Pathologist raise doubts about Dutch teen's suicide

Forensic pathologist Frank van de Goot has doubts about the suicide of 14-year-old Luciano Ligthart in a closed youth care institution in Deelen last year. After investigating the boy's death, Van der Goot concluded that he either does not have all the information, or that suicide is unlikely, the Gelderlander reports.

Luciano died in an institution of the Hoenderloo group in Deelen in June 2016. According to the institution, he committed suicide by hanging himself from a curtain railing. His family does not believe this. According to the family, Luciano was energetic and cheerful shortly before his death. They also feel that the authorities did not investigate the circumstances around his death closely enough. 

The family first asked the Youth Care Inspectorate to investigate. The inspectorate found that the Hoenderloo group's suicide prevention is not in order, but that no significant mistakes were made by the institution. The report said nothing about how Luciano died.

On behalf of Luciano's family, lawyer Sebas Diekstra therefore asked Van der Goot to look into the boy's death. According to the pathologist, based on the available information, he considers suicide unlikely. "The boy allegedly hung himself from the curtain railings, but he could not even reach it at his length. And hanging yourself with a duvet cover is really difficult. Either I haven't been told the whole story, or it is impossible", he said to the newspaper.

Van der Goot asked for more information so that he can reconstruct the whole situation around Luciano's death. He currently does not want to speculate on what happened to Luciano. "I first want to investigate more", he said.