For those of you looking to find more about untraceable drugs and poisons that cause death in humans, our list will give you the answers. You are probably just a curious person or an aspiring writer looking for a good murder weapon for his next book. However, if you are planning to kill somebody and make it look like a heart attack or some other natural cause of death, here is a fair warning. Your IP address is recorded, and it will be shared with the FBI in the case of need. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.
You have probably seen the following premise in many books, TV shows, and movies. A person dies out of nowhere and the death seems to be a natural cause. Charming detective smells something fishy there and decides to further investigate the matter. After lots of twists, the detective finds out that the victim was killed with an untraceable poison. The “perfect murder” plot device was used so many times that people started to believe this could be done in the real life. Of course, those that have tried the method mostly ended up behind bars. While it was possible for some poisons to slip undetected in the past, that isn’t the case anymore.
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One of the major reasons for this is the fact that science has advanced enough and made it possible to detect elements in the body that shouldn’t be there. Another reason is that although some of these supposedly untraceable poisons disappear and can’t be discovered directly in human’s body, they do leave certain marks. This is, of course, simple if the medical examiners have certain doubts about the cause of death. If not, then they may not look in the right places, and murder could be described as a natural death. But even in such cases, the murderers always get caught. Crime simply doesn’t pay off and you’ll be able to see why if you stick long enough with the article. Law enforcers will find a way to get to the truth. If you are curious how, check out our list of the Most Effective Interrogation Techniques and Tactics Used By The Police and CIA.
In order to come up with our list of untraceable drugs and poisons that cause death in humans, we looked for suggestions from The Parazite, James J. Murray, Murder Mile Tours and Yahoo among others. The poisons and drugs that were suggested most frequently ended up on our list. Let’s waste no more time and get started.
7. Tetrodotoxin
Tetrodotoxin is a neurotoxin that can be found in several fish species. One of the most famous fishes that carry this poison is puffer fish also known as Fugu fish. Many of you will be familiar with the latter name since the meal prepared from this fish is being marketed as a delicacy in Japanese restaurants. The thing is that such meal could be your last if the fish is not prepared correctly. The chefs that are allowed to prepare it have to train for years. Our sources say that this poison should be on the list because of its deceiving factor. Although it is easily traceable in the body, not many will suspect at murder and could regard it as a food poisoning. The victim would just really need to crave for a sushi. Don’t get any ideas, out of this unless you writing a book or planning a TV show. In that case, we want our cut.
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6. Cyanide
We are continuing our list of untraceable drugs and poisons that cause death in humans wit a cyanide that is mostly known as a weapon, despite its other uses. It was used notably in the World War II by Germans as a part of chemical warfare. You might be familiar with it from numerous books including Sparkling Cyanide from Agatha Christie. Common symptoms of cyanide poisoning are headaches, nausea, general weakness, vomiting and seizures followed by cardiac arrest. Large doses of cyanide cause death almost immediately due to respiratory and heart failures. In the past, cyanide was a preferred weapon of murderers because it was really hard to detect it. Unless there were traces of it on the crime scene, examiners had a small window measured in hours to find traces in the body. Now, there are markers developed by scientists that can detect cyanide in the body weeks later. Despite this, cyanide poisoning has remained popular. One of the most notable cases in the recent times was when Indonesian student used cyanide to poison her friend. She was found guilty and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
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5. Arsenic
Just like the previous entry on our list of untraceable drugs and poisons that cause death in humans, arsenic has seen its fair share as a murder weapon in fiction and in movies. Arsenic is primarily used in alloys, medicine, and agriculture and in small doses doesn’t harm the health. However, the cases of accidental poisonings with arsenic are not unfamiliar and long term exposure leads to severe health issues including cancer. Symptoms of arsenic poisoning are nausea, stomach pain, and vomiting blood. As an intentional poison, arsenic was extensively used in the past, mostly due to its availability. It could be slipped in the drink or food, and the victim wouldn’t know the difference. Applied regularly in small doses, arsenic poisoning was easily mistaken for an illness, and the victim would suffer for days. In large doses, death occurred in hours. That is all in the past. Now arsenic poisoning is easily detectable, and it is harder to obtain it. These are reasons why no one uses it anymore. One of the recent high profile cases of arsenic poisoning we could find was when a woman from San Diego killed her husband with arsenic in order to obtain veteran’s benefits. Initially, she got away with it, but her husband’s real cause of death was discovered a year later and she was sentenced to life in prison.
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4. Ricin
If you watched Breaking Bad, you’ll know what we are talking about here. In one of the episodes of this TV show, main character Walter White uses ricin to try and kill one of his rivals. The main premise was that ricin is hardly traceable, yet effective way of killing someone. Also, you would only need a small dose, not larger than a few grains of salt. Is that the truth? Not quite. Although there is no clinical test that can point to ricin, medical examiners have methods like DNA amplification that can reveal when someone is poisoned by it. Still, they would have to know what to look for. Symptoms of ricin poisoning are difficult breathing, sweating and fever alongside pulmonary edema. The death occurs rapidly in cases of inhalation. Let’s see the top three on the list of untraceable drugs and poisons that cause death in humans.
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3. Abrin
Abrin is similar to the previous entry on our list of untraceable drugs and poisons that cause death in humans but the difference is that even smaller dosage is required to kill a person. Depending on the exposure (inhalation, ingestion or injection) symptoms can occur in a matter of hours. They are similar to ricin and include problems with breathing, nausea, chest pain and low blood pressure. Respiratory failure follows and leads to death. Due to the fact that lesser dosage of this poison is lethal, Abrin is even harder to detect then ricin. But as ricin, it leaves obvious marks so it really doesn’t make a big difference.
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2. Aconite
The second place on our list of untraceable drugs and poisons that cause death in humans goes to Aconite that is also known as wolf’s bane, evil’s helmet and queen of poisons. Pretty illustrious names if you ask us. Although small doses of aconite are used in medicine, in larger quantities it becomes a deadly poison. Symptoms of poisoning are almost instant, and death will occur immediately with an increased dose. Initial signs are diarrhea and vomiting followed by irregular heartbeat and numbness in the limbs. The death occurs due to heart and respiratory system paralysis. In autopsy, the main cause of death will be described as asphyxiation. Although aconite is surrounded by the “untraceable” myth, it can be traceable if the examiner knows what to look for. One of the cases of aconite poisoning happened a few years ago in Britain when a woman tried to poison her former lover. Needless to say, she was caught.
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1. Succinylcholine
Finally, we came to the drug part of our list of untraceable drugs and poisons that cause death in humans. Known also as Suxamethonium chloride, this drug is primarily used in medicine as a part of general anesthesia process. Succinylcholine causes short – term paralysis and lasts up to 10 minutes. This is of course when used by trained professionals and in a controlled environment. Despite its usage for a higher good, this drug also has a reputation for being a “perfect murder poison”. When used in the uncontrolled environment, the drug will cause the paralysis of the entire body including the respiratory organs, which will eventually lead to death by asphyxiation. The thing that makes it tricky for examiners is the fact that human body breaks down succinylcholine quickly, leaving no obvious traces. Still, it leaves clues and byproducts that are good indicators of succinylcholine being present in the bloodstream at some point.
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