Homicide or Suicide: How Nudity Factors into This Determination

• Author: Sarah W. Craun,Leah Tanner,Victoria Clausen,Melissa A. Merola,Leonard Opanashuk,Timothy G. Keel
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/10887679211013071
• Published date: 01 August 2022
• Date: 01 August 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/10887679211013071

Homicide Studies

2022, Vol. 26(3) 292 –307

© 2021 SAGE Publications

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/10887679211013071

journals.sagepub.com/home/hsx

Article

Homicide or Suicide: How

Nudity Factors into This

Determination

Sarah W. Craun1, Leah Tanner1, Victoria Clausen1,

Melissa A. Merola2, Leonard Opanashuk1,

and Timothy G. Keel1

Abstract

Anecdotal reports of deceased celebrities being found nude abound, yet research

is lacking regarding the frequency of nudity at death. Moreover, it is unknown if

nudity at the time of death is a useful investigative clue or a distracting non-factor

in equivocal death cases. This study used data from 119,145 homicides and suicides

reported to the Centers for Disease Control to explore victim nudity, prior life

stressors, and demographics on the likelihood of a death being a homicide or a

suicide. Logistic regression results indicate that a female victim being found nude is

a strong indicator of homicide.

Keywords

equivocal deaths, investigation, policing, crime scene, policing, nudity, suicides

Determining whether a violent death is the result of homicide or suicide can be

challenging for medico-legal death investigators.1 The motivation to end a life, may

be clear, but whether the death was self-inflicted or perpetrated by another may not

be. Moreover, the existence of multiple motivations on the part of both the victim

and possible offenders may obfuscate the true nature of the manner of death. This

can be further confounded by characteristics of the death scene that defy expecta-

tions-such as when the victim is found nude and nudity does not seem congruent

1Federal Bureau of Investigation, Quantico, VA, USA

2Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Huntsville, AL, USA

Corresponding Author:

Leah Tanner, CIRG/IOSS/NCAVC, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Quantico1 Range Road, VA 22135, USA.

Email: ltanner@fbi.gov

1013071HSXXXX10.1177/10887679211013071Homicide StudiesCraun et al.

research-article2021

Craun et al. 293

with the rest of the scene. A review of popular press found several instances of

equivocal death cases involving a nude victim. For example, in one such case a

woman was found nude, hands bound, and hanging from a balcony. The death was

determined to be suicide, yet the family went on to win a wrongful death suit against

the brother of the victim’s boyfriend (Pelisek, 2019). In an article titled “Is It

Common for Women to Commit Suicide in the Nude?” the woman’s family argues

she would have never committed suicide, let alone commit suicide naked (Hawkins,

2019). In another case, a woman was found deceased, nude, and with a clothesline

around her neck. It was initially classified as a suicide, changed to undetermined,

and then finally classified as a homicide years later (Saavedra, 2020). As seen by

the aforementioned case anecdotes, the presence of nudity is often not congruent

with other crime scene characteristics and is therefore worthy of empirical study.

The current study aims to explore the possible relationship between decedent nudity

and homicides to determine whether nudity can serve as a distinguishing factor for

medico-legal death investigators in differentiating between the two manners of

death, which may be helpful in equivocal death investigations.

Literature Review

Lacks et al. (2008) define an undetermined death, also known as an equivocal death,

as “any death where there is uncertainty as to the circumstances of the death, creating

the relatively equal probability of two or more possible manners of death” (p. 150). In

an equivocal death, the cause of death may be known, but the manner (natural death,

accident, suicide, homicide, or undetermined) is not (Davis & Ogloff, 2014). For

example, a medical examiner may determine that the cause of death is from a drug

overdose, but label the death as undetermined, as the manner of death could not be

concluded to be an accident or suicide. This occurs more frequently than one may

expect. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that 9.5%

were listed as undetermined, meaning that the evidence indicating that one manner of

death was not more compelling than another (Jack et al., 2018).

Victim and Crime Scene Characteristics in Equivocal Death Analyses

In reviewing suicide and undetermined deaths in Sweden, Lindqvist and Gustafsson

(2002) found that alcohol-related deaths were more commonly classified as unde-

termined deaths. Researchers, using samples from across the globe, have also

found that those who completed suicides were more likely to have substance abuse

issues than people in the general population (Cavanagh et al., 2003; Cheng et al.,

2000).

Determining that a suicide occurred can be difficult because “it is rare for there to

be clear objective evidence that the deceased took their own life” (Canter et al., 2004,

p. 234). Cases are clearer when there is suicidal communication, either verbally or

through a note, as researchers found that previous suicidal communication was highly

predictive of a death being classified as a suicide (Lindqvist & Gustafsson, 2002).