Forensic scientist’s blog

(Source: Forensic Science International)

Historians and archaeologists hunt for writer's remains in city centre convent with approval from Madrid's archbishopricHistorians and archaeologists plan to reveal the true face of the author of Don Quixote of La Mancha, Miguel de Cervantes, as they embark on a quest to find the lost bones of one of western literature's key writers.The project to seek Cervantes' bones, which lie buried somewhere in the walls or floors of a convent in central Madrid, would allow forensic archaeologists to reconstruct the face of a man only known from a picture painted by artist Juan de Jauregui some 20 years after his death.The bones may also reveal whether Cervantes, who is believed to have died of cirrhosis and was accused by rivals of being a notorious tippler, drank himself into the grave. "They may no...

Engineers at the University of Leicester have for the first time created a way of measuring how much force is used during a stabbing using a broken bottle. The advance is expected to have significant implications for legal forensics. A team from the University has conducted a systematic study of the force applied during a stabbing and come up with the first set of penetration force data for broken glass bottles. This work has been published in the International Journal of Legal Medicine Stabbing is the most common method of committing murder in the UK... (Source: Health News from Medical News Today)

J'ai beaucoup de retard dans mes flux RSS d'information, et c'est donc avec deux semaines de retard que je suis tombé sur cet article de Numérama: "Une Haute Autorité du Net pour le blocage des sites en France?". J'ai bien entendu lu avec attention le texte proposé par les quatre signataires - Jean-Pierre BIGOT, créateur de l'entreprise ESALAB et expert judiciaire près la Cour d’Appel de

Assisting suicide remains illegal in England and Wales under the Suicide Act 1961, one of the few pieces of legislation where the protagonist is innocent, but the assistant is guilty. In May 2011, Switzerland undertook a referendum on this highly emotive subject and subsequently announced that the Swiss people were in favour of maintaining their laissez-faire approach to assisted suicide, and rejected a ban on assisted suicide and “Suicide tourism”. Such a stance is notoriously liberal compared with many countries across the globe, and has resulted in hundreds of suicide tourists travelling thousand of miles to avoid their relatives being prosecuted. Two of the more famous names associated with assisted suicide are the Swiss-based Dignitas and Exit International. Dignitas, founded by t...

I read with interest the article by Dr. Jauchem entitled “Pathophysiologic changes due to TASER devices versus excited delirium: Potential relevance to deaths-in-custody?” recently published in the Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine. In his introduction, the author comments that “four components are usually considered to be necessary for a definition of the excited delirium syndrome: a) delirium with agitation, b) respiratory arrest, c) hyperthermia, and d) death”. He later goes on to comment that “Excited delirium can be considered a heterogeneous condition, with multiple variant types that could differ in both presentation and clinical course”. Though this implies that the differing clinical course could mean that the subject does not die, this was not specifically brough...

This report aims to draw attention to the fragility of adolescents’ mind and irrational thinking in adolescence that might lead to suicide due to unusual experiences, by presenting a case of completed suicide with its unusual etiology.The victim, a 13 years old boy, had a quarrel with his mother as she sacrificed his pet, a cock, to prepare for dinner. Because of this, the victim had denied to join the family for dinner and wanted to be alone. While the family having dinner, a passing by neighbor realized that the victim was suspended with a ligature around his neck, in the backyard of the house. Meaningfully, there were feathers of cock in pants pockets of the deceased, in the corpse examination.Adolescents are experiencing dramatic physical and emotional changes, and being oversensitiv...

We present a sporadic case of suicidal plant poisoning wherein a 24-year-old man consumed â€�?gowri gedde’ to end his life. Initially he presented with severe vomiting, diarrhoea and epigastric pain. He died on the third day of ingestion due to multiorgan failure. Chemical analysis of blood and viscera obtained postmortem confirmed the presence of colchicine. Colchicine poisoning is potentially life threatening because of its high toxicity and unavailability of specific antidotal treatment. It classically presents with gastroenterocolitis, and may result in multiorgan failure in fatal cases. (Source: Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine)

Abstract: This paper presents the case of a 40-year-old German man who was convicted for disturbing the dead. He performed heterosexual necrophilic acts over the course of two decades. The most recent case was well documented by the necrophiliac himself by means of photography and video. His actions ranged from visiting cemeteries to dissecting bodies and taking the body parts home with him for sexual purposes. The perpetrator displayed no signs of other psychiatric illnesses. The case is discussed in light of the currently available literature. (Source: Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine)

Abstract: Tattoos depicting Ned Kelly, a 19th-century Australian bushranger (outlaw) are occasionally encountered in the contemporary Australian population at forensic autopsy. To determine the characteristics of decedents with such tattoos, twenty cases were identified in the autopsy files at Forensic Science SA. All of the decedents were white males (100%) with an age range of 20–67yrs (average 37yrs). Seventeen of the deaths (85%) were unnatural, due to suicide in eight cases (40%), accidents in seven cases (35%) and homicide in two cases (10%). Compared to the general autopsy population suicides and homicides were 2.7 and 7.7 times higher, respectively, than would be expected, with a striking male predominance. A Ned Kelly tattoo identified at autopsy in another country or in a disas...