The Education of a Coroner by John Bateson

Author:John Bateson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-09-02T04:00:00+00:00

AUTOEROTICISM

One of the odder forms of death that Holmes encountered had to do with autoerotic asphyxiation—the practice of becoming sexually stimulated through near suffocation or self-strangulation. Holmes didn’t come across it often, fewer than ten times in his career, but when he did it usually was obvious. The decedent, all but one time a male, was naked or dressed in female undergarments, and had pornographic material or sex toys nearby. Typically, he was hanging from a beam or showerhead, and used something that wouldn’t leave a mark, such as the sash of a bathrobe. In some cases he was holding his genitalia; other times there was evidence that he had reached orgasm prior to death. It wasn’t a suicide, because he didn’t intend to die. He lost consciousness, though, and no one was there to save him.

Twice in his early years, Holmes responded to the scene of an autoerotic death. The phenomenon was so far outside his personal world that he started doing research on it to become better informed. One of the few writers on the subject in this country—autoeroticism is more common in Europe and Scandinavia—was Roy Hazelwood, a former profiler for the FBI. At the time, Hazelwood had written the only books that examined autoerotic deaths from an investigative viewpoint. When Holmes saw that Hazelwood was going to be the featured speaker at an upcoming conference of the California Homicide Investigators Association, in San Francisco, he made a point of attending. Hazelwood talked about the cause, effect, and psychology of autoeroticism, noting that it applied almost exclusively to males. Holmes couldn’t help but approach him afterward and tell him that he had handled the autoerotic death of a female. Hazelwood was intrigued and said he would love to see photos from the scene. His obvious but unstated intention was to determine whether it really was an autoerotic case. Since Hazelwood was going to be in San Francisco for a week, Holmes suggested that they have lunch together. Hazelwood accepted and they made arrangements to meet several days later in Sausalito.

The case involved a forty-six-year-old woman, originally from Switzerland, who was found by her boyfriend after he returned home from work. She was nude and hanging by pantyhose that was tied loosely around her neck and attached to the shower faucet. The single-loop looseness of the ligature made it possible for her to step out of it, assuming she was conscious, in contrast to a noose that would have been employed in a suicide attempt. In addition, her hands were in her groin area, and Holmes found evidence that suggested that before she got in the shower she took a bath, then stood in front of a mirror. The mirror was movable and had been placed so that she could see herself in her nylon noose while standing in the shower. He also learned in the course of his investigation that the woman hadn’t had sex with her ex-husband during the last six years of their marriage.

Holmes showed Hazelwood the photos he had taken at the scene.

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