Homicide by barbiturates and alcohol.

Death from the misuse of alcohol and barbiturates is frequently encountered in most medical examiner/coroner offices. The cause of death is often quite apparent from the pathological and toxicological findings; however, the manner of death often gives the examining official some difficulty. The usual dilemma is to unravel whether the dead individual intentionally took the lethal combination in order to cause his/her own death or whether the combination was unintentionally ingested without awareness of the potentially lethal combination. The manner of death in these cases is either suicidal, accidental, or undetermined. A case is presented in which alcohol and barbiturates are the causes of death, but the manner of death is somewhat unusual in that it was administered by a second party with premeditation, deliberation, and intent to kill.