Can we distinguish suicide by hanging versus auto-erotic asphyxiation?
I learned about a website in 2002 called SilentVictims.org about people who cut off their circulation while masturbating, and something like 5% of them die. Sounds brilliant.
The problem is, then the families announce it as a suicide because they are too embarrassed to admit that their child or family member/loved one was engaging in something so moronic.
That being said, any of us could have probably died at some point from a night of drinking or something. Literally the first year I started drinking [2003 - when I was 21], I went to sleep after a night of drinking during my summer army training in Kingston, ON, and woke up covered in puke. Someone told me that I could have died, and that Jimmy Hendrix died that way. So go figure.
That being said, if anyone dies by masturbation, and he is found with his pants pulled down, I would think that shouldn't be hidden by the family. But I can see why that would be hard to deal with.
Robin Williams was actually in a movie where his son died in this fashion. There was even speculation that Williams died in this fashion. But I also heard he had just been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease, and had to settle a huge $35 million divorce.
