Significance of Diatoms in Diagnosis of Drowning Deaths: A Review

Abstract

Diatom test is an important tool in diagnosis death in drowning cases. As the typical features of ante-mortem drowning disappeared very rapidly with commencement of putrefaction and hence diatom test plays an important role for diagnosis and confirmation of drowning deaths. Diatoms have number of characteristic like their widespread presence in water, high diversity in species, habitat specificity and have a good potential for preservation and thus this group can be used in forensic geosciences for criminal investigations. Extraction and identification of diatoms present in the tissue samples can be used as supportive evidence in drowning and also for site specific diatoms. Temperature and pH variations also play important role in the distribution of diatoms in a particular location. Diatoms species detection in both water and tissue samples gave a reliability of the diatom test in solving cases pertaining to drowning deaths. Hence the possible means and methods must be practiced on a regular basis by the forensic examiner as well practitioners so that new possibilities must always be explored for extraction and identification of diatoms in near future. This paper reviews the recent year's progress on diatom test and its application in forensic science.

A method for bone marrow extraction of diatoms for forensic science applications

“…The true grit method is novel in its procedural attempt to address concerns of contamination during marrow extraction. This procedure combines elements of previous forensic studies [7][8][9] and established diatom preparation protocols in phycology [10,11] to develop a method to extract diatoms from bone marrow that is time-efficient, minimizes contamination risk, and produces samples of intact diatoms from skeletal remains. The true grit method uses new and/or disposable materials to cut bone and extract the marrow.…”

“…Referring to existing bone marrow digestion methods from forensics literature [7][8][9] and methods of diatom isolation in phycology [10,11], this research combines elements of various methods to create an extraction method that is time-efficient, minimizes contamination, and produces samples of intact diatoms. This version of diatom extraction from bone marrow is named the "True Grit Method," by which it will be referred to throughout the paper.…”

Diatoms constrain forensic burial timelines: case study with DB Cooper money

“…These shells can also incorporate trace elements from the surrounding water that can change in proportion depending on availability throughout the year 5 . Forensically diatoms are most often used in the diagnosis of death from drowning, as opposed to death before immersion [6][7][8] . Their extended use in forensics has been underutilized 9 with successful cases in other areas showing great potential 10 .…”

Diatomological Mapping of Aurangabad Region for Unrevealing Drowning Mystery

“…In the diatom test, a drowning site is located by comparing the species of diatoms extracted from tissue samples and the water samples of suspected water bodies as they are site-speci c [15]. In numerous instances, there is a possibility that the body which has been drowned and moved away from the actual site of drowning, where no other references are available to locate [6], [13] After extraction from the tissue, the forensic scientist will have to compare the species present in the tissue over the putative sample.…”