Forensic examination after exhumation: Contribution and difficulties after more than thirty years of burial
| Autor: | M. Zribi, S. Maatoug, S. Bardaa, Z. Hammami, Y. Nouma, W. Ben Amar |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2016 |
| Předmět: |
Adult
Male medicine.medical_specialty Tunisia Burial Autopsy Exhumation Bone fragility Pathology and Forensic Medicine Ilium 03 medical and health sciences Imaging Three-Dimensional 0302 clinical medicine medicine Humans 030216 legal & forensic medicine 030212 general & internal medicine Forensic examination Cause of death Skull Fractures business.industry Skull General Medicine Surgery Postmortem Changes Femur bone Wounds Gunshot Tomography X-Ray Computed Forensic autopsy business Law |
| Zdroj: | Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine. 44:120-127 |
| ISSN: | 1752-928X |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.jflm.2016.10.005 |
| Popis: | We report a case of a Tunisian footballer who was found dead abroad under suspicious circumstances. The cause of death was, originally, attributed to a lightning strike. The corpse was buried without/autopsy. Over thirty years later, the family requested the exhumation to verify the identity and the cause of death. The exhumation was performed in 2011. DNA profiling from teeth and femur bone samples confirmed the identity of the deceased. The dry bone study revealed defects in the skull and the pelvis evoking firearm injuries. Post-mortem CT with three-dimensional (3-D) reconstruction allowed to confirm the characteristics of firearms injuries and to speculate about the number and the trajectories of potential shots. Nevertheless, the vitality of these injuries as well as the eventual fatal shot and the shooting distance could not be determined. Likewise, the type of the eventual weapon could not be clarified as there were no bullets or any metallic projectile fragments. Despite all doubts, the forensic explorations have allowed to verify the identity of the deceased, to evoke firearms injuries and, mainly, to deny the proposed cause of death after more than thirty years of burial. Moreover, the loss of soft tissues and bone fragility were the major obstacles. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
|
Full Text from ScienceDirect