Burnt to blazes: homicidal act of strangulation with post mortem burn: A case report

Abstract

In India, nearly 1 million people got the injury by burn in which 10 percent cases occurs accidentally ¹. Post mortem burned body has always been a difficult and challenging task for forensic investigations. This case report consist of homicide involving post mortem burns with aim to abolish the identity and cover up the cause of death of the corpse. The aim of study is to establish the identity in relation to age, sex, time, cause and manner of death in burn corpses by postmortem examination. Body was found burning at the abandoned place absence of vitality signs are factors indicative of postmortem burning following homicide. Post Mortem examination with careful interpretation of all evidences includes clothes, bones and other exhibits found at the crime scene along with postmortem radiography and toxicological analysis can play a key role in every such cases.

Postmortem Burns to Conceal Homicidal Deaths: an Eight-Year Study

“…Although strangulation by any means was the most common cause of death reported by Dogan (17), it remains the second most common cause of death in most of the studies on this topic (12,14), including the present one. Strangulation was also reported as the cause of death in various case reports (22)(23)(24).…”

Pathological alterations and COHb evaluations as tools for investigating fire-related deaths in veterinary forensic pathology

“…Indeed, ante-mortem thermal wounds can be mistaken by post-mortem thermal changes because of direct and indirect fire action on animal cadavers (7,8). Post-mortem thermal injuries can also mimic a trauma or destroy the physical evidence of a crime, making it difficult to correctly identify homiciderelated injuries (7)(8)(9)(10). The most common fire-related signs reported in the human medical literature are as follows: soot in deep airways and the stomach, cherry-red discoloration of the body, and thermal wound (11).…”