From the back through the thorax into the eye-unusual double suicide with a firearm

The bodies of a27-year-old woman and a44-year-old man were found lying entwined on their bed. Alarge-caliber revolver lay on the bed next to them. The forensic examinations at the discovery site and the subsequent medico-legal autopsies revealed afatal, sagittal gunshot wound of the thorax with atrajectory from back to front in the woman. The underlying man showed aretained projectile with asagittal bullet track from the entrance wound in the middle of the anterior chest wall to the spinal column. Examinations at the scene carried out to estimate the time since death showed consistent results for both persons with acoincident time of death approximately 7h before the time of examination. The results of the subsequently conducted toxicological investigations revealed an acute influence by exceptionally high concentrations of amphetamine in the woman and acombined intoxication with amphetamine, ecstasy and alcohol in the man. Both individuals showed metabolites indicative of previous cocaine consumption. In conjunction with the police investigations, the forensic medical findings strongly suggested an unusual case of double suicide.