The death of Captain Hess was suicide. Homicide is the killing of another person with intent, while suicide is self-inflicted. The person who commits the crime must have the intention of killing Captain Hess, or Captain Hess killed himself. Such is because of the evidence present in the crime scene and the autopsy done on captain Hess's body. At the crime scene, there was a Knife that Captain Hess had bought previously. It is possible that he used the Knife to stub himself several times. However, that is not conclusive evidence as it is possible someone might have grabbed the Knife and killed Hess. The autopsy present more clear evidence on the investigation supporting it is suicide. If the killing were a homicide, there would have been marks on Captain Hess's body showing he was struggling or trying to defend himself from the victim killing him. But the outcomes of the post-mortem indicate no signs of struggles on Hess's body (Adcock, 2011). Also, there was only one defect in the hood that Captain Hess was wearing on the day of the incident. It is very irrelevant for someone else to remove the hood from Hess and start stabbing them again if they intend to kill them.
One mistake in the initial investigation was reporting on an investigation that was not yet completed. The information was given by the Public Affairs officer stating that the investigation was complete and the cause of death was suicide. It is not relevant to the investigation to give a final verdict, and all the options had not been exhausted on the cause of death or without informing the family. Another mistake in the initial investigation was the crime scene's contamination before the forensics people arrived to collect evidence. There was a cup of the mag that belonged to one of the officers assisting with the search. There were also filters of cigarettes at the crime scene, indicating that someone else was there. If the forensics were not informed that the materials belonged to other people, they would have concluded that they were part of the investigation. For instance, it would have suggested that Captain Hess's death was a homicide because the last time he was seen in the camp, he wanted to get coffee, but it was not ready, meaning the mag was not his and might belong to someone who might have committed the crime.
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Another critical equivocal death investigation is that of an 18 years old girl found dead inside a locked room with several stabs in the abdomen. The girl was found lying down in the room, which was not locked (Singh, 2014). However, there were no signs of struggling to suggest that someone attacked and stabbed her. However, there was another argument in the investigation: the girl appeared to be having bruises on the neck. The autopsy outcomes suggest that the girls stubbed themselves several times, and the patterns on the stubs are similar to that of Captain Hess. In Captain Hess's autopsy, it shows many stabs on the left side of the chest near the heart. That shows a high chance he held the Knife with the right hand and aimed for the heart. The same is the issue in the girl's case, and more stabs are towards the left near the heart and on the abdomen.
Reference
Adcock, J. (2011). Captain Gordon Hess – Homicide or Suicide? An Equivocal death analysis and case study. Investigative Science Journal, 3 (1), 1-23.
Singh, P., Keisham, S., Rishilu, K., & Th, M. (2014). Suicidal death by stabbing: A case of rare occurrences. Journal of Indian Academy of Forensic Medicine, 34 (4), 434.
