Medicolegal observations on a dead body drawn up from the sea bed, with special reference to ethanol and diatoms

Abstract

From the sea bottom at a depth of 120 m, a male body which seemed to bear marks of violence, was drawn up. It was estimated to be a white male of European or American origin, between 50 and 60 years old. The findings suggested he had been dead for 2–3 months and that he had been consigned to a watery grave as a result of death from natural causes. A large number of diatoms seem to have reached the lungs by water pressure after death. It was concluded that all the ethanol detected (1.65‰ in the left pleural cavity fluid, 1.68‰ in the right, and 1.90‰ in the urine) was produced after death.