Electrocution method to conceal homicide A rare case report.

Killing of a human being is one of the most serious or major crimes. Assailants are very keen to conceal crime by different methods, so there may be wrong interpretation by inexperienced autopsy surgeons and hence it may lead to injustice. So it is important that our keen observation and opinion should be conclusive for the administration of justice. In this paper we are presenting a rare case which was brought by police as a case of electrocution. After meticulous autopsy and crime scene visit, the case turned to be of homicidal manner. The cause of death was manual strangulation with head injury and electrical injuries were post-mortem in nature. The deceased was under the influence of alcohol. The necessary investigations like histo-pathological examination also ruled out ante-mortem nature of electric injury. The present paper highlights the importance of meticulous autopsy and crime scene visit for determination of cause and manner of death.

Importance of scene of crime visit, it may be late, but it is never too late.

A male aged about 75 years was found dead in his residence. When police arrived to the scene of incidence by information of relatives, he founds body was lying down in supine position on the floor with ligature mark around the neck and deeply congested protruded tongue from the mouth, eyes widely open, left hand lying on abdomen and right resting on the floor. During initial investigation Police relying on the history given by the servant and relatives presumed that it to be case of suicide. But he did not find any reason for suicide. Under dubious nature of case police become bound to take the forensic expert opinion after 6 days of intensive investigation. A team of forensic experts (authors of this paper) visited and scientifically examined the scene of incidence and gave their expert opinion to solve the case.

Decay in intact DNA recovery in blood samples kept at room temperature.

Blood Samples were kept at room temperature for a period of 3-6 months at room temperature to know the amount of quantitative DeoxyriboNucleic Acid [DNA] recovery from these samples. We are able to recover good amount of DNA for about first 3-6 weeks after which the DNA is decreased drastically and after two months there hardly any chance of intact DNA recovery from these samples. It has been concluded that blood samples recovered from scene of crime after about 1-2 months is a waste. The samples must be recovered as early as possible to recover intact DNA from them. The samples must be collected within 1-2 months from scene of crime until and unless the climate is cold enough to increases decay time. This study is very useful for the investigating authorities which can make errors while collecting blood samples for DNA analysis.