Citation

Sigrist T, Sutter K, Germann U. Arch. Kriminol. 1998; 201(1-2): 24-30.

Vernacular Title

Methan im Leichenblut--Totung durch Erdgas oder postmortale Neubildung?

Affiliation

Institut für Rechtsmedizin am Kantonsspital St. Gallen.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1998, Verlag Schmidt-Romhild)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

9541715

Abstract

A man had a quarrel with his wife. Suddenly he collapsed and became cyanotic. The woman supposed him to be dead. Because she was afraid of familiar requital, she opened the gas-cock of the cooking-range to pretend a suicide; methane emitted. The autopsy revealed a fresh cardiac infarction. Postmortem chemical analysis established methane in the blood. The question was, whether the methane had any importance for the death. By experimental inhalation of a methane-air-mixture (3%) we could expose, that the methane concentration in postmortem blood didn't have any relevance for the death.

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