions in Suicide and Accident Verdicts:," Medicine, Science and the Law, Jun. 2016.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/002580240104100205
[2] R. L. Toblin, L. J. Paulozzi, J. Gilchrist, and P. J. Russell, "Unintentional strangulation deaths from the 'Choking Game' among youths aged 6-19 years – United States, 1995—2007," Journal of Safety Research, vol. 39, no. 4, pp. 445–448, Jan. 2008.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002243750800090X
[3] S. J. Hucker and R. Blanchard, "Death scene characteristics in 118 fatal cases of autoerotic asphyxia compared with suicidal asphyxia," Behavioral Sciences & the Law, vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 509–523, Sep. 1992.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bsl.2370100407
