Murder at Vienna U.N. Building (?) WTF?

[3113]

From British newspaper the Daily Mail--I don't know how reputable a rag they are, but this sure sounds like the script for a bad Michael Bay movie. Or maybe the next 007 film....

A British nuclear expert who fell from the 17th floor of a United Nations building did not commit suicide and may have been hurled to his death, says a doctor who carried out a second post-mortem examination. Timothy Hampton, 47, a scientist involved in monitoring nuclear activity, was found dead last week at the bottom of a stairwell in Vienna. An initial autopsy concluded that there were ‘no suspicious circumstances’...Mr Hampton’s widow Olena Gryshcuk and her family were deeply unhappy with that verdict.

Now a doctor who undertook a second post-mortem examination on behalf of the family believes she has found evidence that Mr Hampton did not die by his own hands. Professor Kathrin Yen, of the Ludwig Institute in Graz, Austria, which specialises in traumatology research, said she had more tests to complete on Mr Hampton...But she said one possible theory was that Mr Hampton was carried to the 17th floor from his workplace on the sixth floor and thrown to his death.

Professor Yen used new forensic techniques to detect internal bruising caused by strangulation which would not be visible to the eye. She said: ‘In my opinion, it does not look like suicide. My example is that somebody took him up to the top floor and took him down...." It is expected to take three weeks for blood test results to come back. Austrian police said they believe Mr Hampton committed suicide. He had been working for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO) at the UN building. CTBTO staff monitor tremors in countries worldwide to uncover illegal nuclear tests. It has been suggested that Mr Hampton may have been involved in talks discussing nuclear testing in Iran. The UN has strongly denied the claims.

More here.

What's that? You don't believe it? Ha! Just wait till this appears on next week's episode of CSI: New York. Or NUM3ERS. Or BONES or something! You'll see.

 

[lance gt]

The Consiracy Theorists will have a field day.

 

[Boxlicker101]

I was under the impression that strangulation will break the hyoid bone in the throat, which would be a giveaway. Even if it isn't broken, marks on the neck and throat would be almost as good.

I think if I were going to kill myself by jumping out of a window or off a roof, I would either stand on a sill or ledge and do a swan dive or take a running jump. Either way, I would land well out from the side of the building.

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

The Consiracy Theorists will have a field day.

Yeah, but they're often half-right about the UN. It's very corrupt and panders to Third World regimes that have atrocious human-rights records....and that's not counting the brutal Beijing police state.

 

[TE999]

Falling or being thrown down a flight of stairs isn't necessarily fatal unless you break your neck. Under the circumstances however, it seems fairly suspicious.

 

[sr71plt]

Yeah, but they're often half-right about the UN. It's very corrupt and panders to Third World regimes that have atrocious human-rights records....and that's not counting the brutal Beijing police state.

Wow! To make this out of this circumstance. You've got to be eaten rotten with reactionary political dogma, Sev. You must be a real joy to be around at cocktail parties and church socials.

 

[Boxlicker101]

Falling or being thrown down a flight of stairs isn't necessarily fatal unless you break your neck. Under the circumstances however, it seems fairly suspicious.

Did it say he fell down stairs? I know it said he was found at the bottom of a stairwell, but I can't believe anybody would think it was suicide. I can't imagine anybody committing suicide by throwing himself down a stairwell. He would be too likely to just have serious or crippling injuries from hitting obstructions on the way down.

 

[sr71plt]

Did it say he fell down stairs? I know it said he was found at the bottom of a stairwell, but I can't believe anybody would think it was suicide. I can't imagine anybody committing suicide by throwing himself down a stairwell. He would be too likely to just have serious or crippling injuries from hitting obstructions on the way down.

That would be one three stooges scene to tumble down seventeen flights of stairs. Probably would have to hit the top at something like 432 miles an hour to maintain the momentum.

Stairs and a stairwell are two different things. A stairwell is open, usually in the middle, with stairs spiraling down the sides. You drop in the middle, you go down the well. Still, it would have to be a pretty wide well for your body not to go off balance enough in flight to hit on the stairway sometime before seventeen flights.

 

[Boxlicker101]

That would be one three stooges scene to tumble down seventeen flights of stairs. Probably would have to hit the top at something like 432 miles an hour to maintain the momentum.

Stairs and a stairwell are two different things. A stairwell is open, usually in the middle, with stairs spiraling down the sides. You drop in the middle, you go down the well. Still, it would have to be a pretty wide well for your body not to go off balance enough in flight to hit on the stairway sometime before seventeen flights.

I know what a stairwell is, which is why I can't imagine a person jumping down one. I would think there would be a bannister or railing along the inside of the stairs, and anybody falling down one would keep hitting things all the way down. It would be a very painful way to attempt suicide and very likely not fatal because the jumper would have his fall slowed down every few feet. He might even end up on the stairs.

There is definitely something fishy here.

 

[3113]

There is definitely something fishy here.

But does the other doctor's theory really work? He was strangled an then carried from 6th floor to 17th floor and hurled over the rail? Even a nice strong man is going to find it tiring to haul a body up 11 floors and hurl it over a railing (or did he use the elevator?). And how did this go unseen?

 

[3113]

Now I've got this image in my head of this hulking guy with a dead body slung over his shoulder in an elevator playing elevator music as he watches the numbers blink up from 6 to 17.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Modern stairwells in the US have a very narrow, if any at all, well in the center of the staircase. European stairwells on the other hand, in ornate older buildings have a large well in the middle of the staircase. Don't know anything about the UN building in the article but, as it is a UN building in Europe I would lean to it having a fairly large well in the middle of the staircase. Swan dive possible from 17.