Hanging or strangling? – A case report of suicidal hanging without knot at the neck

Strangling is generally homicidal, hanging commonly suicidal. Some kind of knot is generally present in the noose at or near the neck in almost all cases of hanging particularly suicidal hanging. If any case with history of hanging is found without any knot at the neck strongly arouse suspicion of strangling and therefore ruling out probability of strangling is essential. Here we report a rare case of suicidal hanging in a 80 yrs Bengali male where multiple turn of cotton rope around the neck was used as ligature but no knot could be detected at the neck.