An Assessment of Death Profile of Unknown Dead Bodies, Brought for Autopsy to the Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology in Government Medical College of Garhwal Region, Uttarakhand: A Retrospective Study

Abstract

Background:an unknown dead body always becomes a challenge to the Investigating officer and forensic expert. However, the problem of determining the identity gets aggravated and taxes for the experts, when the dead body is recovered in decomposed/ skeletonized and mutilated form. Materials and Methods: A standard proforma was designed to collect the information to ensureconsistency for the whole sample. All dead bodies that were brought as unidentified were included however identified dead bodies were excluded from the study. Results:A total of 407 post-mortem examinations were conducted at the mortuary of the department during under study and amongst them, 56 cases (13.75%) were found unidentified. Of these unidentified cases, 69.64% (39 cases) were in decomposed and 30.35% (17 cases) were in fresh state. Unidentified cases comprised 80.35% males (45 cases) and 19.64% females (11 cases). Conclusion:Unidentified dead bodies were only 13.75% of the total dead bodies coming to the autopsy in the mortuary of the Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, VCSGGIMS & R, Srikot, Srinagar, Pauri Garhwal, UTTARAKHAND during the study period of 5 years.