[Vedderman]

Was gonna just stick this in the Hanged thread, but I've done enough work on it this week that I think I'll give it its own spot.

18yo woman was found by her mother-in-law, freshly hanged above her bed. It being Bengal, there were a lot of concerns. I've been speaking all week with members of her family and also with crime scene investigators, though my Bengali is for absolute shit, so you can imagine that comedy of errors.

Apparently her family is very poor, but her husband's family is wealthy. The husband loved her, however, and wanted to marry her regardless of her status. He informed her father that he was happy to waive the traditional dowry so they could be wed. The girl's father accepted, but the groom's family was pissed as hell. This dowry-raking is a huge income source for middle-aged parents over there.

That was 6 months ago. Apparently, the girl has been subject to relentless verbal and social and physical abuse by the husband's family since the day of the wedding. Unfortunately for all involved, the husband works out-of-country and his job takes him away for weeks or months at a time.

While he was on his most recent trip to Kuwait, his young wife allegedly hanged herself. Her mother got a call from the mother-in-law saying they had just found her body in her bedroom.

Of course, the bride's family is 100% convinced that the groom's parents strangled her to death and staged a suicidal hanging while the husband was away so they could have her replaced with a wealthier bride and a dowry. This is certainly plausible and DOES happen with alarming frequency in that region. But it is equally (moreso I feel) likely that she finally just caved in to the relentless abuse and did herself in. Also a very common situation over there.

Supposedly, when her mother was bathing her body after it had been delivered, she noticed multiple 'injuries' that she felt confirmed her theory. Most of them seemed to be bruises or blunt trauma likely inflicted with a beating or possibly a struggle. But she could not say whether they were fresh or old. Nonetheless, it galvanized a movement to form protests about police corruption. They feel that the wealthy in-laws bribed the cops to gloss over the investigation.

While all of this is possible, the police do seem to disagree (though they are re-opening an investigation as of yesterday). Her autopsy report has not yet been returned and will likely be telling, if it can be trusted. Hopefully I'll get a copy of it and be able to draw a few conclusions.

I haven't been able to access actual scene investigation records, but I have spoken with several parties.

The police say there were no fresh injuries on her body. They also say that the ligature marks on her throat match the scarf/noose exactly and that there are no additional signs of strangulation. Disposition of the hyoid bone can be significant in a case like this, but that will have to wait for the autopsy to be released.

I only have notes from the family and from some scene personnel who gave info regarding visual inspections, no postmortem reports.

Her tongue was swollen and pressed against her teeth, which is far more common in hangings than in manual or even ligature strangulation. There was no blood from her nose or mouth, which often happens during both types of asphyxiation, but not always in either case. Her fingers are not fully clenched, but have curled back very noticeably, which is quite common in hangings.

Salivary dribbling is a very reliable way to discern a staged hanging in most cases. The body does not produce saliva after death. If someone is hanging in a noose and there is drool running off of their tongue or down their chin or visible (dried or damp) on their shirt, chances are very good that it was an actual hanging death, as drool would not be produced and run downward if the hanging occurred postmortem. Unfortunately, the photo quality is such that it does not indicate whether this occurred or did not occur in this case. I see no sign of it on the closeup, but she has already been cut down by that point and it is possible that any saliva produced was wiped off, either accidentally or deliberately before photographs. None of the witnesses I spoke with could recall if she was drooling or not. :/

More definitive in this case, are her pants. As any DR regular knows by this point, bladder evacuations are extremely common during asphyxiation deaths. Clearly this one had a pretty full bladder, since she actually urinated all of the way down both legs when asphyxiating (mentioned in the scene notes and very visible in the photos). The directionality of the urine staining in and of itself is telling, as it is unlikely urine would run that far vertically if she was lying down being strangled. And 'standing' strangulations are pretty fucking rare outside of Camp Crystal Lake. Additional to that, the bedspread under her feet was wet with urine. Meaning it was virtually impossible for her to have been strangled to death elsewhere and then her body hung up as a staged suicide. If that'd been the case, there'd be a pool of urine where she was strangled. Not running down both legs and pooling underneath her on the bed.

But a lot of this is shit that laymen have no remote idea to look for, so I am not judgmental of her family's assertions, especially given the locale. I just think they're barking up the wrong tree in this case, as most scene evidence points to suicidal hanging in my amateur opinion.

I'll update with autopsy results if I can get it in a translatable format.

[Bastet]

You've done such excellent work investigating this case so definitely this one is worth its own thread These often fatal "dowry dramas" seem so pointless and downright absurd from my Western perspective. Guess it's sometimes plain impossible trying to understand certain practices, no matter how much you've been educating yourself about them

[Padraig Flaherty]

She was beautiful!

[K53]

She deserved better

[Vedderman]

Originally Posted by Bastet ↗

You've done such excellent work investigating this case so definitely this one is worth its own thread These often fatal "dowry dramas" seem so pointless and downright absurd from my Western perspective. Guess it's sometimes plain impossible trying to understand certain practices, no matter how much you've been educating yourself about them

I have learned a surprising amount in my 10 years of gore-hunting on this site. Not only about cultural artifacts I did not know of prior, but about the process of coming to accept and understand them in spite of my staunchly Western upbringing.

I still disagree with many of these customs, but it no longer puzzles me quite so much when I see the gravity that other cultures ascribe to them.

[StalkingYou]

Originally Posted by K53 ↗

She deserved better

Stop saying that! You don’t know her. Your comments are always so strange. Lol

[StalkingYou]

Great post!
I especially loved the shout out to Camp Crystal Lake. I’m a huge fan. I even play the ps4 game.

[Oonie]

Great post with a great backstory. We aren't often privy to so much info. I give you a 10 out of 10 for this!

[Moloko]

Eighteen is no age. Terrible shame.

[Bastet]

Originally Posted by Vedderman ↗

I have learned a surprising amount in my 10 years of gore-hunting on this site. Not only about cultural artifacts I did not know of prior, but about the process of coming to accept and understand them in spite of my staunchly Western upbringing.

I still disagree with many of these customs, but it no longer puzzles me quite so much when I see the gravity that other cultures ascribe to them.

Respect

I've noticed same sort of thing happening to me the other way around. Before I came here, I always considered myself non-judgmental, aim-to-understand type. Now I've often realized I'm much less flexible in my thinking and not as understanding in my outlook as I thought I were Doesn't mean I wouldn't try and continue educating myself though, it's just I've become more aware of my own limitations in this area.