ABSTRACT
Criminal homicidal poisoning is a murder in which poison is the murder weapon. Poisoning homicides are rare and in some cases likely go undetected. Homicide poisoning deaths can also appear to be accidental or due to suicidal behavior. Homicidal poisoning is difficult to investigate and often requires advanced technology and skills, and a significant commitment of investigative resources. Individual substances used for poisoning homicides have distinguishing properties such as how quickly they act, the symptoms they produce prior to death, and their analytical detectability. The toxicity of methanol is due to its metabolites and therefore death can be delayed while metabolism is occurring and the metabolites accumulate. The initial symptoms of poisoning are nonspecific and could include CNS depression, weakness, nausea, and other abnormalities that are commonly produced by many childhood diseases. A possible explanation is that intention was to poison the boy with insulin, but the teenager became impatient with the time it was taking and strangled the child.
