When you find someone who drowned in a puddle, what is the probability that he drowned in it by accident versus being murdered, simply based on how difficult it is to drown in a puddle by accident?

Drowning in a puddle??
Oh ok I get it, well I’d guess it would be high that it was murder.

well it depends on evidence…humanity is capable of incredible stupidity like those hundreds of people a yr that kill themselves putting trousers on in the morning…if no sign of foul play suspect epilepsy..

He could have gotten drunk, passed out in the puddle, and died. Accident.

He might be lying dead in the puddle, and not have drowned at all. Heart attack, and he just landed in the puddle when he fell.

You can’t make any assumptions.

Depends on his blood/alcohol level, I would think.

How tall was the guy? If he was half an inch tall, anything’s possible.

@Marina , @AstroChuck
even in these cases, the victim would have to cross a puddle, fall right into it, and then fall in a way that he ends up in a position where both his mouth and nose are submerged in water. I reckon the probability of that happening is quite low, thus making foul play more likely.

Columbo could figure it out.

While it sounds unlikely, nonetheless people do die that way, especially if they are drunk. Ira Hayes is an example of such a death (depending on what source you read).

And it can’t be all that uncommon as it is discussed in at least one book on forensic science. A drunk falls into a puddle face down and inhales water before realizing it, and thus drowns.

@ragingloli about twenty five years ago, I was coming home from a late night visit at a friend’s house and saw a couple of cop cars and an ambulance on a bridge on the road I lived on. I stopped and watched as they brought up a body bag on a gurney. When I asked someone what was going on, one of the onlookers said that a guy had rolled his pickup truck off the bridge, it had landed upside down in the creek, and he had drowned in the creek. The creek was never deeper than three inches. Seems he bumped his head during the crash, passed out and ended up breathing a lungful of water while hanging upside down in the seatbelt.

So while your scenario is pretty unlikely, drowning is a little bit of water is not always foul play.

It could be a puddle of his own puke (well, I would hope it was his own). You hear about drunks choking to death on vomit often enough.
Well, time for dinner.

My sister had a friend in Louisiana and her husband worked on an offshore oil rig. Ironically he drowned in a teaspoon of water. That was the measurement of the amount of water he drowned in. I asked how but no one would ever tell me.

@AstroChuck golly Chuckie, hope you guys aren’t having quiche or some sort of pot pie, considering your last comment.

There is also such a thing as dry drowning in which someone gets some water in their lungs, noyt necessarily a large amount, and the lungs react to the presence of the water, causing foam, inflammation, and an inability to absorb oxygen.

Otherwise perfectly healthy toddlers have unfortunately drowned in only a few inches of water either in a bathtub or a bucket left unattended/ unsupervised by parents who had no idea that it could happen with so little water.

@Buttonstc like this?