A Case of Postmortem Canine Depredation

Abstract

We report the case of postmortem animal depredation that produced initial confusion for investigators who responded to the scene. A decomposing elderly woman was found in her presumed home with bilateral upper extremity amputations and craniocerebral trauma. This raised suspicion of foul play. Subsequent investigations together with autopsy led the medical examiner to conclude that the cause of death was natural disease and that those injuries found on her body were produced by at least one of the dogs who shared the premises. We linked the canine culprit to the postmortem trauma and positively identified the remains by collecting material defecated by the animal and by using radiologic and dental comparison techniques.

Postmortem Animal Attacks on Human Corpses

“…or rhomboid-shaped wound edges in soft tissue caused by bites of Canidae (wolf, pet dogs, jackal, fox, etc.) are seen [7,9,10,12,25] (Figures 7 and 8). Canidae uses its mandibular and maxillary canine teeth during feeding and create punctures and multiple numbers of adjacent tears in the soft tissue caused by shear-bites, which are termed as "one hole-one tear" combination [81].…”

“…Indoor corpses may be attacked by many predacious and scavenger animals and exposed to complete destruction, and bones and belongings of the dead person may be scattered all over a large area due to postmortem animal activity [4,5]. Outdoor corpses may be attacked by pets, domestic dogs, cats, ants, and rodents during postmortem period [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. If the corpse was immersed in water, then many aquatic animals as fish, water rats, crabs, and amphipods may attack the corpse [14][15][16].…”

“…1. If serious destructive changes occur especially on the face of the corpse and teeth, then identification of the corpse may be difficult [6,7,[9][10][11][12]17].…”

“…During postmortem period, lesions caused by animal attacks may be evaluated and misinterpreted as antemortem lesions as ligature mark, firearm wound, or stab wound [2,7,9,10,13,20].…”

“…The authors asserted that the dog attacked the victim during an epileptic attack when she had lost her consciousness. Only a little amount of blood extravasated passively from the vessels of the tissue of the wound created during postmortem period [7,9,12,19,21,48]. Besides, edema and redness on the edges of the wound that are signs of vitality are not observed [2,21,31,49,50].…”