Citation

Osawa M, Matsushima Y, Kumar A, Tsuboi A, Kakimoto Y, Satoh F. J. Forensic Sci. 2016; 61(3): 845-847.

Affiliation

Department of Forensic Medicine, Tokai University School of Medicine, 143 Shimokasuya, Isehara, Kanagawa, 259-1193, Japan.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, American Society for Testing and Materials, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/1556-4029.13051

PMID

27122430

Abstract

A male in his 70s was found lying dead in the living room of his house. A gunshot entrance wound was observed in the left orbit, with a lead slug and wadding left in the skull, which exhibited fatal cranio-cerebral trauma. A cartridge had been discharged from a handmade launcher, or zip gun, that had been fixed to a spare gun barrel on a pipe chair, by heating the launcher from the side using a gas burner. The deceased had owned guns for hunting in the past and had returned the license, but he had retained a spare barrel and live cartridges at home. In this unique case of suicide, a zip gun was discharged by heating with a gas burner.

© 2016 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

Language: en