Suicide aboard - Dominica

[Shrew]

Hanging oneself inside of the vessel would be very difficult. Human nature will likely force you to simply stand up after certain point of time. That is why people jump from a height (e.g. tree, chandelier), or kick out a chair.

However, If I were responsible for a municipality which had a large amount of income coming from tourism, I would much rather have a foreign cruiser found dead by suicide than murder. Conveniently, it would be the local police that would make that call.

Suicides don't trigger travel advisories.

[skipperpete]

in two incidents of suicide encountered aboard yachts in my cruising experience, hanging was the method of choice. In the first incident a yacht was towed by police into a berth near us in Cullen bay marina Darwin and it transpired that after a domestic violence incident, the lady climbed up on the boom and jumped with a halyard around her neck..... same scenario at Pantai Cenang in Langkawi Malaysia, a young solo sailor for no obvious reason did a similar thing but through a deck hatch. It’s utterly tragic that someone could reach such a point of desperation where dying in this way is the only option .....and no one in my community could help these people to avoid such a dreadful end to their lives.

[Jim Woodall]

I hope the Dominican authorities are doing or have done a thorough, competent investigation to rule out homicide in this case. I do not want to divert attention away from the tragedy itself. It has not been my intention to high jack this thread but with respect, and I mean that sincerely, this statement in an earlier response is incorrect:

“Hanging oneself inside of the vessel would be very difficult. Human nature will likely force you to simply stand up after certain point of time. That is why people jump from a height (e.g. tree, chandelier), or kick out a chair.”

Suicide by “hanging” is one of the simplest methods of suicide and the inside of a sailboat, or a house, or a dorm room, or even an automobile are places it can easily be done and it has been done. The word “hanging” is often used to describe suicide by self-inflicted strangulation. Many times the victim is not actually “hanging”, it is simply a term of art that encompasses many different methods. Many death investigators refer to certain suicides as “suicide by ligature”. In law enforcement reports suicide by ligature will often be referred to as “by hanging” but that is actually a misnomer.

In many ligature suicides the victim’s feet, knees,back, buttocks, or other body parts are on the floor or ground. If the ligature compresses either or both carotid arteries unconsciousness can occur in as little as 10 seconds and death within minutes. The victim can even be elevated above the point at which the ligature is made fast. Sufficient pressure has to be put on the arteries, but “hanging” isn’t required. Many suicides are by ligature because the implements necessary can be found almost anywhere - a ligature (rope, cord, zip tie, shoelace, belt, etc.) and a sufficiently strong anchoring point (the corner of a door, a door knob, a faucet, a bedpost, a car headrest, etc.) The only other requirement is that the person fully intends to take their own life.

In one death investigation we had a surveillance video showing a man enter a phone booth (yes, a few were still around a few years ago),place his back to the phone, wrap the metal cord around this neck 1- 1/2 times, and sit down. He appeared to lose consciousness in about 17 seconds. The reports all referred to the incident as a “hanging”. Most people hearing or reading of the incident initially thought that it was impossible to commit suicide “by hanging” inside a phone booth and therefore it had to be a homicide. The investigators were very experienced and immediately believed it was a suicide, later confirmed by the video.

I don’t know anything about the scene in the Dominica case. The person may have been physically hanging. Regardless, suicide by hanging or by ligature could and has been accomplished inside sailboats, it would not be difficult if the person fully intended to take his own life. Again, hopefully a full investigation has taken place. Making a murder appear to be a suicide is much harder in real life than on TV or in the movies. A solid investigation can usually conclusively rule out homicide, if in fact, it was a suicide.