Woman Commits Suicide With Chainsaw

Authorities are currently investigating a possible suicide involving a chainsaw which occured Thursday in Los Angeles, California.

According to Sgt. Richard Parks of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Pacific Station, the body of 47 year old Valerie Nash was found around 12:40 a.m. on Thursday morning by her sister in the bedroom of their town home in Palms.

Initial reports claimed the woman was found with the chainsaw tied to her neck, but Sgt. Parks stated that those reports were not correct. Nash was discovered with a chainsaw wound on her neck.

According to LAPD Officer Norma Eisenman the case was initially labeled as a possible homicide, but that changed when investigators found a suicide note, adding that fire officials are saying the body’s decomposition indicates she may have been dead for as long as a day before being found by her sister.

“Two sisters, they share an apartment,” Officer Eisenman added. “The door [to the victim’s room] was jammed a little, and the sister was able to see her on the bed with a chainsaw next to her.”

Los Angeles County coroner’s spokesman Larry Dietz said a coroner’s official is still at the scene and his office has no additional information at this time.

Suicide by chainsaw is not unheard of. There have been at least two other cases found during a 2000 study by the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology published in the Journal of Forensic Science, both carried out by men where it was found that a history of depression and prior suicide attempt was a key commonality.

Although Nash’s unusual use of a chainsaw has drawn more attention to her suicide, the reasoning for this may never be known. Suicidologist Carla Fine told The Huffington Post, “That’s the hardest part for survivors — they take the answers with them.”

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