[Forensic Life] They Discovered Each Other's Existence Online

Carbon Monoxide Poisoning is Fatal
Always Be Aware of Possible Homicide

[Asia Economy] Deaths caused by carbon monoxide poisoning can unexpectedly lead to mass casualties. There have been tragic cases where parents and children enjoying camping inside a large tent died due to incomplete combustion of a stove they lit to overcome the cold.

Carbon monoxide binds to hemoglobin in the lungs 200 to 300 times more effectively than oxygen the moment it is inhaled through the nose and mouth, causing a shortage of oxygen supply necessary for our body. Symptoms do not appear until the carbon monoxide-hemoglobin concentration in the blood reaches about 10%. However, when it rises above 10%, headaches begin, and if it exceeds 20-30%, dizziness and loss of consciousness may occur. If it surpasses 40%, death can result.

They met each other on a suicide website and decided to commit joint suicide. They agreed that it would be good to end their lives while looking at the sea. They rented a car and purchased charcoal briquettes (chakhwatan).

They drove to Gyeongpodae Beach in Gangneung. Facing the beach, they lit the charcoal briquettes and closed their eyes side by side, waiting for death. The younger of the two woke up with a splitting headache. Unable to endure the headache and nausea, he opened the car door and took in the fresh air deeply. Glancing at the back seat, he saw that the 28-year-old man who had promised to die together was already seemingly dead. When he brought his hand to the man's nose, he was not breathing.

He was suddenly terrified. With a corpse in the back seat, he drove away from Gangwon Province to Chungcheongnam-do, hid the car in a secluded, sloped grassy area, and then fled. About 25 days later, a local resident, suspicious that the car had not moved and remained in the same place, reported a decomposed body inside the vehicle. The police initially judged it as suicide after confirming the deceased in the back seat and the partially burned charcoal briquettes on the car floor. The vehicle was confirmed to have been rented by the deceased, but based on the testimony of the rental car staff that two people had been in the car, CCTV footage, and fingerprint checks, the police identified the passenger.

An autopsy had already been conducted. The body, left in the vehicle for a long time, was severely decomposed, with the skin soaked in putrid blood fluid. No blood was found inside the heart, and the livor mortis and muscle color were all discolored due to decomposition, so the characteristic pink color of carboxyhemoglobin in the livor mortis or muscles was not observed. However, there was enough heart blood left to measure drugs and carbon monoxide. The blood carbon monoxide-hemoglobin (CO-Hb) concentration was 64%, a lethal level. Additionally, zolpidem, a sleeping pill, was detected in the blood. The deceased had taken the sleeping pill before death and died while asleep.

One strange point is why the person who planned to commit suicide together did not take sleeping pills. If they decided to die together, it is unlikely that only one person took sleeping pills, yet the 28-year-old man died and the other survived, which remains a mystery. The police, noting his consistent statements, sent him to the prosecution on charges of corpse abandonment and aiding suicide.

Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless gas lighter than air but is a deadly poison that can kill a person at about 0.1% concentration in the air. At 1% concentration in the air, death can occur within a minute. Situations where incomplete combustion gases can occur in confined spaces must always be approached with extreme caution. Furthermore, as in the above example, when death is judged to be caused by carbon monoxide poisoning, there is always the possibility of other factors or homicide, so the importance of postmortem examination, i.e., autopsy, must not be forgotten by forensic experts and investigative authorities.

Yoo Seong-ho, Forensic Scientist

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