"The largest number of items swallowed was 391." Forensic expert Aleksey Reshetun on self-mutilation and curious cases from practice

Forensic expert Alexei Reshetun published a book "Body proof». In it, he talks about the little-known side of the profession - working with living people who have suffered in accidents, domestic showdowns, or found themselves in other situations that have harmed their health.

With the permission of the publishing house "Alpina Publisher" we publish an excerpt about how people from ancient times caused harm themselves in order to evade service or hide a crime committed, and experts brought them to clean water.

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Self-mutilation is the infliction of harm to one's health mechanically or in any other way. In my practice, I had a case of self-harm with the help of an animal (dog) for the purpose of blackmail. The history of self-mutilation (self-harm) is as old as the world. According to Herodotus, Zopyrus, one of Darius I's generals, cut off his nose and ears to help the king take Babylon. The infliction of self-harm with such a noble purpose must be the only case in history, except, of course, the frequent cases of noble mortal self-sacrifice. Self-mutilation is a legal term, the forensic expert does not establish it, but only determines whether it is possible and typical for the victim to receive damage by his own hand.

Self-mutilation is very closely related to military service. In the book of Yaroslav Hasek about adventures of Schweik describes in great detail how soldiers avoided active duty during the First World War. Considering the war unfair, not seeing any sense for themselves in dying for nothing, conscripts and the military showed remarkable ingenuity in dealing with issues of deferment from conscription or evasion from service. This was observed in all the warring countries and was very widespread. Future and current military personnel did everything with themselves!

The most common site for self-harm, due to its vastness and accessibility, was the skin.

Injecting kerosene or gasoline under one's skin was very common. Aggressive liquid caused strong inflammation, which could cause an abscess, phlegmon, scab, dermatitis, burns - and, as a rule, guaranteed a delay or admission to the hospital. It must be said that military doctors were engaged in the examination at that time, who, as follows from the book the same Hasek, they considered everyone to be simulators and sent everyone to disciplinary companies.

Another way to induce phlegmon, very aggressive, was to pass ordinary sewing thread through the skin, previously stretched between teeth. Plaque is actually a collection of microbes; getting under the skin, they multiply very quickly, which causes inflammation. Treatment of phlegmon is very complex, long and only operational - opening of soft tissues throughout the phlegmon. Hospital admission is guaranteed. If you're "lucky", they can amputate a limb - and then the service can be avoided altogether. Cases of phlegmon caused by the introduction of a chemical under the skin were recognized by a characteristic odor from exposed tissues, and the trick with a thread - the presence in the center of a painfully altered area of ​​​​skin of two traces from needles.

Of course, I did not have to meet with such cases, but in the old forensic literature describes many ways in which people deprived themselves of health, sometimes becoming disabled people. Future defenders of different countries pierced their eardrums, dropped acid into their eyes to make them blind, used picric acid to cause jaundice, inhaled and swallowed phlegm tuberculosis patients (moreover, the patients sold it, and this brought a good income).

For self-harm, sharp objects are widely used, which are very accessible in everyday life. I encountered one such classic situation a few years ago. The young man claimed that he was beaten and wanted to kill the ex-husband of his cohabitant. According to the man, the attacker stabbed him in the chest and ran away, and the victim lost consciousness and lay there for a while, after which he went to the hospital on his own. The investigation had reasonable doubts about the testimony, since the named "criminal”was at the time of the“ attack ”in a completely different place, where several people saw him. In any case, a forensic medical examination was necessary. After studying the medical documents (the victim arrived for examination after treatment), I had a misunderstanding: the patient's testimony and the objective picture were very different.

The wound on his chest turned out to be very strange for a stab wound - long and superficial, it barely reached the subcutaneous base, as a result of which it did not even require surgical treatment.

After examining the victim, I found a classic cut wound, which could not have been in the circumstances that he reported. I suggested that the investigator examine the clothes that were on the victim at the time of the injury (examination of clothing carried out in all such cases, as it may leave traces that allow identification of the traumatic item). The man was very embarrassed and said that does not rememberwhere the clothes are, as he took them off somewhere at home. The investigation still managed to seize a T-shirt on which there was damage, but when viewed even with the naked eye, there was no doubt that it was not caused by a sharp object. A forensic examination confirmed this fact: there was a tear on the T-shirt, and even located in the wrong place and in the wrong direction in which the wound on the chest was located. In the end, the man admitted that he had inflicted a cut wound on his chest himself, and tore his T-shirt later, frightened by the prospect of an examination. The reason for the slander was personal dislike for the opponent and the desire to denigrate him in the eyes of the cohabitant.

One of the most common methods of self-mutilation in the past using a sharp object was chopping off a finger or fingers with an ax. As a rule, the victim claimed that he cut off his finger by accident, while chopping firewood or doing some kind of manipulation with the tree. The non-working hand is always injured (for right-handers - the left and vice versa) and usually the thumb. A common misconception is that a finger or fingers can be cut off in this way, in fact it is practically impossible.

When conducting an investigative experiment, the victim is offered to show how everything happened, and to everyone including the victim himself, it becomes clear that under such circumstances to receive such damage impossible. A finger or brush is placed on a solid base, such as a deck, and an aimed blow is applied with an ax in the other hand, cutting off everything superfluous. In addition, the plane of the cut is so characteristic of self-harm that it does not cause any problems in diagnosis.

People sometimes tend to invent for themselves the circumstances of causing damage and themselves unconditionally believe in them.

There are examples when, allegedly during manipulations with an ax, a toe was "accidentally" cut off, and then cuts were made in the boot. When comparing these cuts with injuries on the foot, self-harm became obvious, since the level of cuts on the shoe and leg did not match at all.

Once I came across a case of self-harm inflicted by a woman in a hysterical state (later it turned out that they are very similar to self-harm caused at the time of the so-called delirium tremens (Delirium tremens) or drug withdrawal). Hysterical people are generally prone to demonstrativeness, ostentation, and in the wake of an emotional upsurge, they can inflict multiple superficial wounds, abrasions and bruises on themselves. The woman brought in for examination behaved like a bad actress: cartoonish behavior, loud ornate phrases, defiant intonation made her image somewhat comical.

When asked where her injuries came from, she said that she had quarreled with her husband and cut herself "to calm down."

On her arms, legs and torso she had multiple incised superficial wounds with a depth of no more than 2 mm, intersecting with each other, making a terrible impression, but nevertheless not affecting major veins, joints and internal organs. Interestingly, all the injuries were exclusively on the front surface of the body - where the woman could see what she was cutting. The combination of this fact, the multiplicity and uniformity of injuries and their superficial nature indicated that they were caused by the victim's own hand.

However, the classic picture of self-mutilation is not always found - sometimes someone who wants to acquire damage asks another person about it, motivating him with money or just out of friendship. In such cases, the injury has no characteristic features and is very difficult to qualify.

Self-harm using firearms were common in wartime, in military units, where there is access to weapons. The reason for such self-harm among the military is primarily the desire to get leave for health reasons, and even the possibility of demobilization. As with other mechanical self-harm, limbs are primarily affected here, that is, those places whose injuries will not pose an immediate threat to life. For example, when the upper extremities are injured, the fingers and hand are most often injured, and when the lower extremities are injured, the feet are most often injured. The ways of "crossbow" are also different: from a banal shot at close range to waving an outstretched arm from a trench in order to hit an enemy bullet into it.

Nowadays, due to the fact that “crossbows” are very easy to diagnose, their number tends to zero, but I once happened to conduct such an examination. In the autumn, at the opening of the hunt, a murder took place: a man was shot dead, who was found in a boat, in the reeds. An acquaintance of the victim reported the crime, and he confessed that he had shot the man during self defense, after he inexplicably shot him first. As evidence, the hunter presented damage from the shot on the right boot and shin. The man was questioned and hospitalized. The interviewed hunters, who were at the time of the murder on the same lake, could not explain anything specific.

You need to understand what the day of the opening of the hunt and the “first dawn” are: the hunters are focused on reviewing the sky in search of flying game, shots are fired from all sides, it is impossible to make out anything concrete.

The next day, I examined the corpse of the deceased and found that the shot in the chest was made at close range, within the range of factors of a close shot, the heart and lungs were damaged, death occurred very quickly. According to the surviving hunter, he saw that his acquaintance was sailing up to him on a boat, raising a gun, aiming at him and shooting. The bewildered "victim", having been wounded in the leg, seeing that they do not respond to his shouts, offhand fired in reply. The distance between the boats was about 10-12 m. An experienced hunter is not mistaken in the distance - all the more strange was the fact that, according to the forensic examination of the corpse, the shot was fired with much less distances. After examining the wounded victim, doubts intensified: the injuries on his leg were caused rare pellets, as if a talus of fractions (this happens at the end of the charge, when fired from a distance distances). The direction of the wound channels was clearly from top to bottom, although the man was in an upright position at the time of the shot.

It finally became clear that this was a hoax when a comparative study was made of the shot taken from the wounds with the shell from the dead cartridge remaining in the gun. The shot was different: in one case, factory, in the other - made in a handicraft way. The man was forced to confess murder. Having a long-standing enmity with the deceased, he specifically waited for the opening of the hunt and planned the attack. Knowing that few people would believe in self-defense, he decided to injure himself, for which he made several cartridges with a small charge of gunpowder and shot, and even made shootings to understand how badly injured his leg. Under the pretext of a conversation, he swam quite close in a boat to the victim, shot him in the chest, after which he returned to his position and fired another cartridge into his leg through his boot, after which he called to help.

People who commit such acts are very naive: it seems to them that they have come up with an ideal scheme for the murder, they have provided for everything. But this almost never happens - the secret always becomes clear.

The definition of damage from a firearm as self-harm is usually not difficult, since it is very characteristic localization of injuries (usually limbs) and type (presence of close shot factors, direction of the wound channel). Very rare cases of self-harm in the head and chest, although they should rather be regarded as cases of unsuccessful suicide.

Separately, you can talk about self-harm that occurs in places of detention. As a sign of protest against the actions of the administration of the colony, prisoners, as a rule, inflict cut wounds on their forearms (“opened”). This phenomenon, sometimes massive, is observed from time to time both in ours and in foreign prisons. However, self-harm is inflicted for other reasons as well. It is known that the conditions of detention even in a general regime colony are much stricter than in a hospital; in addition, a constant stay in the same environment for many months acts depressingly. To change it, prisoners use various methods. Swallowing a variety of objects is the most common occurrence, and those that are extremely difficult to remove are used. quickly (for example, during gastroscopy): sewing needles, razor blades, nails, even cutlery sharpened on both sides spoons. In order not to injure the mucous membrane ahead of time, but to be able to swallow a sharp object, it is often placed in a bread crumb, which is swallowed. For removal such gizmos have to undergo abdominal surgery, which can guarantee the prisoner a two to three week stay in the hospital.

The prisoner does not always achieve his goal.

I have come across a case when, during an autopsy, two handles from aluminum spoons were found in the stomach of a man who died of a heart disease. In view of the long stay in the stomach under the influence of gastric juice the metal is blackened and even deformed in places. As the relatives of the deceased said, he spent many years in places not so remote, where, apparently, he swallowed these objects. Contrary to expectations, they did not have any significant negative effect on the health of the inmate, and he carried them in his stomach for several years until his death. According to the forensic literature, the largest number of items swallowed was 391; among them were bolts, needles, pins, keys, nails, and more.

Instead of sewing thread, prisoners use toothpicks contaminated with plaque to induce cellulitis.

Finally, I would like to tell you about the case of self-mutilation in the literal sense of the word. It is described as casuistic in the old forensic literature. In the middle of the last century, a man was brought for examination. He did not make any special complaints, he was brought by police officers. After questioning, it turned out that the man was worried about itching and pain in the groin. Upon examination, an interesting design was found under the shorts: a kind of bag made of dense fabric, fixed to the body with a dense cord, fixed with a small lock. The bag completely covered the genitals, in the central part it had a small hole - apparently, for urination, the fabric was wet, with a pungent smell of urine. It was impossible to remove this device without outside help.

It turned out that this version of the “chastity belt” was put on a man by a jealous wife who went on a business trip.

She did this repeatedly if she needed to leave for a few days. Upon removal of this belt was discovered pronounced dermatitis skin of the perineum and genital organs, which required long-term treatment.

Currently, there are almost no cases of gross simulation and self-harm: people have become more literate, information is more accessible, and money solves almost all issues. It is not necessary to cut off your hand in order to "slope" from the army - it is enough to know to whom and how much to "bring". Expertise about aggravations or feigned illnesses are almost non-existent, gunshot self-harm in the army is becoming less and less, wild hazing (hazing) is gradually becoming a thing of the past. Books written in the last and the century before last remain the only sources that allow the forensic expert to get an idea of ​​​​such phenomena of human life.

The book "Evidence by Body" tells about different aspects of the work of a forensic expert: not only in the morgue, but also at the scene, in the outpatient clinic, with medical documents. From it you can find out how the examination and questioning of the examined is carried out, what is hidden behind the phrase “remove the beatings” and other curious things.

The book is written in simple language and contains many interesting stories from the author's practice. It also contains QR codes with photographs illustrating the material.

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