Isdal woman Part VII - C2 (Manner of death) Case closed - self-immolation?

In my last post I traced what I could find of published information pertaining to Isdal woman and Cause of death. Even though my instincts told me before diving in to this I would be able to reach a likely, logical conclusion, and probably the same as the original report released by the Coroner, I was proven wrong. I don't agree with the conclusion, but see it as one of at least three possible cases of death. Any one of the three "lethal" factors (drugs, flames and CO) could have caused death alone or in conjunction with each other. One can not say exactly how death occurred, and it is not too important. As long as all these elements are in place, the person will die.

Even if it may not be important to find what exact combo caused death, it could be useful to establish in what progression the known events took place. Some of this can be found looking at medical facts. For instance, CO levels in blood is indicative of the deceased having been breathing in smoke from a fire where incomplete combustion of organic matter was present. This organic matter could be fuel. Or wood. Or the woman. Had she not been breathing, she would not have had CO in her blood in such doses.
The bruise on her neck / throat, could only be there if an injury / impact happened before death. Undissolved pills in her stomach means she died before they were dissolved and before the drugs was released to the organism.

The circumstances that are known to have a set of physical limits to them like the ones above, dictates a course of events. Some circumstances are not as clear cut and may have to be placed where in this progression of events they are most likely to have happened. If the majority of events are placed in the course of events based on "most likely", I would say the whole thing is only "most likely" and not a fact. If I have to exclude one of the known events to make the course of event reconstructed look good, I am cheating.

Three theories

Official investigation concluded it was suicide. Speculations have been around since 1970 that there was some other more likely event that led to her death, and of these the most discussed is probably the "agent-theory". One that I don't think has been discussed too much, is that this was an accident. Or that one of the lethal events was falsely understood (barbiturates as suicide aide).

I will discuss theories more later on, but first, Ive made a list of the three major theories and included the events leading to death for all of them in a way they are easily comparable:

One could theorize forever on different details. But I don't think that is fruitful unless you have the detail first. Find the facts and fit them instead of placing fiction in their absence.

My main objection to the official theory could be summed up by looking at two elements that I don't feel have been investigated or explained to an extent making any theory seem rational or logical.

1: The bruise on the neck must be explained, and the explanation must fit any of the theories. If it isn't, it actually seems more likely to be a sign of third party involvement.

2: The "triple lethal means" seem very strange. If you are absolutely positively going to kill yourself, you would not choose three "semi-lethal" means that leave a great amount of uncertainty as to if you are going to die or just be scarred for life. You don't shoot yourself in the leg and hang yourself from an arm and jump two stories into a ravine that may be covered in soft grass. You do one absolutely 100% lethal thing. And if you add anything, it is to aide that lethal thing.

Bruise
The theory she collided with a tree actually seems too far fetched to me. You just don't do that. And if you do, you are probably under the influence of something or having some sort of seizure. The assumption of fenemal being there as a planned suicide means, is less likely to me than that she had an actual need for this drug. It would have been prescribed to her by the same doctor that prescribed the steroids cream. She could have been self-medicating or just abusing. Both self-medication and abuse would raise her tolerance for fenemal, and she could as far as I know, actually have the 5mg / 100ml in her blood without having any poisoning- or overdose effects.

How would an abuser get access to fenemal in a quantity making it suitable for abuse? One would travel a alot...

This is discussed some in my last post, but summed up, fenobarbiturates are "long acting" barbiturates that takes time to give effect, and that will remain in the body for 2 - 7 days and generate "buildup". Buildup, is when you add more before last dose is cleared, and the total amount is relatively high. Over time, and with regular increase of dose, this can lead to very high levels of a drug being detectable in blood but the person taking them has a higher tolerance and has no effect unless dose is raised again.

Barbiturates are also one of the most common (1970s) drug to be self medicating on if one has anxiety, sleep disorders, paranoia, or any other psychological challenges or physical (pain-related) symptoms either as primary illness or as a result of use of barbiturates themselves. This is the main reason this medication was phased out and replaced by Benzodiasepines from mid 60s to mid 70s.

The Isdal woman had a steroids cream for treating sores. She had "bad teeth". She acted "confident" and was" unapproachable".  I would claim she most likely was misusing / self-medicating or abusing CNS depressants and possibly other drugs. I would bet there would have been traces of this long term use in her hair and her nails. Maybe even in her teeth if use had spanned long enough (listen up NRK and Kripos!)

A multitude of side effects would possibly arise from such abuse in addition to poor tooth health, tolerance and buildup. She could have chronic skin diseases, sores, get bruises faster than normal, have headaches, sleep very deep / very light or at abnormal times of the day. Any of the observations made of her by witnesses that describes her acting out of the ordinary, could be a result of illness and / or self medication.

Triple lethal means
The cause of death describing fenemal as a sleep medication taken in order to die, confuses and obscures the more likely theory of her being a regular abuser. I think my theory in removing the 50 - 70 pills of fenemal as a part of the "events leading to death", suddenly makes a suicide or accident more likely. She did not take 70 pills, then "wait a while" before she took 10-12 more pills, drank some alcohol and then poured gasoline on her self and lighted a match. The 50 - 70 pills fenemal was already there in her buildup. She just took 10 - 12 fenemal with alcohol because she knew that would make it easier to burn herself to death, or she just took 10-12 pills and the rest was an accident.

The CO was too low to be a sure cause of death. Keep in mind that to kill yourself by CO poisoning, you would have to be inside a small space without ventilation and with CO being added in large amounts (cars and garage).
This woman died out in the open. No enclosure to force CO levels in the air she was breathing. She would have to breathe in a massive single dose of freshly incompletely combusted organic matter to have 30% CO in her blood after a fire OUTSIDE. Full ventilation. You would almost have to breathe inn the fire itself to do this, and that's what you are doing if you are completely engulfed in flames from burning yourself for about two minutes.

The fenemal was only enough to induce coma if she actually took 80 pills there and then. A coma would render her unable to take 10-12 more pills and pour gasoline on herself. 10 -12 pills is only enough to make her sleep / not feel too much pain. The alcohol was minute. It was the fire that killed her, and that was her intention all along.

Self-immolation

I understand that this "burning oneself to death" sound very strange. I too discarded that theory as insane. Anyone reading this will probably agree, and the reason is simple: Suicide by burning one self is very uncommon in any western society. We speak English. Had we spoken an Arabic, Indian, Pakistani or Egyptian language and googled this, we would actually find out right away this crazy kind of suicide is THE MOST COMMON way for WOMEN to commit suicide in many countries of the East. In particular, there is an almost religious tradition in Hindu culture that suicide should be done by burning oneself to undergo a purification.

We may not understand this, but this is a fact. If the Isdal woman could have killed herself by burning herself and removing all her earthly connections, she just did what is expected. Not a spy. No conspiracy. Just the most common form of suicide amongst women in Egypt, Iran, India and in general amongst Hindu religious people.

Here is an excerpt from an article published in the Indian Journal of Psychiatry. 2015 Jul; 57(Suppl 2): S233–S238.

doi:  10.4103/0019-5545.161484 PMCID: PMC4539867, called "Suicide in women":

"Self-immolation is one of the most common methods of suicide by women in India, Sri Lanka, Iran and other Middle-East countries. In Iran between 70% and 88% of self-immolation are by women.[28] In India 63% (n = 6292) of self-immolations were by women.[10] Self-immolation is the preferred method of suicide for women of Indian origin even after migrating to UK.

The Hindu concept of fire as a purifier, the practices of Sati and Jauhar, which were prevalent until two centuries ago and the easy accessibility and familiarity of kerosene at home are likely to be the reasons for the high prevalence of self-immolation in women.[29]"

(read the whole article here: http://www.indianjpsychiatry.org/article.asp?issn=0019-5545;year=2015;volume=57;issue=6;spage=233;epage=238;aulast=Vijayakumar)

RIP Maryam...
Isdal Woman is likely Syrian, Indian or Iranian. She was actually born on 27th of November 1943 like she stated in immigration papers on at least one hotel. She could have waited for that day to kill herself after leaving the hotel 22nd. She was discovered 29th. Two days after her death and birthday?

In light of my findings and half conclusion, I actually don't think there is a reason to investigate this much further. I bet NRK / Kripos / The labs will find a DNA / Isotope samples belonging to a woman that will fit the geographic area corresponding to my findings. If they don't, Ill look at this some more.

And thank you Maryam for clearing my nightmares. I should probably claim some fancy link to the number 18, but I cant. That was just some random number in a dream...