Welcome, Guest: Register On Nairaland / LOGIN! / Trending / Recent / New
Stats: 3,153,043 members, 7,818,091 topics. Date: Sunday, 05 May 2024 at 07:32 AM

A Murder Or A Suicide? - Crime - Nairaland

Nairaland Forum / Nairaland / General / Crime / A Murder Or A Suicide? (483 Views)

Young Man Yet to Arrive Home After Dropping A Suicide Note In Lagos(photo) / Lady's Corpse Dumped On The Road In Anambra With A Murder Note (Photos) / Man Climbs Kano Radio Transmission Mast In A Suicide Attemp (photos) (2) (3) (4)

(1) (Reply) (Go Down)

A Murder Or A Suicide? by Adenex3051(m): 1:37pm On Feb 19, 2017
'Facts are sometimes stranger than fiction...'
Below is one of the most interesting cases ever recorded in history.
On March 23, 1994 the medical examiner viewed the body of Ronald Opus and concluded that he died from a shotgun wound to the head.
Mr. Opus had jumped from the top of a ten-story building intending to commit suicide. He left a note to the effect indicating his despondency.
As he fell past the ninth floor his life was interrupted by a shotgun blast passing through a window, which killed him instantly.
Neither the shooter nor the deceased was aware that a safety net had been installed just below the eighth floor level to protect some building workers and that Ronald Opus would not have been able to complete his suicide the way he had planned.
"Ordinarily," Dr Mills continued, "A person, who sets out to commit suicide and ultimately succeeds, even though the mechanism might not be what he intended, is still defined as committing suicide."
That Mr. Opus was shot on the way to certain death, but probably would not have been successful because of the safety net, caused the medical examiner to feel that he had a homicide on his hands.
In the room on the ninth floor, where the shotgun blast emanated, was occupied by an elderly man and his wife. They were arguing vigorously and he was threatening her with a shotgun.
The man was so upset that when he pulled the trigger he completely missed his wife and the pellets went through the window striking Mr. Opus.
When one intends to kill subject "A" but kills subject "B" in the attempt, one is guilty of the murder of subject "B".
When confronted with the murder charge the old man and his wife were both adamant and both said that they thought the shotgun was unloaded.
The old man said it was a long-standing habit to threaten his wife with the unloaded shotgun. He had no intention to murder her. Therefore the killing of Mr. Opus appeared to be an accident; that is, if the gun had been accidentally loaded.
The continuing investigation turned up a witness who saw the old couple's son loading the shotgun about six weeks prior to the fatal accident.
It transpired that the old lady had cut off her son's financial support and the son, knowing the propensity of his father to use the shotgun threateningly, loaded the gun with the expectation that his father would shoot his mother.
Since the loader of the gun was aware of this, he was guilty of the murder even though he didn't actually pull the trigger.
The case now becomes one of murder on the part of the son for the death of Ronald Opus.
Now comes the exquisite twist.
Further investigation revealed that the son was, in fact, Ronald Opus.
He had become increasingly despondent over the failure of his attempt to engineer his mother's murder. This led him to jump off the ten-story building on March 23rd 1994, only to be killed by a shotgun blast passing through the ninth story window.
The son had actually murdered himself, so the medical examiner closed the case as a suicide.
A true story from Associated Press, Reported by Kurt Westervelt
Do you agree with the Medical Examiner?

2 Likes

Re: A Murder Or A Suicide? by Epositive(m): 1:49pm On Feb 19, 2017
wow! wow!! wow!!! this is what i call suicidal-murder case

#positivevibes
Re: A Murder Or A Suicide? by ken19: 1:58pm On Feb 19, 2017
I got confused at a point
Re: A Murder Or A Suicide? by PMPhoenix(m): 2:07pm On Feb 19, 2017
It was a very smart suicide.
Re: A Murder Or A Suicide? by Adenex3051(m): 2:52pm On Feb 19, 2017
Epositive:
wow! wow!! wow!!! this is what i call suicidal-murder case


#positivevibes

Suicidal-murder indeed
Re: A Murder Or A Suicide? by WINNERMENTALITY: 3:34pm On Feb 19, 2017
It's suicide turned murder..


BUT AT THE END ITS A MURDER.....

TREATENING A LIVING THING WITH A GUN EVEN WHEN IT'S NOT LOADED ITS AN OFFENSE ON IT OWN....

(1) (Reply)

Can I Shoot A Criminal Being Pursued By The Police? / Court Grants Man N200, 000 Bail For Stealing N1,500 / TRUE LIFE STORY: My Best Friend Watched As Her Parents Murdered Her Sister

(Go Up)

Sections: politics (1) business autos (1) jobs (1) career education (1) romance computers phones travel sports fashion health
religion celebs tv-movies music-radio literature webmasters programming techmarket

Links: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10)

Nairaland - Copyright © 2005 - 2024 Oluwaseun Osewa. All rights reserved. See How To Advertise. 17
Disclaimer: Every Nairaland member is solely responsible for anything that he/she posts or uploads on Nairaland.