Decomposition of Abdomen Fatty Flesh of Cadaver Buried in Nami Series Soil of Bukit Kor Terengganu

Abstract

Abstract The identification of a buried cadaver become challenging when the cadaver is badly decomposed. Therefore, a simulated burial experiment was performed to investigate the potential of cadaveric derived lipids to be developed as burial biomarkers in interpreting the anthropogenic signal to locate a clandestine grave and estimate the postmortem interval (PMI). This experiment was designed to mimic a burial in a shallow grave under tropical climate. The abdomen fatty flesh of commercial pig (Sus scrofa) was buried in Nami series soil and allowed to decompose for 150 days of burial period. The soils were collected at 15 designated sampling points. Modified Bligh Dyer Extraction method was utilized to extract the lipids from the soils. The extracted lipids were analysed with Gas Chromatography-Flame Ion Detector. The highest mass of total lipid extracts recovered was 0.1699 g/g soil dry weight. The major lipid components detected were palmitic (C16:0) and stearic (C18:0) acids, together with methyl nonadecanoic acid and cholesterol. Different decomposition stages exhibited different concentrations of these soil lipid components Therefore, these soil lipids can be developed as burial biomarkers to be used as a tool in forensic investigations.