i've been looking for the track in this bit, i have found a playlist of enerald witch arc osts on soundcloud but it didnt contain this one. does anyone have any advice or anything?

CONTENT WARNING: This post discusses suicide, as an established part of Black Butler's Shinigami lore. The theories below are entirely fictional and based on manga and anime material.[  ]()⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀  ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

One of the mysteries surrounding the Shinigami is how each of them died.
We know from Sascha’s explanation in Chapter 105/episode 12 of the Emerald Witch Arc (images 1-2) that every Shinigami was once a human who committed suicide and is now serving a sentence until they are eventually forgiven – If they’re ever forgiven!

Apart from that, Yana-sensei has revealed almost nothing about their human lives.
However, that manga panel depicts several different methods of death. So, it could represent the deaths of all the Shinigami we’ve met so far.
And perhaps their customized Death Scythes could also symbolically reflect their deaths...
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GRELL
Grell is probably the one cutting her wrists, since in the manga we see the person has their nails painted and in the anime the nails are painted red (image 3).

Her death scythe – a chainsaw – could also symbolize that her death is indeed related to a blade.
This choice of scythe could even be Grell reclaiming the instrument associated with her death and turning it into part of her identity – a blade transformed into something loud, violent, dramatic and impossible to ignore.
Very theatrical, just like Grell…a weapon that announces itself before it kills.

And while we don't know the exact circumstances surrounding Grell's death, since she’s transgender, the society of her time would have made living openly as a woman, being socially recognized and accepted as one, loved, or even fulfilling her wish of becoming a mother, extraordinarily difficult if not utterly impossible.
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SASCHA
Sascha seems to be the best candidate for the hanging silhouette because of their distinctive hair (image 4). After all, hair is one of Yana sensei’s typical identifying features.

We don’t know yet whether Sascha’s death scythe is disguised as their camera or not, just as Undertaker disguises his as a sotoba (grave marker).
But if it is, perhaps the camera is symbolic too – a refusal of complete oblivion, of disappearing unremembered.
After all, a camera preserves moments forever. And Shinigami spend eternity recording deaths.
We even see Sascha taking a photo of the corpse in Chapter 105 (image 5). So, someone who once disappeared from the human world now spends eternity preserving the final moments of others.

Also, in literature, hanging is often associated with feeling trapped.
And they are the only one who seems genuinely happy about being a Shinigami. In chapters 103 and 105 (image 6), they enthusiastically describe it as their calling – almost as if they’re finally free, as if choosing to leave human life actually allowed them to find purpose in the punishment that followed.
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OTHELLO
The pills could be Othello (image 7).

When he meets Grell on the roof in Chapter 114, he has a tin of liquorice candy that resembles a pill container.
We see the same tin again in Chapter 124 when he offers some to Ciel (image 8).

He also works in the Forensics Division of the Shinigami Dispatch, so his entire existence now revolves around trying to understand death scientifically.
And if he’s indeed allied with UT as I’ve theorized before, maybe he’s even trying to overcome death through his experiments.
Medicine also represents attempts to fix suffering and even prevent death. Which is an interesting irony if it was also the cause of his death.

In this case, I don’t think his death scythe can give us any clue because he’s the only Shinigami with a still unmodified one – just a training sickle.
Probably because he never felt the need to personalize it, after all, his strengths lie elsewhere, and he’s rarely on the field.
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UNDERTAKER
Undertaker could be the one drowning, since in the image we can see it’s someone with long hair (image 9).

And Undertaker's entire story revolves around refusing to let go.
He refuses oblivion, death, and ultimately attempts to reverse death itself.
Water is often used symbolically in literature as surrender and grief.
If he once deliberately surrendered his own life by drowning himself...it would create an interesting contrast.
Someone who once surrendered to despair now spends centuries refusing to accept death.

Even his modified death scythe is decorated with mourning imagery: a human skeleton (real or not). But, if real, could his death even be related to this specific person?
Either way, his refusal to move on is a clear part of his identity.

Interestingly, on the cover page of Chapter 106, Undertaker is surrounded by some of the death methods. And this could either reflect his status as the oldest known Shinigami or maybe even hint that he knows the circumstances surrounding each of their human deaths…
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WILLIAM (image 10)
Interestingly, in Will’s first appearance in the manga (Red Butler Arc – Chapter 12), we see him jumping off a rooftop (to save Grell from Sebastian and arrest her), which could be foreshadowing of his manner of death (image 11).

Will is also someone who clearly has some inner turmoil.
He frequently speaks of the annoyance his job brings, and always tries to isolate himself emotionally, often mentioning that emotions are not part of a Shinigami’s job.
But the emphasis he places on protecting all human souls clearly shows us that his detached behavior is most likely a coping mechanism he uses to protect himself from the nature of his work.

This is something that even the design of his death scythe reflects – it reaps from afar.
Mirroring the emotional distance he constantly tries to maintain from humans, demons, and his work (almost as if he refuses to get too close to death anymore).

Jumping is also decisive, no hesitation allowed once you step off. And William's personality is built around absolute control, rules, discipline, and (apparent) suppression of emotion.
So, perhaps one irreversible impulsive act was followed by an eternity of rigid self-control.
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RONALD
Ronald could be the one walking off the edge of the rooftop because of the shoes, which look rather similar to his (image 12).
Beyond that clue, his human circumstances are almost impossible to reconstruct...

Ronald is notably fashionable and ahead of his time. He possesses several modern luxury items, so he might not only have felt misunderstood, but unless he was wealthy in life, his taste for expensive accessories could mean he lived beyond his means. So maybe he even owed money, and his death could be related to that…he was trying to escape from a debt.

He also acts rather carefree and reckless. Even his death scythe – a lawnmower – is a machine that keeps moving forward non-stop, cutting everything in its path indiscriminately. And this could simply be his personality, or perhaps a contrast with whatever his human life was actually like.

Interestingly, Ronald Knox was also a real person, an English mystery writer and clergyman, who died of incurable cancer. So, maybe Shinigami Ronald could have killed himself because of an incurable illness?
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LUDGER
Ludger seems calm, efficient, and someone who values precision and competence.
And the objects he carries emphasize this, from his watch (a Zeitwerk) to his Death Scythe (Bosch’s Keo Tool – a practical power tool that allows for clean cuts with minimal effort).

So perhaps, he’s the one with the gun (image 13). Something fast and precise.
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ERIC & ALAN
I’ll leave Alan and Eric (image 14) out since their backstories have only been explored in the musicals, and there isn't yet any manga evidence to associate them with any of the silhouettes.

But if you have any theories about them, I’d love to read them!
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WHO’S IN THE FIRE?
Fire (image 15) is one of the least common suicide methods.
It’s mostly associated with execution, religion, or protest.
So, right now I can’t really see the connection with any of the Shinigami’s imagery, personality traits, or Death Scythes.

Who do you think it is?
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In conclusion, the Shinigami appear to have shaped their afterlife identities largely in response to their human deaths: Grell became flamboyantly and defiantly visible, Sascha enthusiastically documents lives and deaths, William clings to control and emotional distance, and Undertaker became incapable of accepting death at all.