Missing women and no body suicides: Time to rethink the narrative?

Abstract

Suicides in women are frequently associated with psychiatric illnesses but may result from other life stressors such as relationship problems, domestic abuse and coercive and controlling behaviour, for example. It is no body suicides that are concerning when a woman is reported missing, presumed to have died by suicide, but no body is recovered. Many are later legally declared dead but many more remain missing. Four cases from the Republic of Ireland demonstrate the similarity in each case but also highlight uncomfortable questions surrounding the women’s disappearance. Caution should be exercised as mental health history can be easily exploited, and scene staging should be seriously considered especially if the victim is presumed to have entered water. There are too many cases of women disappearing to presume that their bodies are lost at sea with suicide the most likely explanation.