I need to make a suicide look like an accident

valerielynn

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So, I have this female character in her 30's that struggles with anxiety and depression and she wants to commit suicide but, she wants to make it look accidental. Her family, friends, and everyone else believe that it was an accident until her fiance finds her journal. I've been researching this for days and I haven't been able to figure out a way to make her suicide look accidental. Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas?
 

Maryn

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It's perhaps too obvious, but someone driving late at night on wet or icy roads could easily hit a bridge abutment, and no one will ever know if they fell asleep, lost control, or did it on purpose.
 

AwP_writer

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Wait for a rainy or snowy day, speed over a high bridge, and "lose control" of the car. I really hope this IS for a book...

Edit: wow, exact same thought, exact same time.
 
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talktidy

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I am mindful of my home electrics, which, while not dangerous, do need to be rewired. I'd be hazy on setting up the details, but maybe electrocution might work?

Once upon a time on a visit to the seaside my partner and I nearly drowned when we encountered an unexpectedly strong current with a nasty undertow. We were fortunate to be fished out of the drink. Perhaps your character knows of adverse currents in a certain beauty spot.
 

Shoeless

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Getting accidentally shot because of a discharge while cleaning a semi-automatic pistol has happened, so that's also a viable "accident."
 

Fruitbat

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Maybe a drug overdose. It might be hard to tell if someone took too much (of either a prescription or street drug)deliberately, or accidentally because they were already under the influence and had impaired judgment.
 

jclarkdawe

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Virtually any "accident" can be a suicide. Falling overboard from a boat drunk, bungee cord broke, walking into traffic, falling down a flight of stairs, whatever. All of these can be done as suicides, with the risk of discovery as a suicide instead of an accident a function of the care you go through in setting this up. Think of what your character likes to do and then figure out how to make it go wrong. Dead wrong.

For example, take a simple falling down the stairs. What happens if you stick a good stack of heavy books in your arms and run at the stairs. Fill the stairs with stuff to bring upstairs later. Take that flying leap into destiny, as the books go flying all over the place. Make sure to bring your head down into a diving position so you hit head first.

See how this works?

Jim Clark-Dawe
 

blacbird

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It's perhaps too obvious, but someone driving late at night on wet or icy roads could easily hit a bridge abutment, and no one will ever know if they fell asleep, lost control, or did it on purpose.

Only if the injuries are consistent with such an event, and/or there isn't a competent forensic examination conducted. I've seen situations exactly like this portrayed in true crime TV shows, and it's left me with the feeling that it really is damn hard to fake an accident credibly, if a thorough forensic examination takes place.

caw
 

jclarkdawe

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Blacbird -- It's a battle of the level of forensic examination of the accident versus attention to detail. A classic example is hanging by suicide, accident, or murder. Depending upon how the rope is placed, you can frequently tell which one it is. However, someone who knows the forensics involved can make sure the rope placement is correct for the type of incident that they wish. It will just be more difficult to do, as humans always take the normal and easiest way to do something.

Jim
 

Snitchcat

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Violent storm, the character is on the pier and gets washed out despite the railings and/or other precautions they took.
 

Al X.

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I'm not an expert in psychology, but it has been my experience (yes, actual experience) that suicides as such are usually thinly veiled by 'accidental' causes. Like the employee that crashed her car in to a tree late night. It took a few days, but the note finally surfaced.
 

Cyia

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A gas leak. An accidental shock from a broken lamp. An accidental shock from something falling into the bathtub. A slip and fall in the kitchen resulting in a fatal cut / stab wound. Accidental asphyxiation while warming up the car in the garage. Accidental poisoning. Accidental drowning by getting one's feet tangled in a lake. Accidentally walking in front of a car on a dark night. Accidental electrocution by forgetting to turn the power off while doing home repairs.

Life's dangerous. Just pick a place and look around to see what's handy.
 

WeaselFire

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Accidental drowning is the easiest suicide to fake. Auto accidents are actually fairly hard to determine if they were an accident or on purpose, without either an obvious suicide or obvious attempt to hit something. Take two sudafeds and get on a winding highway. Clip a tractor trailer at an on ramp and go into a canal. Drink five whiskeys and turn the wrong way on a divided highway. Without some suspicion, investigators don't do detailed forensics, it's a waste of time and money.

Shoot yourself in the femoral artery while cleaning a gun, call 911 to get help and bleed out before they get there. Paint something in the garage, clean up with paint thinner and throw the rags in the trash. When the house is thick with smoke, call 911 and report it, die from smoke inhalation before help arrives. Take a kayak out in the ocean, roll it and tread water until you drown. Bump into a pedestrian, turn to look at them and step backward in front of a bus.

The key to using an accident is that you might accidentally survive but be disabled. :)

Jeff
 
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Thomas Vail

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Getting accidentally shot because of a discharge while cleaning a semi-automatic pistol has happened, so that's also a viable "accident."
Err, no.

The only two conclusions anyone could draw from that happening would be 'she killed herself,' (99% chance) or 'she's lethally stupid.' (1% chance, unless the character really was that dim...)
 

Cekrit

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She can put a hit out on herself, ie: have someone shoot her and pay them (could find a junkie to do it for cash)
"fall asleep at the wheel",
if she is a drug user or has a prescription than she can overdose,
or if shes diabetic she can overshoot herself with insulin/fail too take it?
There are many poisons she can ingest that someone would legit have to be searching for in a tox screen.
 

Cekrit

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If she has an accomplice she can use helium to make an exit bag, her brain doesn't recognize that helium isn't oxygen so she will breathe just fine with no panic. She can lay in her bed, die peacefully and the accomplice can make it appear like she died in her sleep- it should look like a heart attack or other naturally caused death. Its quick, clean, and easy to hide.
 

braveboy

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If my Italian ex-wife is reading this forum question, I'm sure she could provide several scenarios. I was sleeping with both eyes open before finally escaping Italy.
 

mrsmig

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Ever read "The Problem of Thor Bridge?" It's a Sherlock Holmes story wherein a suicide sets up her death to look like a murder. Not quite the same scenario but it might give you some ideas.
 

Thomas Vail

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I recall one of those procedural crime shoes had a Holmes themed episode, where a suicide was made to look like a murder, when the 'victim' shot himself in the head, but had the gun on a elastic cord that pulled it up inside a fireplace after his fingers relaxed - how could it be a suicide if there was no weapon near the body? *dramatic sting*
or if shes diabetic she can overshoot herself with insulin/fail too take it?
That's another one like 'cleaning the gun,' where it would be pretty difficult to make it look like anything other than suicide, so it wouldn't be a sudden revelation when someone finds her journal. An overdose is something very hard to do accidentally (as in it's not just a little too much, but injecting yourself a LOT too much) and it would take months to years of not taking the injection to actually kill someone when kidney failure or systemic infectinon finally kicked in. :flag:
 

Beanie5

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the suicide note is the trcky thing
 

Roxxsmom

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Accidental overdoses on opioid painkillers is very common these days. If she got her hands on some, it wouldn't be hard. Of course, there would likely be questions if she'd done so accidentally or on purpose, and if she had no known history of abuse of these drugs, most would assume the latter.

Though sometimes people are surprised to discover a loved one has a problem, so if she didn't actually abuse drugs, maybe she could plant some evidence to make it look like she'd been using them for a while (and so it was possibly an accident).

Do you want everyone in her family, and the police, to assume it was just an accident, or do you want there to be some question before the note is found?

Also, most suicide victims don't leave a note, so while the presence of a suicide note that is clearly not forged may be one of the most definitive signs that a death is a suicide, there can be considerable evidence, even certainty, that a death was by suicide in the absence of a note too.
 

JDlugosz

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. An overdose is something very hard to do accidentally (as in it's not just a little too much, but injecting yourself a LOT too much) and it would take months to years of not taking the injection to actually kill someone when kidney failure or systemic infectinon finally kicked in. :flag:

I thought overdosing on Tylinol is scary easy, since the effective dose is so close to the toxic dose.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracetamol_poisoning
 

WeaselFire

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Err, no.

The only two conclusions anyone could draw from that happening would be 'she killed herself,' (99% chance) or 'she's lethally stupid.' (1% chance, unless the character really was that dim...)

Err, double no. Google "Glock Leg" for examples. These deaths happen about 500 times a year currently (down from a decade ago by quite a bit).

Jeff
 

Obi-Wan Nobody

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Appearances are important. The character should prepare for suicide while getting involved in a lot of scheduled meetings, sharing plans for the future with friends. She will pretend to be happy, perhaps taking a trip on a cruise boat and jump in the water at midnight, heavily drunk (just in case of the body will be found, which is highly improbable).
 

Thomas Vail

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Err, double no. Google "Glock Leg" for examples. These deaths happen about 500 times a year currently (down from a decade ago by quite a bit).

Jeff
No, my post was right, so there's no need to google anything. You didn't pay attention to the post I was responding to. 'Accidentally' shooting yourself while cleaning your gun has as much to do with actually cleaning a firearm as 'eating your gun' has to do with making dinner. It's a euphemism for suicide, and would make a pretty lousy setup for 'oh my god, it wasn't an accident, it was really suicide.'

Not to mention, if you're unfamiliar with how firearms work, you really can't clean a loaded gun. The rounds would get in the way as you're trying to clean the action, chamber, and barrel 1: telling you that you're doing the whole thing very, very incorrectly, 2: you're doing something as safe as cleaning the inside of a lawnmower while the blades are spinning. That's why I gave a 1% chance for lethal stupidity. :D