Five people were dead. At first glance, it looked like suicide.
However, considering the state of the bodies, committing suicide this way would have been quite difficult. Furthermore, the signs didn't match the conditions for death by asphyxiation. For instance, there was no facial swelling or cyanosis, no distention of the jugular veins, and the data on livor mortis and algor mortis was inconsistent. At the same time, there was no subconjunctival hemorrhaging. On the contrary, their pupils were pitch-black, just like the eyes of a demon-possessed person in a Western horror movie.
Most importantly, and most incongruously, the corpses' tongues were lolling out very far. This was not at all a normal phenomenon for death by asphyxiation; it was more as if they had been forcefully pulled out.
