Can you break hyoid bone

A prospective study of 40 cases of suicidal hangings over a three-year period found fractures of neck structures in 19 cases In the most recently published series, fractures of the neck skeleton were present in The data revealed in the peer-reviewed scientific literature does not support Baden's statement that "hanging does not cause these broken bones, and homicide does.

At autopsy, a typical hanging furrow elevates either to the back of the head or to the side, and unless the ligature is very tight, there will be a gap where it is not pressed against the skin. In contrast, a strangulation furrow is horizontal, generally encircling the neck, and there is often traumatic injury to the back of the neck where the tightening force was applied.

The direction of the furrow on the decedent's neck can help the examining physician determine whether the cause of death was a hanging or a strangulation -- but it doesn't tell you the manner of death. Most hangings are suicides, but homicidal hangings, usually called lynchings, do occur.

Conversely, most strangulations are homicides, but there are also decedents who have died by suicide after having tightened a ligature around their own necks. The hyoid bone and thyroid cartilages can get broken in both hangings and strangulations. It's not, as Baden asserts in his interview on Fox News , the location or number of fractures that matter -- it's the location of the ligature relative to the fracture in the context of the death scene and other autopsy findings of injury that tells the investigating forensic pathologist what happened.

If the neck fractures are nowhere near the ligature furrow and there are injuries elsewhere on the body indicating a struggle, then the case is more consistent with a homicide that is being covered up as a suicidal hanging.

If there are no other injuries to the body and the fractures do correspond to the location of the furrow, then those bony structures have likely been broken in the course of a hanging suicide.

Bones become brittle and cartilage calcifies with age, and both will break easily in older people like Epstein, who was 66 when he died. Not really. DNA testing nowadays is very sensitive , but it can only really tell you which individuals may have touched something. It can answer the "who" question, but not necessarily the when, where, why, and how questions that are critical to any death investigation.

Testing the ligature may reveal DNA from the guard or prisoner who handled the sheets during distribution, or even the factory worker who made them. The sheets might have picked up old DNA from that cell's bunk, useless evidence pointing to someone who left the facility weeks or months before Epstein arrived. Having the DNA of another person on the ligature does not mean that person was involved in Epstein's death.

The hyoid bone is not the Adam's apple itself. The Adam's apple is outwardly protruding thyroid cartilage surrounding the larynx. Instead, the hyoid is located just above the lump-like area.

A fractured hyoid is present in approximately one-third of strangulation homicides, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information.

An unbroken hyoid is also occasionally cited as a reason to prove that an accused party is not guilty of strangulation.

Pantaleo and other officers approached Garner, who they suspected was selling cigarettes without tax stamps. The officers attempted to arrest Garner and Pantaleo put him in a chokehold; Garner died after going into cardiac arrest.

Lynch, called for charges against Pantaleo to be dropped since the hyoid was intact. Garner "did not die of strangulation of the neck from a chokehold which would have caused a crushed larynx windpipe and a fractured hyoid bone," said the release.

Pantaleo was found guilty of using an improper choke-hold but not of intentionally restricting Garner's breathing. Sampson, the chief medical examiner of New York City, oversaw Garner's autopsy as well. She concluded that strangulation was the cause of Garner's death. Guards found Epstein unconscious after he had been taken off of a prison suicide watch. His death was called an "apparent suicide" by federal authorities.

Wecht said that multiple breaks or fractures in neck bones are rare to find in suicidal hangings. A fractured hyoid is possible from any blunt trauma to the neck. However, it is more common in a strangling than in a hanging, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information. According to reports, Epstein had tied a bed-sheet to the bunk and kneeled on the ground and then leaned forward to kill himself.

Death would likely come from pressure applied to the neck and cut off circulation of nerves, particularly the vagus nerve , which is the tenth cranial nerve and longest nerve in the body, Wecht said. Questions surrounding Epstein's death, and any outstanding circumstances, such as his guards sleeping through checks , still fester. Facebook Twitter Email.

What can a tiny bone tell us about Jeffrey Epstein's death? Show Caption. Hide Caption.