DEATH BY HEROIN

On 31 January 1993, a very interesting case was brought to me. A 23 year old man was found dead in his home in bathroom. The door of the bathroom was ajar, and the body was lying in a supine position (Please reproduce fig XX-6 on page 536 here). The man was identified as one Satish Malik who had moved in that house only about 2 years back. The police did not find any marks of injury on his body. But they did find one strange looking mark on his neck (please reproduce fig XX-15 on page 542 here). It was suspected that Malik had been strangled by someone. Their main reason for thinking this was the strange looking mark on the neck.

When the police made enquiries they found that Malik was a married man. He had married one Sarita only last year. He worked as an executive in a cloth firm in New Delhi.

From the day Malik had married, there was some fight going on in the house. Malik thought that his wife Sarita was infidel while Sarita denied this outright. But Malik wouldn't listen to her explanations. The fight increased to such an extent that Sarita's brother Ramesh had to intervene. Ramesh was a well-built man, who did not have a very good reputation in his locality. Some people believed that he did some underhand business too. He was believed to be connected with the underworld.

Ramesh told Malik not to harass his sister, but Malik wouldn't listen. Ultimately Ramesh got so frustrated that once he even threatened Malik with dire consequences, if he did not mend his ways. Many people knew about this, because the next day Malik went around and told how he had been threatened by his brother-in-law, who should actually be more respectful to him.

On the day of death, Sarita had gone to her friend's house in Jullunder to attend a wedding. She was to come back after five days. On the morning of 31 January, Ramesh visited Malik apparently to admonish him once again. Many neighbors saw him entering the house at about 9.00 am. Soon after they heard angry and excited voices coming from inside the house. All the neighbors knew the trouble brewing in the house, so they did not care. At about 10.00 am they saw Ramesh stamping out of the house in anger. There were no further voices from inside the house. At 12.00 noon, the washerwoman came as usual. But when she rang the bell, no one opened the door. She got suspicious and informed the neighbors. The neighbors knew what had transpired in the morning and they informed the police. The police broke open the door, and found the dead body of Malik as already described.

All evidence pointed towards Ramesh as the killer. The police immediately summoned him and held him responsible for the murder. Ramesh seemed horrified to know that his brother-in-law had actually been killed. He admitted that he did have some problems with his brother-in-law, but actually he never intended to do anything to him. How could he kill his  own sister's husband? But the police wouldn't listen to him, and took him to their "torture chamber" to get the truth out of him.

It was at this stage that the case was brought to me. When I had a careful look at the body, I found that there was a fine froth coming out from his nose and mouth (please reproduce fig XX-22 on page 546 here). This immediately made me suspicious of something. I asked the investigating officer to show me his shoes. The police officer was initially a little bit surprised, but he knew that if I was asking for something, it really was an important thing. When the shoes were brought to me, I reflected their "tongue" (the movable squarish shaped leather portion over which shoe laces are tied), and looked at the inside. As I had suspected, I found that they were torn from the inside and some cotton had been removed from them (Please reproduce fig XX-4 on page 534 here). My suspicions were confirmed. But just to be doubly sure, I looked at his legs. Again as expected, I saw some tattoos there (please reproduce fig XX-20 on page 544 here). On the wrist there was a long needle track (please reproduce fig XX-13 on page 541 here). I clinched the diagnosis. I called the investigating officer, and told him that Ramesh hadn't killed Malik. I told him that I knew how he had died, and asked him not to torture Ramesh any more and release him at once. The police officer looked back at me in surprise and said,"But sir, how could you say just by looking at the shoes, legs and wrists that Ramesh hasn't killed him? There is such a strong circumstantial evidence against Ramesh. You have not even conducted an autopsy. How could you say that Ramesh has nothing to do with this death?"

"Well, I have seen such cases in the past", I said. Of course the subsequent autopsy conducted by me proved that I was right. The cause of death after conducting an autopsy was the same as I had thought earlier immediately after seeing the body.

The readers may be surprised as to what magic I had done to find out the cause of death so quickly. Well, before going any further, let me tell you a little bit about a dangerous narcotic drug heroin.

Heroin is derived from morphine, which itself comes from the poppy plant. It is self‑administered by the addict in a number of ways: he can orally ingest it, sniff it, inject it beneath the skin (known as skin‑popping because the skin is popped up and heroin injected), or inject it directly into a vein (known as mainlining because it is put in a main line, so to say). Mainlining is the most popular method of heroin intake. Consuming the drug by mouth or by sniffing does not give rise to as intense a pleasure as by injecting it directly into a vein. This is because the drug is broken down by the stomach juices. In addition, the veins carrying the drug from the stomach, first pass through the liver, where most of the remaining drug is broken down further. For this very reason, whenever doctors want to give morphine to their patients for medical reasons, they do so by injection.

One of the most amazing things in the dark and murky world of addicts is the mechanics of mainlining. For this the addicts use an elaborate paraphernalia, sometimes called outfits, works or toys, which include a variety of items (Please reproduce fig XX-3 on page 533 here). A spoon or some similar device called a cooker, is used for mixing and heating the heroin after being mixed with a small quantity of water. Sometimes the handle of the spoon is bent downwards and "doubled on itself" so that the hollow of the spoon will remain in level when kept on the table. The syringe, or spike as it is sometimes called, is either a commercially manufactured syringe or a home‑made syringe consisting of an eye‑ dropper with a rubber suction device. The needle is then fitted to the eyedropper. The kit also includes a small ball of cotton, which is placed in the spoon (please note the small cotton ball in the spoon). The heroin is drawn into the syringe through this cotton. This ball of cotton is supposed to filter out any "poison", but, ironically it is this very ball which adds dirt to the already dirty solution. Moreover, sometimes small cotton fibers get sucked in the syringe and are inadvertently injected into the vein. This is very dangerous because these cotton fibers get lodged in the lungs leading to serious problems. The same dirty cotton is used again and again and what is quite amazing is that the addicts really believe that the cotton is filtering out the poison. In times of distress, when a fresh supply of the drug is not available, a typical addict will add this cotton to plain water and inject the resulting solution into his veins. Since the cotton becomes saturated with heroin through overuse, the resulting solution does give some relief to the addict. This practice is known as shooting the cottons. Malik was actually a heroin addict. He used to take heroin regularly. He had removed the cotton from the "tongue" of his shoes only because of this purpose. Because of drug addiction his family life was never well-adjusted.

The figure of "works" also shows a long cord. This is used as a tourniquet. Also known as the tie‑rag it is any article such as the cord shown, a necktie, towel or a belt that can be tied around the arm or leg to make the veins very prominent (please reproduce fig XX-19 on page 544 here). This is a method which doctors use to given injections directly into the vein. The tourniquet is placed and tightened slightly above the elbow, so that veins in the front of the elbow become prominent. It is very easy to introduce a needle in the swollen vein. Those, who are unable to get hold of a hypodermic needle, tend to use things like the safety pin, sewing needle and even razor blades to make a hole in the vein and insert the eyedropper directly into the vein hole. On occasions, the addict might personalize the kit by making up a special leather or metal container. More often it is simply placed in an empty cigarette package, wrapped with a rubber band and hidden in the dirtiest corner of the addict's home. The reason for this is to take advantage of the fact that most investigators do not like to get their hands dirty during searches. I asked the police officer to search Malik's house thoroughly. On searching sure enough, the whole "kit" was found in one of his desks.

Now let me tell you how the addict takes heroin. He begins the preparation for injection by emptying the contents of his sachet of heroin (known as bindle or balloon), into the cooker. After adding enough water to liquefy the substance, a heat source is placed at the bottom of the cooker and the substance is observed closely until the first bubble appears. The addict's intention is to attain approximate body temperature.  Then the solution from the cooker is drawn through the cotton ball into the syringe. Just at this moment, the tourniquet is applied above the elbow. Now the needle is inserted slowly into the vein until the blood can be seen coming into the eye‑dropper. The rush of the blood in the dropper indicates that the vein has been successfully punctured. The drug is now pushed into the vein.  Some addicts prefer to suck the blood back into the dropper three to four times in order to ensure that no trace of the drug remains in the dropper. This practice is known as booting. The effect of the injection is immediate and intense. Addicts describe it in various ways, ranging from a pleasant tingling sensation running up and down the limbs and settling in the abdominal region, to a sensation not unlike a sexual orgasm which tapers off into a feeling of lethargic well‑being, resulting in a disregard for problems, and a total lack of a sense of responsibility. The condition is deeply desired by the addict and lasts for several hours following an injection.

An addict generally begins his career by injecting in the veins of the elbow. Due to repeated injections, however, the veins collapse and deteriorate and the addict is forced to move further down the forearm and then towards the back of the hand. As further deterioration takes place, the addict moves down to the feet and then upwards, travelling from the legs to the thighs and the groin area. Finally all these veins are scarred. A heroin addict can be spotted at once by just looking at the condition of his veins. When all the limb veins become scarred, some addicts start injecting the drug into the veins of the neck; this may cause needle track marks there. These were the marks that the police saw on Malik's neck, and thought he had been throttled. Actually they were the needle track marks which were produced because sometimes Malik used to take heroin through the veins of his neck .

Sometimes an addict can get a sample of heroin, which is adulterated with a dangerous poison, strychnine. Its injection known as hot shot can cause quick death. Hot shot can also occur when an addict, used to injecting heroin of 3 to 5 per cent purity, gets a purer blend of the drug. Death can occur in this case, since the addict is not used to higher concentrations.

One of the strangest findings in these addicts is the finding of strange tattoos. I found these tattoos in Malik's legs as you already know. The addicts make these tattoos to hide the needle track marks that are produced by repeated injections of heroin. They are afraid that if someone looks at their needle marks, he will at once recognize that they were drug addicts. Instead if they hide their needle marks under the tattoos, no one would know about them. I found the tattoos on Malik's arms too (please reproduce fig XX-14 here).

After Ramesh left on that fateful day, Malik became very depressed and wanted to have his daily ration of heroin. Unfortunately the heroin sample he had bought the previous day from his drug dealer contained strychnine, and this killed him instantaneously. His body organs revealed presence of both heroin as well as strychnine.

When the police released Ramesh, he came and fell on my legs. He said that his life had been saved because of me only. The poor fellow did not know that it was not me, but forensic science which had saved him. I only used the science!

(To protect the identity of the individuals, their names, as well as the various dates of occurrence have been changed)