[Problems in the evaluation of electrocution fatalities in the bathtub]

Forty-eight cases of electrocution in the bathtub are reported which were recorded in Düsseldorf and Göttingen from 1972 to 1986; 19 cases were established to be suicides, with a sex ratio of 1:3 in favor of females. Marks of electricity were found in 8 cases. Five other cases were distinguished by linear marks indicating the water level, and in 10 cases a peculiar restriction of the postmortem hypostasis on the submersed areas could be seen. We presume from our own material that the latter findings can be easily ignored. As linear, circumscribed lividity could not be detected in bath deaths without electricity, it may be a specific finding. We recommend that more attention be paid to this phenomen. In all of our cases, 220 V current was involved, i.e., the usual household supply. The calculated amperage was about 100 to 250 mA, which means that ventricular fibrillation occurred within a few seconds. In 14 cases foam was established at the mouth and the nostrils, or in the air passages. We presume that, in these cases, death by electrocution was finally superimposed by drowning without developing the typical emphysema aquosum.