Exhumed Bodies Research Articles

Insect Colonisation and the Decomposition Process in Aerated versus Watertight Burial Systems.

In recent years, burial systems have covered increasingly higher costs due to the pollution caused by decomposition products. These products are understood as chemicals and microorganisms in the surrounding soil and groundwater and represent a topical issue. The purpose of this research was to ascertain the extent of decomposition when pig carcasses are buried in two different burial systems ("aerated" vs. "watertight") and catalogue the arthropods associated with burials at different time-points of removal from niches (after 6, 12, 24, 36, and 60 months). Thirteen taxa were collected in aerated niches, whereas five were collected in watertight niches. The initial access or exclusion of insect colonisers affected overall functional activity. Two Diptera species, Hydrotaea capensis and Megaselia scalaris, were the most abundant, supporting the hypothesis that insects can colonise carcasses in aerated burial systems. Furthermore, some species of bacteria have been documented as facilitators of the initial decomposition process of the carcass. Most bacterial colonies develop only in aerated niches. The trial showed that the first enzymatic-bacterial and insect actions helped promote the process of cadaveric decomposition and later skeletonisation, mainly when associated with aeration modes of the tomb/mound. The results obtained provide essential information on the process of human decomposition and taphonomy in cemeteries. Moreover, these data could benefit forensic science by adding information on insect colonisation and body modification in medico-legal investigations concerning the post-mortem interval in exhumed bodies and illegal burials.

Retrospective analysis of 258 consecutive forensic exhumations with emphasis on causative agents/cause of death.

Abstract:
 Introduction: Exhumation is the removal of the corpse from its grave for determination of the cause of death. All the exhumation cases are authorized by the Judicial Magistrate are appropriate authority under section 176 CrPC (code of criminal procedure). There are other religious, social and cultural reasons the exhumation is carried out in different parts of world.
 Objective: To analyse and evaluate the findings from exhumed bodies and the factors which play role in the uncertainty in the determination of the cause of death.
 Methodology: This retrospective observational study performed for 258 consecutive forensic exhumations performed at Department of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology, PUMHSW, Nawabshah in district from 2017 to 2019. These corpses were evaluated retrospectively on the basis of the autopsy report and police papers. The demographic information, causative factors and relevant data retrieve and analyzed using SPSS ver.19. The purpose of the present study was to analyze and evaluate the findings, their causative agents observed on the exhumed bodies and the factors which play role in the uncertainty in the determination of the cause of death.
 Results: There were 200 males and 58 were females. The causative agents included were blunt/sharp force and firearms. 242 cases were from urban and 16 were from rural area. The maximum cases of exhumation were 228 having >42 years and minimum were 30 <50 years. Due to advanced stage of decomposition, the marks of violence on soft tissues were not observed, and the internal organs were also in a state of decomposition. Histopathology and toxicology reveal negative results.
 Conclusion: Delayed exhumation due to lengthy legal procedure, results in decomposition and disputed cause of death. The success rate in challenged cases depends mostly on the duration of exhumation, condition of the soil, regardless the cause, frequency of such claims is on rise. 
 Keywords: Exhumation, grave, dead bodies, Autopsy, facial identification, false claims on cause of death.

A preliminary study on five exhumed bodies and their burial graves from the Cemetery of Prado do Repouso (Porto, Portugal)

A preliminary study on five exhumed bodies and their burial graves from the Cemetery of Prado do Repouso (Porto, Portugal)

9. De la fosse au cimetière juif. Les transferts de corps après la Shoah

One characteristic of the Shoah is the absence of the victims’ bodies. In fact, this very absence is communicated through the term “Holocaust.” However, their bodies—the number of which remains unknown—were not destroyed. The bodies of Jewish victims, most of whom were killed at the very start or at the very end of the Holocaust, were not burned. Rather, they were buried in mass graves. The purpose of this article is to describe the efforts of the survivors to locate, exhume, and identify these bodies and to move them to a Jewish cemetery. While it is difficult to estimate the number of people who have been transferred from mass graves, it is certain that many exhumations have taken place, and some continue to this day. To describe and analyze this phenomenon, we will use a selection of Memorbikher, some of which have already been described by Gabriel Finder, and a few articles from secondary literature source (e.g. Sarah Garibova’s articles on the Soviet Union). In particular, we will use many cases identified during our research, such as 222 examples of exhumations (55 of which are in English) described in the USC Shoah Foundation’s testimonies. The first observation is that these exhumations and transfers are spread out over a very long period of time. The first instances took place in 1940 in Poland in the wake of the first massacres. Jews paid for the right to exhume the bodies and place them in the city cemetery. To our knowledge, the most recent transfer is that of the body of Casimir Oberfeld, who died during his evacuation from Auschwitz to Bohemia. He was buried in a Christian cemetery, and his son repatriated his remains to France in 2018.The article will examine the conditions surrounding the exhumations, and in particular the chain of custody for human remains. Who took the initiative to exhume victims’ bodies, and what negotiations took place with local, national, and even international authorities? What power struggles played out around the issue of these mass graves? What were the technical conditions of exhumation and transfer? This article will also examine the question of how far victims’ bodies were transferred. Many individuals were moved a few dozen feet or a few miles from a mass grave by the Einsatzgruppen to the Jewish cemetery in the village ; others were moved thousands of miles, as was the case for the bones of the Jews who were buried together in a work Kommando in Bohemia and then brought to Israel in 1991 by Jado Weiss. In most instances, the exhumations were perfunctory, without even the intervention of a forensic pathologist. How did the survivors justify moving these remains to a Jewish cemetery? Until recently, there have been very few testimonials about the intervention of rabbinic authorities or justification by religious leaders, but the Jewish traditions of ritual burial in individual graves in Jewish cemeteries were strongly internalized by the survivors. The article will also discuss the graves that were dug in Jewish cemeteries to accommodate the exhumed bodies. What inscriptions were placed on the grave markers? Do they mention where the remains came from?Finally, we will discuss whether or not these exhumations can be considered unique and examine their ability to symbolically replace collective burials, which were impossible due to the absence of physical bodies. This situation contrasts what happened at the Potocari cemetery for the victims of Srebrenica, for example. In the words of the survivors, the transfer of a few bodies served as a replacement for ceremonies that could not be perfumed due to the cremation of the victims.

Genetic identification of three exhumed human remains at a hospital in Ghana: a forensic case report

DNA identification is very important in cases of high decomposition of dead bodies, in which the bodies cannot be identified by physical means. To compare the results of DNA typing, it is necessary to have related subjects with which to perform comparative analyses. Such tests are normally performed by comparing DNA profiles from people known to be immediate family members of the presumptive victim, such as parents or children because they share half of their genetic material with the unidentified. We report on how DNA analysis was used to solve a case of mixed-up bodies at a local mortuary in Ghana, West Africa. Two families and three buried human remains were in contention in this case. The first body (E9) was buried three months before exhumation. The second body (E11) was buried two and a half months before exhumation whiles the third body (E10) was buried a month before exhumation. Exhibit E5 was taken from an alleged child of the deceased, E11. Toenails of the exhumed bodies were sampled by a pathologist and used for DNA extractions using the QIAamp DNA Investigator Kit. Profiles from relatives were generated for comparison purposes. All samples gave a quality amount of genomic DNA after quantification. DNA was amplified with a GlobalFiler PCR amplification kit. Profiles from relatives were generated for comparison purposes. The human remains (exhibit E11) cannot be excluded as the biological father of the child (exhibit E5) because they share common alleles at all 23 genetic loci. The applicable combined paternity index was 17218125604.492 assuming a prior probability of 0.5. The probability of paternity is 99.99999999%. Based on this relationship testing, one of the bodies was successfully identified and handed over to the family for re-burial.

Politics of relics: On the celebration of the fallen of the First World War during the interwar period in Italy

This paper explores the way in which the fallen of the First World War were commemorated in Italy between 1918 and 1940. At the end of the war, numerous spontaneous local monuments were constructed. At the same time, the many small war cemeteries established near the former battlefield areas began to be perceived as a problem. Shortly before the Second World War, in order to bury all the exhumed bodies, the Fascist Regime constructed huge war memorials (ossari and sacrari). However, this was also a means of taking advantage of the fallen for ideological and political purposes. This paper focuses on the connection between the sacralisation of the battlefields by way of raising ossari and sacrari, on the one hand, and the spread of ‘fragments’ of these battlefields all around the country, on the other. The latter phenomenon has not yet attracted significant interest from researchers. Boulders from the battlefields began to appear in the middle of village, town, and city squares across the country. They were considered ‘sacred’ since they were where hundreds of thousands of soldiers had fallen, ensuring Italy’s victory. As the boulders themselves were imbued with the fallen’s sacred blood, they were not carved but rather displayed within the monuments in their ‘natural’ shape. They were not intended to represent anything or communicate a specific message regarding war and death; they simply had to present themselves. The stone of which they were made was their main feature: just like relics, they emanated a sacred aura. Through their physical dissemination, the whole national territory could therefore be sacralised. To take their cue from this rebirth of relics were the ossari and sacrari of the late Fascist Regime, which used them as a propaganda weapon.

Red Corpses: A Microhistory of Mass Graves, Dead Bodies, and Their Public Uses

What happens to corpses produced by armed conflicts? This question may seem simple: most bodies are buried, more or less quickly, in mass graves. However, the time between death and the moment when the human remains are inhumed deserves to be studied. This article focuses on the situation in the Urals at the end of the Civil War (1918–1919). The fights between the Bolsheviks and their opponents resulted in many casualties. The Bolsheviks gave a fundamental, and rather unusual, importance to the bodies of ‘their’ dead and attached a specific political significance to them. They developed a politics of corpses, using them in public space to assert their power. The bodies of dead Red fighters were brought back to symbolic places, resulting in impressive public funerals across the city of Yekaterinburg in 1918. Their burial sites became contested territories, protected by the authorities but derided by their opponents. After their final victory in 1919, Bolsheviks displayed their dead as proof of the cost of their struggle. Mutilated bodies were shown to carry the stigmata of sacrifice. The inventory and identification of victims became a central and immediate requirement. Inquiry commissions questioned witnesses and looked for mass burials and abandoned corpses. Mass graves were searched, cadavers exhumed and made visible. The public use of corpses was, however, not limited to identification purposes. The display of dead bodies, which is not unusual in Orthodox culture, took on a special political dimension. There was mass dissemination of the sight of death through these public monuments and the use of photography. We must especially stress the topographical importance of the displayed death: the exhumed bodies were used to tell of victory, to make control of the territory explicit. The memorialisation of some mass graves completed the process. In Yekaterinburg, but also in more distant localities, monuments were erected. They were meant to materialise the sacrifice of so-called ‘communards’ and the peculiar place of the Civil War in the narrative of the new Bolshevik regime, honouring the memory of the dead and mobilising the living.

No-Touch Automated Room Disinfection after Autopsies of Exhumed Corpses

Autopsies of exhumed bodies pose a risk of infections with environmental bacteria or fungi, which may be life-threatening. Thus, it is important to use effective methods of disinfection in forensic pathology facilities. In this study, we investigated the effectiveness of no-touch automated disinfection (NTD) system after autopsies of exhumed bodies. Directly after 11 autopsies of exhumed bodies, we used an NTD system based on a peroxone vapor to disinfect the air and surfaces. We measured microbial burden in the air and on surfaces before and after NTD. The NTD system reduced the mean bacterial burden in the air from 171 colony forming units (CFU)/m3 to 3CFU/m3. The mean fungal burden in the air decreased from 221 CFU/m3 to 9CFU/m3. The mean all-surface microbial burden was 79 CFU/100 cm2 after all autopsies, and it decreased to 2 CFU/100 cm2 after NTD. In conclusion, the peroxone-based NTD system was effective for decontamination of the air and surfaces in a dissecting room after autopsies of exhumed bodies.

Whether Dead Men Really do Tell Stories - A Study on Tales From the Graves

Background: Exhumation is a process by which the already buried dead body is taken out by digging under the law of the land. Aim: To analyze and evaluate the findings seen in exhumed bodies and the factors which play role in decomposition of a corpse. Material & methods: Study was conducted in different districts of Sindh on exhumed dead bodies of different Age, Sex and religion.

Deception and Vaginal Slides: Do we need to Preserve a Control Sample of Victims in Every Case of Rape?

Two women were found dead on the bank of a river in India. It was determined that the women had been raped and on postmortem examination, the cause of death was determined to be head injury. The mechanisms of the deaths led to probability that the women were murdered. The doctors, who conducted the examinations, submitted vaginal slides of the deceased for forensic examination. DNA analysis was conducted; male and female fractions of DNA were isolated. The viscera of the deceased were also preserved for toxicological analysis at the time of post mortem examination and part of which were subjected to DNA analysis. The female DNA profiles obtained from the vaginal slides and viscera did not match. Blood samples of four suspects were also collected, subjected to DNA analysis, and the profiles did not match with the male DNA profiles from the vaginal slides. This resulted in questionable samples, and therefore the exhumation of the bodies was recommended and undertaken. DNA profiles were generated from the long bones, teeth, and viscera of the exhumed bodies, which matched only with the DNA profiles generated from the viscera, not with the vaginal slides. From a forensic investigation, it was determined that the vaginal slides were fudged by one of the autopsy doctors. There was intentional deception. Implications of this case are made for future investigations of rape victims.

D’os, d’habits et de cendres

Depuis une vingtaine d’annees, les campagnes d’exhumations de charniers des episodes de violence de masse se sont deployees a l’echelle internationale. C’est notamment le cas du Perou ou l’on decompte environ quinze mille personnes disparues et plus de six mille fosses communes relatives au conflit arme de la fin du xxe siecle. L’apparition extraordinaire de ces morts deterres engage, pour les familles concernees, une gestion complexe de ces retrouvailles inesperees, tant sur le plan materiel que symbolique. On verra que les exhumations induisent une reconfiguration des modes d’action rituels et cultuels et des reponses socioculturelles inedites en termes d’elaboration collective du deuil. C’est a la circulation de ces restes humains, aux dispositifs funeraires qui les encadrent et a la destinee post-mortem des morts retrouves, ou de leurs substituts, que cet article propose d’apporter un eclairage a partir de l’exemple peruvien.

Seismicity in central-western Pyrenees (France): A consequence of the subsidence of dense exhumed bodies

Abstract The Pyrenees results from the convergence of the Iberian and Eurasian plates since Cenozoic, but the present stress regime of the range is debated, as most of the recent earthquakes exhibit normal solutions. We analyse the seismicity in central-western Pyrenees, which is the most active part of the range with the largest events. Seismicity maps obtained at different depths reveal quasi-periodic features in focus distribution, and a preferential occurrence of large earthquakes at the base of the upper crust. The superimposition of the seismicity to the gravity anomalies shows that earthquakes are mostly located on the southern border of positive Bouguer anomalies, which correspond to dense lower crust blocks trapped in the upper crust during the Pyrenean convergence. We propose that the seismicity results from the subsidence of these blocks previously exhumed inside pull-apart basins. This scenario explains all together the geographic distribution of the seismicity, its magnitude distribution and the predominance of normal focal solutions. It shows that the normal mechanisms do not necessarily imply a general north–south extension of the range, but may be compatible with a weak compressive regime, and that the stress field may not be uniform along the range.

Postmortem toxicology in the elderly

Dr. Roger Byard has written a comprehensive and uncontroversial review [1]. There is little new, useful or controversial I can add. However, based upon my own experiences I can discuss some of the consequences of what he has said which, as all of you must realize, is of great consequence to anyone who must determine the manner of death in an elderly polydrug user. Dr. Byard uses the Shipman case as an example of the problem. As Dr. Byard observes, there will soon be an ever-expanding population of the elderly, some of whom will be poisoned accidentally and some on purpose. As one of the Crown Pathologists in the Shipman case, I am almost embarrassed to admit that, at least so far as forensic issues are concerned, it was a relatively easy case. Once the bodies were exhumed we first sought to establish that they had, in fact, been poisoned. Luckily, we were right; morphine is stable postmortem although its metabolites are not. As a consequence of bacterial contamination, the ratio of free to bound morphine is not fixed and, therefore, is an unreliable indicator of the time of poisoning. On the other hand, the mere presence of morphine in an otherwise healthy decedent is grounds for concern. It has been some years now, and I cannot remember precisely, but I believe that we did quantitate morphine concentrations in liver and muscle, but did not rely upon the quantitation at all. The body rapidly loses weight after death, concentrating any remaining drug and, to my way of thinking, rendering interpretation of drug concentrations in exhumed bodies essentially impossible. Our only interest in the test was qualitative. We wanted to establish whether or not morphine was present—as it was in every case. In itself the mere presence of morphine does not prove morphine poisoning, but if there is nothing to indicate that the drug has ever been taken before, the probability increases that acute exposure (and by extension, poisoning or overdose) occurred. Deciding whether exposure was acute or chronic is surprisingly easy: we tested hair. Someone who has never taken narcotics would not be expected to have morphine in their hair (except, perhaps, in some circumstances, from some sort of environmental exposure) unless ingestion had occurred. The absolute blood concentration, no matter how many decimal points, is irrelevant. When tested we found that hair from only one of the decedents contained morphine, and that person had remained comatose for several hours before death. Shipman had created false entries in his database suggesting that some of the patients were addicts. The absence of morphine in their hair proved they were not. Which brings me to the more controversial of my comments. It is agreed by virtually all experienced toxicologists (and pathologists), that there is no predictable relationship between blood drug concentrations in the immediate antemortem period and concentrations after death. No one should find this assertion very startling. Just look at all the factors listed by Dr. Byard in the very first paragraph of his article. For all the reasons listed, it makes very little sense to make cause of death determinations based on the quantitation of postmortem blood (at least for most drugs). If a decedent has track marks, pulmonary and cerebral edema, a colon crammed with feces, and a syringe by his side, is it really necessary to know the free or total morphine blood concentration, and whether it is high or low? If it is low, will you revise your diagnosis? Similarly, does the blood cocaine concentration, in a chronic cocaine user, old or young (in one of our case series, many of the S. B. Karch (&) PO Box 5139, Berkeley, CA 94705, USA e-mail: skarch@sonic.net

Autopsia social de un subtierro

This paper proposes a conceptualization of the mass graves of defeat, mostly derived from the Spanish Civil War (1936- 1939) and the early Postwar years, understanding them as a radical form of a below ground internal exile. Once the bodies in the mass graves and the violence inscribed in them have been characterized, the paper engages in a social autopsy of how this memory has evolved in contemporary Spain since the year 2000, when the first exhumation of the most recent cycle of Civil War graves took place. The analysis follows the political, judicial, scientific, media and associative impact of these exhumed bodies.

Post-mortem changes of the middle ear: Multislice computed tomography study

Six dry skulls were studied by multislice computed tomography (MSCT). They had not previously been prepared, and were natural skeletonized remains. All had been found in the soil. Examination focused on the temporal bones and the ear structures. In all cases, either disruption of the ossicular chain or absence of some ossicular bones were noted. The authors concluded that the fragile ossicles were disrupted in the post-mortem state, and were not indicative of ante-mortem pathology. These observations illustrate the ability of MSCT to visualize taphonomic changes. To further illustrate these findings, we present the results of MSCT performed on an exhumed body. The left ossicular bones were missing and the right ossicular chain was disrupted. With the development of forensic radiology, structures as tiny as the ossicles can be examined. However, the radiologist who performs post-mortem imaging must be familiar with taphonomic changes to avoid interpretation as ante-mortem or peri-mortem traumatic injuries. This could potentially have considerable judicial impact, especially in the study of exhumed bodies.

Late Holocene environmental change in the coastal southern Somalia inferred from Achatina and rhizoliths

Surfaces of poorly cemented carbonate dunes of the coast of southern Somalia contain as exhumed bodies treelet rhizoliths and subfossil shells of the giant land snail Achatina. Present-day coastal dunes in southern Somalia are poorly vegetated and do not support living Achatinas. Thus, the presence of these subfossils provides evidence for a more humid period in the past: the subfossil giant land snails and the rhizoliths indicate a palaeoenvironment which was probably similar to the modern environment of the coastal belt of Kenya and of the southernmost corner of coastal Somalia, where living Achatinas are frequent and the forest–savannah mosaic vegetation type [Bonnefille, R., 1985. Evolution of the continental vegetation: the palaeobotanical record from East Africa. South African Journal of Science 81, 267–270] is widespread. According to radiometric ages of Achatina shells and geological observations, aridification process probably took place in the Late Holocene. Somali data are consistent with the known regional climatic trends.

The case of Dr. Shipman.

On January 31, 2000, Dr. Harold Shipman was convicted at Preston, England, of murdering 15 of his patients by administering lethal doses of diamorphine (pharmaceutical heroin). Investigations indicate that, during his working life, he killed about 220 to 240 of his patients. The bodies of many victims were cremated. Twelve victims were exhumed, and 9 of these deaths were included in the indictment. Most victims were elderly and had histories of natural disease. Autopsies confirmed known natural disease but showed no evidence of acute lethal events. Analysis of skeletal muscle disclosed significant quantities of morphine, to which the deaths were attributed. Circumstantial evidence was strong, as illustrated by the convictions in 6 deaths without autopsy or toxicology, because the bodies had been cremated. Organic compounds are remarkably stable in buried bodies. Even so, detection and quantitation of morphine in exhumed bodies may become problematic after burial for 4 years or more. Morphine glucuronide is slowly converted back to free morphine in the buried corpse.

Dead Bodies in the Postwar Discourse of Identity in Seventeenth-Century Korea: Subversion and Literary Production in the Private Sector

As katherine verdery notes, dead bodies have had political lives in virtually every civilization since antiquity. They frequently emerge as powerful metaphors of change, especially after a time of crisis when the meaning of political symbols is redefined. This is vividly exemplified by what happened to the exhumed bodies of various ethnic groups in the former Yugoslavia (Verdery 1999, 1–22). Postwar discourse is another site in which dead bodies frequently emerge as metaphors. Some of the most unforgettable sights concerning World War II are pictures of huge piles of exhumed human bodies from the mass graves of Jews. We know that these are not skeletons of those who have died natural deaths because these images have often been shown along with the pictures of inmates of the concentration and death camps, emaciated to the point of nonrecognition as living human beings. Through this process, the pictures have acquired an independent status as encoded language: they signify unbelievable evil committed against humanity, and they display the moral weakness of the rest of humanity that failed to resist and end such atrocities.

DNA typing from epiglottic cartilage of exhumed bodies

Epiglottic cartilage was evaluated as an alternative source of genomic DNA from decomposed human remains to be used in forensic casework. The histological study of epiglottic cartilage samples, taken from three bodies exhumed after 6–18 months, showed the presence of a well-conserved matrix delimiting the lacunae, where residual chondrocytes could be seen. The amount of genomic DNA isolated from the samples by means of a standard organic phenol/chloroform method varied from 0.25 to 2 ng/mg of tissue. Coamplification of six short tandem repeat (STR) loci plus Amelogenin, followed by capillary electrophoresis, generated full profiles for all the DNA extracts. In one case, it was possible to compare the obtained profile with that from a reference blood sample collected at the time of postmortem examination: complete concordance of genotypes was observed at all loci.

Proof of air embolism after exhumation.

The detection, storage, and analysis of gas taken from the heart ventricle is necessary to diagnose a fatal air embolism and this requires special precautions during autopsy. When the results of gas analysis correspond to the criteria defined by Pierucci and Gherson the diagnosis "air embolism" is justified. In cases showing putrefaction the diagnostic value of gas analysis was negated. In a series of 15 patients who were assumed to have been killed by air injection in a peripheral vein the corpses were exhumed and a full medico-legal examination was carried out including gas analysis. In 8 cases results could be obtained indicating a mixture of embolised air and gases of putrefaction. In two control groups comprising 10 exhumed bodies and 30 cases showing advanced putrefaction, gas analysis showed putrefaction gases except in 5 cases with gas volumes less than 5 ml in the right ventricle. Therefore gas analysis can be helpful to diagnose fatal air embolism even in cases showing putrefaction while the diagnosis of putrefaction gases only does not exclude this diagnosis.