# how can one inactively kill somebody?



## city_struck (Apr 21, 2011)

i want to write a story about domestic violence, where the abusive husband dies by the actions/inactions of the abused wife. what i mean is that i want the death to have been caused by her action/inaction, but not in a way that she actively plotted to kill him. 

any ideas? i was thinking of maybe some fit of illness in which her urgent attention could have saved his life, but she passively chose to let him die of it by denying some provision of timely medicine or assistance.

any other ideas are also welcome. 

thanks!


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## Jinxi (Apr 21, 2011)

The illness idea could work well. He may have been on some kind of medication for, let's say, blood pressure and one day he had a headache and she gave him a pill that reacted negatively with his blood pressure pills causing his heart to seize.

Another idea could be that she had begun cooking on their gas stove, they got into one of their fights and she left to seek treatment for the broken bones he had given her, forgetting to turn the gas off. As a result he suffocated from gas inhalation.

Whilst making their bed one morning she noticed that the wires on the electric blanket were slightly frayed. Deciding that she had far too many other chores to attend to that day, she left it. Her man came home after work in a rage, beat her and went up to bed. She chose to have a bath to try and soothe her wounds. He had taken some sleeping tablets to try and calm his mood and allow for a good night's sleep. He tossed and turned in bed, trying to find comfort and as a result of the movement against the wires, a spark shot out onto the sheets and the bed caught alight. Due to the sleeping tablets, he did not wake up in time and died in the fire.

Hope these help


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## C.M. Aaron (Apr 21, 2011)

Or denied him the real medication - gave him sugar pills instead of the real thing.  Think death of John Paul I.  In all of the excitement of being elected pope, he forgot to pack his heart medication when he moved to Rome and died a month later.


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## TheFuhrer02 (Apr 23, 2011)

The illness angle could work. But then you said that this is a "passive choice" and to "inactively kill" someone requires no premeditation, and the denial of the real medication definitely has premeditation in it. Any jury would see that this case is first degree.


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## spider8 (Apr 24, 2011)

Yes, these look premicated = murder.

Also, in the UK, if the man just has an illness and the wife lets him die, I'm sure that legally she has something called a 'Duty of Care', which means she could still be done for it. Though unlikely.

btw I'm not 100% sure on that 'Duty of Care' thing, but I'm close.

On the same subject: say for instance, you leave your garden shears on some uneven ground. A kid kicks his ball over into your garden, and in jumping over the fence to get it, he injures himself. I'm sure you could be done for it. You have a Duty of Care. Same thing if a burglar injures himself climbing through a window he's just broken to get in, not with the glass, but because on the windowsill you've left a sharp object.

To sum up, I don't think you _can_ inactively kill someone and be innocent in the eyes of the law. Hope that doesn't spoil your story.


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## city_struck (Apr 24, 2011)

thanks so much you guys! 

im not getting into legalities in this story. i doubt the law would really suspect her, her having been the quintessential "obedient" wife. this wont be murder mystery-esque in any case, so i can easily steer clear of the topic of law.

the story will most likely be set in rural or small town india. so electric/electronic gadgets would be less convincing. im liking the medication angle more and more, esp with  aaron's placebo pill idea. or maybe a mistaken switcheroo with her own pain killer pills or sleeping pills (that she has to take each time there is an "episode" with him).

would love to hear more about common/uncommon illnesses that could get fatal when even a single dose of the correct medicine is not given in time. or a combination of pills that are fatal, like jinxi suggested.


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## TheFuhrer02 (Apr 26, 2011)

city_struck said:


> would love to hear more about common/uncommon illnesses that could get fatal when even a single dose of the correct medicine is not given in time.



Diabetes. Insulin should be taken according to the dose prescribed. This one's pretty strict, and a missed dose by a couple of hours could lead to sever hypoglycemia, slowly killing a person. No insulin taken within four to six hours after he should've had one would lead to near-fatal complications.



city_struck said:


> or a combination of pills that are fatal, like jinxi suggested.



Those with heart problems, esp. the elderly, may tend to forget which meds they took for the day and which they haven't. This may lead to overdosing. A few of the medicines for maintenance of a patient with a heart problem include digoxin, adenosine, Neo-Bloc, Aldomet, Catapress and the statins. A mixture of digoxin and Neo-Bloc or Catapress would be enough to bring your heart rate on a very low level and blood pressure. This could cause near-fatal complications as well.


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## Ditch (Apr 26, 2011)

I second the insulin. As a diabetic's blood sugar drops, they get confused and appear drunk. They can't reason at all. She may notice that he is needing sugar and decide just to go shopping for a few hours or to visit her mother all day. It would be hard to prove that she noticed his condition before she left, especially in a small town where the J.P. is a local redneck/good old boy who declares him dead and isn't that sharp as are the local cops. A natural death by low blood sugar wouldn't arouse suspicion.


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## John Yeoman (May 9, 2011)

Wilful neglect might always be explained away in a law court as absent-mindedness. For example, the wife notices that the airbag in the passenger seat has been turned off, because she carries her child in that seat. One day her husband joins her in the passenger seat. She 'forgets' that the air bag has been disabled. The wife drives into a tree. The airbag saves her life. The husband is killed. Who could say it was murder?


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## TheFuhrer02 (May 9, 2011)

^ In the US, with a hardcore DA, that could still count as involuntary manslaughter.


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## SeverinR (May 11, 2011)

If the abuser is a drinker, he could get drunk and puke.
She is disgusted and leaves, he chokes to death on the emesis.
(Or asperates it and dies from pneumonia)

She could see the disgusting mess and leaves him laying there still breathing, but later he is found dead.

Can't really think of any other means for a person to die without criminal intent.

correction: Missed injection for the diabetic makes sugar go high, missing a meal after taking injection would drop the sugar to low. High is slower to kill accidently.(mass sugar intake would be intentional, not doing injections for several doses would take time.) To drunk or drugged to get the insulin dose right could kill him quickly, to much insulin.

Head injury could be ignored until he went confused, she thinks hes been drinking again leaves before he starts beating on her again.  When in reality he has a subarachnoid hemotoma.


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## Foxee (May 11, 2011)

The OP put me in mind of a Firefly episode where one character says to another, "No, I don't suppose there's many you killed. Just put them in a position to die easy."

Maybe thinking on that will generate ideas.


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## slarabee (Jun 4, 2011)

*I think that **SeverinR may be onto something with the drunk choking on vomit thing. It was the first thing that crossed my mind.

Or it could be as simple as a drunken car crash where she could have offered assistance that kept him alive but instead she watched him die and then called for help.

The possibilities are endless with this concept. 
*


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## Frivle Dilby (Jun 4, 2011)

Also this husband doesn't seem like a terrific guy. Maybe the wife lets slip some information to the wrong people. Someone else taking the blame, and accidental information slip that didn't seem important anyway. Depends a lot on the unsavory nature of the husband though.


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## Rustgold (Jun 6, 2011)

If you're writing a story, you need the death to be in some way attributed to the violence.  That means accidents like a frayed electrical wire are out.  Medications are also out as there's either premeditation or neglect involved.  Any action of which the wife watches the husband die is out as it's a willful choice.

How about husband hits; she defends herself; she runs away; locks herself in a room; he thumps the door; she stays hidden; and when she emerges he's dead.


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## Bright (Jun 8, 2011)

If you're going for irony/karma rather than plotting on the wife's part, then the medications are only good if, say, she is too teary-eyed after a fight, or has a swollen black eye, to see which medications she was giving him. Even passively watching him die without doing anything is too close to "killing" on her part, she still wants to see him die and lets him do so. Unless that's what you're going for.

I'm thinking more along the lines of, the husband does something to her that directly causes his death. Rustgold's idea of locking herself in a room sounds good, if he was, say, having a heart attack or something, and needed her to take him to the hospital, but she didn't know and was too scared to come out. SeverinR's idea of an ignored subarachnoid hematoma is also a really good one.

Or perhaps she has open medicine bottles, and he knocks her into them or knocks into them himself, and some similar-looking meds get mixed up?

He has a pre-existing condition that he does not know about, and is getting himself worked up beating her, and keels over from a heart attack? That isn't strictly caused by some action/inaction on her part, but it fits into the same "karma" idea.


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## WolfieReveles (Jun 11, 2011)

The only problem I see with diabetes is that unless she switches the insulin for another substance, the husband should have no trouble in treating himself. Perhaps a severe allergy could work better?

Deadly allergies like food(especially shellfish or nuts) or medication could work well, but then again it's no more interesting than poison, she would have to plant it. A scenario comes to mind where she can kill him in a very elaborate but indirect way:

_Her husband has a severe allergy toward bees. According to him the only reason they haven't been wiped off the earth is that people would miss honey cake, his favorite dessert. After an unusually severe beating, the woman discovers that a hive of bees has started to form in the neighbors wall. she plays with the thought a bit. "what if he would just get stung and nobody got him to a hospital?"

Later on in the story she's gazing out the window again, towards the bees and how they are flocking particularly toward a specific type of flower in the garden. She hears the neighbor calling the exterminators and that they will be there in two days. Her daydream dies and she begins to prepare dinner. Her husband comes home after having a bad day and for one reason or another he is not pleased with the way he is received. He beats the living crap out of her and she swears to make everything perfect for him next time he comes home.

The next day she starts preparing a marvelous dinner for him. She scrubs and cleans the whole house, takes out the best plates, buys his favorite beer, and while the dinner cooks in the oven, she runs out to buy a tons of flowers and puts them in every window, exactly the kind of flowers that the bees love. Finally she puts on an old jazz record, his favorite songs, and the crackling of the scratched record mixes in with the melody and the old speakers add a slight humming, buzzing sound to the tunes.
She leaves the oven on and open while she serves the food, opens the blinds and the curtains to let the sun in, and leaves hot water running in the shower and in every sink; turning everything off right before her husband arrives.

When he comes home he complains about the heat, so she opens all the windows. While he eats he complains about the flowers but she insists that she bought them just for him, making up some corny compliment to justify the type of flowers and the amount of them. As he eats, one bee after another start flying into the house, their buzzing masked by the sound of the scratched old record and the speakers. He keeps eating, unaware of their intrusion until the very last bite of food, when a bee lands on his plate. He freaks out, gets up, and begins noticing the multitude of bees that surround him. He starts waving anything he can find, trying to swat them or chase them out but ultimately he only succeeds in angering them.

He gets stung several times and while he collapses, choking to death from his own throat closing up, she goes to the store to buy dessert: a delicious honey cake with rum and a zert of orange.

_A very feminine murder, coupled with an alibi at the end.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

EDIT: This is of course a planned murder, not an accidental twist of fate.


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## Monkey Doctor (Jun 29, 2011)

Not sure if this is what you are after but how about this. She shares her woes with somebody who is a person in authority but sworn to secrecy, say a therapist or a priest. She tells of the years of abuse and the feelings of helplessness. This person is in reality a vigilanty killer who goes around writing the wrongs done to people in his/her care. They could set up an elaborate trap for the husband to fall into or just slaughter them. They could tell husband that they are acting on behalf of the wife withot her consent. There are many ways that this could go but essentially she would be responsible for his death because she unwittingly alerted some psycho to kill him.  


I hope this is research for fiction :wink:


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## PSFoster (Apr 14, 2014)

I would suggest a much less complicated scenario. During a fit of physical abuse, she pushes him away and he falls down the stairs. He starts cursing and she runs into a room and locks the door. As he tries to get up and come after he has severe pain from a broken rib. As he attempts to climb the stairs anyway, the broken rib cuts an artery and he bleeds out within a couple of minutes.


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## Riis Marshall (Oct 28, 2014)

Hello City

When any question such as this is asked, I apply the _Ian Mitchell Principle_ (Doctor Mitchell was an inspiring lecturer in English Literature whose classes I had the pleasure of attending).

_The Ian Mitchell Principle_: If things were as described in the story would the way the characters behave make sense?

So, set the scene - maybe use an outline or a set of notes - then do a little brainstorming, asking the question what the abused wife might do that 'makes sense' within the context of the story. You will probably come up with maybe half a dozen potential ways she might act.

I think you have the idea.

In one of Steven Segal's films - thankfully I've forgotten which one - he brings the girl to a screaming climax knowing that within ten minutes or so he's going to be facing about a dozen truly evil bad guys either spraying him with bullets from their UZIs or administering a substantial number of Kung Fu kicks to his face. Mindless violence? certainly. Gratuitous sex? yep, I'll have some of that. Brainless entertainment? by all means. Good story telling? not by a long shot.

All the best with your writing.

Warmest regards
Riis


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## Bishop (Oct 28, 2014)

There's always him slipping onto a kitchen knife and her not calling for help as he bleeds out.


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## Morkonan (Oct 28, 2014)

city_struck said:


> i want to write a story about domestic violence, where the abusive husband dies by the actions/inactions of the abused wife. what i mean is that i want the death to have been caused by her action/inaction, but not in a way that she actively plotted to kill him.
> 
> any ideas? i was thinking of maybe some fit of illness in which her urgent attention could have saved his life, but she passively chose to let him die of it by denying some provision of timely medicine or assistance.
> 
> ...



"Negligent Homicide"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negligent_homicide


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## Plasticweld (Oct 28, 2014)

Bishop said:


> There's always him slipping onto a kitchen knife and her not calling for help as he bleeds out.
> 
> While he is bleeding out, he begs for help, tells her he's sorry.  Pleads with her, telling her that it will all be different from now on.  She whistles while she cleans the house, just smiling as she listens to him.  The house must after all be clean when the cops and the paramedics show up, she is after all a very respectable person.


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## Greimour (Oct 28, 2014)

For inactivity you have a lot of options:

- He fell down the stairs to the basement and she closed the door and left him there. 
- He fell from a ladder and hung himself with the wire he was installing, she watched him dangle
- He was bit by a snake and when he told her to go phone for an ambulance (or whatever) she went inside and just didn't do anything.

The possibilities are huge.

Killing without planning or plotting but causing it are harder. If it isn't an unlawful act that caused it I mean. Accidental Killing usually gets classified in two parts depending on country and maybe state. There is manslaughter and homicide by misadventure. The second one (misadventure) is excusable in court.

Still, there are plenty. Hazards at home are far more numerous than the average workplace. Loose cables are a prime example. She could have left the hoover wire spread across the living area - he then trips on it whilst walking by eating cake (with a fork) and stabs himself in the throat. *Shrugs*

It depends what you call 'her fault' and what she thinks of as 'her fault'. 

When someone kills someone by accident, they will often blame themselves... even though that is not the case. This can fall anywhere from PTSD to Survivors Guilt depending on the situation and whatever. On the flip side, someone can be the literal cause of someones death and then say "It's not my fault..." this is usually the case when factors out of their control came into play. For example, you may have left your shoes at the top of the stairs but your flat mate was supposed to be gone for the weekend so how was you supposed to know he'd trip on them. He wasn't even supposed to be there...

Options - as I said - are many. Once you get rolling, you would be amazed how many dangers there are in life. Frankly, I find it almost miraculous that so many survive a single day of normal life.


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## Deleted member 56686 (Oct 28, 2014)

How about she left something on the step and he slipped on it, thus falling down the stairs and breaking his neck. 

Or maybe she knocked over something electrical in his bath, maybe an electric razor (accidentally of course) :icon_cheesygrin:


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## Bishop (Oct 28, 2014)

Oh! She left the grate off of the bug zapper when cleaning it, he slipped into it, got zapped, fell down off of the deck and rolled down the hill into the woods of Wyoming where a grizzly bear eats him! 

Okay, I'm taking this a little too far. "Final Destination" ain't got nothin' on me.

EDIT: Wait, did anyone else notice this thread is 3 years old?


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## Deleted member 56686 (Oct 28, 2014)

Bishop said:


> Oh! She left the grate off of the bug zapper when cleaning it, he slipped into it, got zapped, fell down off of the deck and rolled down the hill into the woods of Wyoming where a grizzly bear eats him!
> 
> Okay, I'm taking this a little too far. "Final Destination" ain't got nothin' on me.
> 
> EDIT: Wait, did anyone else notice this thread is 3 years old?




Yeah, I'm sure we're a big help to the OP now!:roll:


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## Greimour (Oct 28, 2014)

Nope HAHA...

Sometimes its funny seeing stuff dug up from the archives. Nice catch on that though.


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