MU, I'd suggest that it'sa good idea to start adding up ALL the things that don't add up -- individually, they can easily enough be minimised, explained away or whitewashed. But when you stick them ALL together, it's actually an astounding list that points anywhere BUT at suicide. The odds of ONE of these things happening is incredibly low, but add 'em together? Then add the next thing? The odds of all those things happening at once are so small they're almost laughable as evidence of suicide.. It soon becomes more then a little bit alarming that suicide was ruled at all.
Here's some more interesting links:
The usual diagnostic signs of death due to manual strangulation are:
Cutaneous bruising and abrasions. -- Check (Rebecca had all of the following!)
Extensive bruising with or without rupture of the neck muscles. - Check
Engorgement of the tissues at and above the level of compression. -- Check
Fracture of the larynx, thyroid cartilage, and hyoid bone. -- Check
Cricoid cartilage is almost exclusively fractured in throttling. -- Check
General signs of asphyxia. -- Check
When all the signs are present, the diagnosis is easy.
http://www.forensicpathologyonline.com/e-book/asphyxia/throttling
A 23-year-old student strangled his 58-year-old father with an electric cable until he ceased to show any signs of life. Then he hanged the victim at the handrail of the staircase with a running noose. From the forensic point of view the following clues pointed to homicide: presence of massive signs of facial congestion in spite of the "typical" situation of hanging, horizontal ligature mark in addition to the noose mark, skin injuries at the head and the upper extremities, traces of blood near the place where the body was found. The case history presented emphasizes again that for differential diagnosis the possibility of a dissimulated homicide has to be considered in all cases where a body is found suspended.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9757351
Here's some more interesting links:
The usual diagnostic signs of death due to manual strangulation are:
Cutaneous bruising and abrasions. -- Check (Rebecca had all of the following!)
Extensive bruising with or without rupture of the neck muscles. - Check
Engorgement of the tissues at and above the level of compression. -- Check
Fracture of the larynx, thyroid cartilage, and hyoid bone. -- Check
Cricoid cartilage is almost exclusively fractured in throttling. -- Check
General signs of asphyxia. -- Check
When all the signs are present, the diagnosis is easy.
http://www.forensicpathologyonline.com/e-book/asphyxia/throttling
A 23-year-old student strangled his 58-year-old father with an electric cable until he ceased to show any signs of life. Then he hanged the victim at the handrail of the staircase with a running noose. From the forensic point of view the following clues pointed to homicide: presence of massive signs of facial congestion in spite of the "typical" situation of hanging, horizontal ligature mark in addition to the noose mark, skin injuries at the head and the upper extremities, traces of blood near the place where the body was found. The case history presented emphasizes again that for differential diagnosis the possibility of a dissimulated homicide has to be considered in all cases where a body is found suspended.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9757351