Comparative analysis of bones, mites, soil chemistry, nematodes and soil micro-eukaryotes from a suspected homicide to estimate the post-mortem interval
| Autor: | Edward A. D. Mitchell, Sandra Lösch, Christophe V. W. Seppey, Franziska Sorge, Ildiko Szelecz, M. Alejandra Perotti, David Singer, Enrique Lara, Joëlle Tschui |
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| Rok vydání: | 2018 |
| Předmět: |
Adult
0301 basic medicine Veterinary medicine Adolescent Nematoda Soil test lcsh:Medicine Bone and Bones Article Soil Young Adult 03 medical and health sciences 0302 clinical medicine Homicide Mite Animals Humans 030216 legal & forensic medicine lcsh:Science Time range Soil Microbiology Post-mortem interval Mites Multidisciplinary biology Upper body lcsh:R Soil chemistry biology.organism_classification 030104 developmental biology Postmortem Changes lcsh:Q Soil microbiology |
| Zdroj: | Digital.CSIC: Repositorio Institucional del CSIC Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) Scientific Reports, Vol 8, Iss 1, Pp 1-14 (2018) Digital.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC instname Scientific Reports Szelecz, Ildikó; Lösch, Sandra; Seppey, Christophe V W; Lara, Enrique; Singer, David; Sorge, Franziska; Tschui, Joelle; Perotti, M Alejandra; Mitchell, Edward A D (2018). Comparative analysis of bones, mites, soil chemistry, nematodes and soil micro-eukaryotes from a suspected homicide to estimate the post-mortem interval. Scientific Reports, 8(1), p. 25. Nature Publishing Group 10.1038/s41598-017-18179-z |
| ISSN: | 2045-2322 |
| Popis: | Criminal investigations of suspected murder cases require estimating the post-mortem interval (PMI, or time after death) which is challenging for long PMIs. Here we present the case of human remains found in a Swiss forest. We have used a multidisciplinary approach involving the analysis of bones and soil samples collected beneath the remains of the head, upper and lower body and "control" samples taken a few meters away. We analysed soil chemical characteristics, mites and nematodes (by microscopy) and micro-eukaryotes (by Illumina high throughput sequencing). The PMI estimate on hair C-data via bomb peak radiocarbon dating gave a time range of 1 to 3 years before the discovery of the remains. Cluster analyses for soil chemical constituents, nematodes, mites and micro-eukaryotes revealed two clusters 1) head and upper body and 2) lower body and controls. From mite evidence, we conclude that the body was probably brought to the site after death. However, chemical analyses, nematode community analyses and the analyses of micro-eukaryotes indicate that decomposition took place at least partly on site. This study illustrates the usefulness of combining several lines of evidence for the study of homicide cases to better calibrate PMI inference tools. Tis work was funded by research grants to E. Mitchell (Swiss SNF project no. 31003A_163431). We thank N. Moghaddam from the Institute of Forensic Medicine Bern, the team of the Laboratory of Soil Biodiversity Neuchâtel for their help with the analyses, Erik Barr for his comments and the responsible public prosecutor’s department for their cooperation. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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