A detective walks into an empty room and finds a man swinging from an eight foot ceiling...?

He stepped on an ice block and hanged himself.Suicide. It's an ancient riddle everybody knows.

Simple. Someone- it doesn't matter who, as the question was 'how did he die' and not 'who killed him'- hated the man, that much is obvious. Also obvious is the fact that they'd heard the riddle "A detective walks into an empty room and finds a man swinging from an eight foot ceiling, there's a puddle of fluid on the floor, how did he die? He used a block of ice to reach the rope and it melted afterward." They then tranquilized the man, stood on something (probably a stepladder) and forcibly hung the man, then set a block of ice under him hoping that anyone that surveyed the scene of the crime had also heard the riddle.

... VOILA!

That fluid can be any element which is liquid at normal temperature and solid below the normal temperature (say 20C). But the riddle could be tougher if there was nothing in the room and he was hanging! That would have been Ammonia or any gas in its solid state, which after sometime would have vaporised!!

Viola!

The dead man hung himself by fixing the rope onto the celling by using a block of ice to elevate himself. Then, he positioned his neck on the tied rope and waited for the ice to melt. When the ice melt, the man gradually suffocate and die as the ice melts away. Therefore, this is how the dead man hang himself without any stools.

its a clear case of suicide...

that fluid was water... it came from the block of ice on which the man stood and hung himself to the fan and waited for the ice to melt

He was standing on a block of ice. When it melted, he hung to death. By the way, I heard this before so I knew the answer. But when you really think about it, it's kind of dumb isn't it? I mean can you picture it? This guy slipping and sliding on the block of ice, getting tired of waiting for it to melt. Please. There's got to be an easier and quicker way.

He used an Ice cube. (a pretty high one too)

8 ft. - mans height = height of ice cube.

The man stood on the Ice cube and waited it to melt. Ones the ice cube is finished the man choked and died

A chair would've been much quicker.

He froze to death lol

ahahaah!..omg...lol...a block of ice..lol!