A Body in the Water...

Have you heard about any case of a body found in water? what do you think about that? What is your primary responsibility when you're sent to a water-related event with a kid or adult? “Drowning” is the most typical response. A toddler immersed in a bathtub, a sunken car, a female boater who fell overboard, or a fisher in a river may need help. What do first responders assume is waiting for them? a near-drowning experience You don't find any gunshot wounds, stab wounds, or other visible injuries. There is no discernible cause of death. What is the cause of death assumed to be at the scene? Drowning. What is the presumed mode of dying following this? Accident. And this is especially true when you come to find family members bravely trying to do CPR on their loved ones, who are in dire straits. Once “drowning” and “accident” are in our thoughts, we'll be unable to evaluate the situation without bias, no matter how hard we try. We will probably consider the situation and even more suspect if we're operating under the presumption that the scene is not safe.

However, what do we truly understand? Is drowning the cause of death? Is drowning definitively diagnosed? Would you think the pathologist would say yes to the following question: “Hello, doctor, if this person was found in bed or out in a field, without any history of submersion, do you think the cause of death would still be drowning?” Most of the time, the honest response is no. If that is true, the murder should be thoroughly investigated. There is no recognized universal cause of death diagnosis for drowning. Drowning is a diagnosis of exclusion with no other identifiable cause. While drowning victims may have normal-weight lungs, a vast majority have severely waterlogged lungs. Drowning victims may suffer from waterlogged lungs and possibly foam cone obstructions. To properly diagnose drowning by exclusion, law enforcement, and medical examiner investigators must conduct a thorough investigation and a comprehensive autopsy.

There are several types of homicidal drowning for which investigators need to be on the alert and they are:

1. Punishment or torture by way of water
2. Negligence
3. Homicide by drowning
4. Neonatal homicide
5. Sexual Abuse and Pedophilia
6. Aquatic Sexual Sadism and Aquatic Erotic Asphyxia
7. Satanic Sacrifice

The subject I will discuss here is what I have termed aquatic erotic asphyxia (AEA) and aquatic sexual sadism (ASS).

AEA is described as death during sexual activity that involves deliberately induced submersion asphyxiation that is intended to be short and reversible...an unanticipated fatality arises from failing to stop the submersion before death. This practice can be performed by one person or by two or more individuals and is referred to as aquatic autoerotic asphyxia or aquatic erotic asphyxia. The discrepancy is significant since the former died in an accident, but the latter may be deemed a homicide. As with other sexual asphyxia fatalities, do not label it auto until you have conducted sufficient research to show that only the defendant was engaged.

A problem of AEA is that the person cannot develop self-release techniques, as participants in land-based erotic asphyxia frequently do to avoid a loss of consciousness from turning deadly. And when more than one person is involved, the person performing the holding down has no means of knowing when the breath holder should surface, as cardiac rhythms and acidotic causes of death induced by prolonged breath holds are generally absent.

ASS is described as death induced by involuntary submersion asphyxiation with the intent of inducing fear, agony, struggle, unconsciousness, and possibly death for the offender. This is a kind of water torture used to please the sadist sexually. ASS offenders can target both youngsters and adults. A thorough examination of their past, computer, and DVD collection will be required. They are indistinguishable from any other desire killer. They just utilize water as a means of torture. Most importantly this is not a sexually motivated crime. Thereby, not every victim will be raped as the power and the rush comes from the drowning. However, there may be a masturbatory element.

ASSes are astute! What they do to their victims is usually silent and leaves no trace. If you are beaten or stabbed, there will be visible proof on your body. If your head is being held underwater, your body's strongest impulse will be to breathe; you will not be able to reach back and pry someone's fingers off you, nor will you be able to scratch at them. You'll be too preoccupied with defending your life. Because it leaves no marks, some parents utilize near-drowning to torture their children. In a domestic setting, the perpetrator is fortunate to have a secluded space in which to do it, such as a restroom. They are trapped, they have control, and others reflexively grant them privacy. Even yet, there is not much else needed to carry out this sentence. If ASS so desired, he/she could drown you in a bucket of water.

So, why would a baby be discovered dead in a bathtub? Is it because the child's airway was submerged forcibly or held beneath a running faucet? Was the child ill and so extra fussy on that particular day? Or perhaps the babysitter, who was smoking while babysitting, grew upset when the baby vomited in his pajamas soon after the babysitter had showered and put him to bed. Consider this: when children do awful things, it is typical for them to need to be washed. The child or baby may already be sobbing or may begin to cry as a result of the adult's aggravation. In a small confined room, what happens to the sound of crying? How does the grownup achieve immediate silence? Submerge the airway in water. The intention may not be to murder the child, but it could be a direct or indirect effect. Or perhaps death is the goal!!!.

REFERENCES:

The Drowning Child by Alex Barclay (2016) Published by HarperCollins. 

Body Found in Water Investigation by Andrea Zaferes (2012) at 40-hour National Death Investigation Training Program.

Aquatic Eroticum by Anny Sauvageau & Stéphanie Racette (2006): Available at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1556-4029.2005.00031x