Okay, I need a bit of help, if y'all don't mind.

I'm trying to set up a suicide (in my story, not IRL) that will look more like murder until things are examined more closely. The people investigating the case will be inclined to dismiss suicide as an option, so that's something of help.

Thoughts? I need to make sure that the suicide-not-murder realization is believable while still giving good HSQ.

Anne, are you asking about methods, pathology, or....?

Hmm...funky looking ligatures from a hanging? Cause it worked in reverse for D'Angelo Barksdale on "The Wire"...of course part of that is that law enforcement didn't give a crap about D.

Anne, are you asking about methods, pathology

Um, both, I guess. I need to figure out how the deed is done, and what will make the investigators assume murder rather than suicide.

Funky ligatures could work--what makes them funky, though?

Signed,

Hasn't yet seen "The Wire"

Something about the way the noose landed across Barksdale's neck iirc showed that he couldn't possibly have done it himself, and I forget why. Maybe there were bruises on other parts of his body. But DOC didn't care cause he was in on drug charges so even the ME was kind of like "Eh." McNulty, who stirs up the pot by getting up every morning, found the "mistake". You'll either love The Wire or find it deadly slow. There seems to be no middle ground on it.

If you have a suicide and somebody destroys the note before the police see it, that always helps.

Ooh! That's a great idea, Betsy! In fact, if I play it right, it could just add to the pain, which is of the good in this case.

Pain? Of the good. Can only mean Bayliss!fic. Or you know, Xander Harris.(Which is kind of the same thing, minus about twenty years and one always-open murder case, but I've already talked about that a couple other places.)

If you're going with hanging, there's also the point that if the drop wasn't far enough to break the neck, then the person got to go out the slow way. So if he's died of strangulation without much sign of a struggle, then odds are he didn't do it by hanging. There would also be different wear signs on the rope if a body's weight dropped to the end of it, as in jumping off a chair, or if the body was hoisted up.

(researched it for another story)

Also don't forget the manual preference question; a right-handed person tying a noose only a left-handed person could tie also works in reverse if the suicide is trying to frame someone for their murder.