Combined suicide by oxydemeton-methyl (Metasystox®) ingestion and hanging

A case of a combined suicide by oxydemeton-methyl (Metasystox®) ingestion and hanging is reported. Dimethyl phosphate (DMP) proved to be a stable product of oxydemeton-methyl; for its determination a gas chromatographic/mass spectrometric procedure was performed. DMP levels were quantified in several liquids and tissue samples: measured concentrations were 103.31 μg/ml DMP in gastric contents, 0.10 μg/ml in blood, 1.40 μg/g in liver, 2.87 μg/ml in bile and 0.80 μg/g in kidney. No DMP was found in either urine or cerebrum. On the basis of the distribution of the poison in the organism, and particularly due to the fact that no DMP could be detected in the urine and that also an amount of DMP was found in the gastric contents, it can be assumed that there was a close temporal connection between ingestion of poison and hanging. Therefore, it is a case of a primary combined suicide.