Homicidal traumatic asphyxia associated with pebble impaction of the upper airway.

The news media tend to sensationalize murders involving multiple methods because of their inherent brutality. Similarly, when addressing a jury, prosecutors often emphasize the most grisly part of a murder to ensure a speedy conviction. This paper reports a case of a teenage boy who was murdered by the use of multiple methods of asphyxia. The methods of asphyxial death and the reconstruction of the sequence of events by the medical experts during the murder trial played an important role in the conviction and ultimate sentencing of the perpetrators.