An unusual and rare case of burn: challenge to cause and manner of death.

ABSTRACT

In the brought dead cases where the dead body is completely charred pose difficulty to autopsy surgeon in commenting cause & manner of death. Many a times, scene of incidence, the inquest report, history narrated by relatives and postmortem findings may not go hand-in-hand. Suicides by burning especially by females are very common in India, but charred (burn) body without conflagration in which manner is suicidal is rarely occurred and reported. “Char means to burn to charcoal”. Investigation in this type of cases by police officer is again a matter of his knowledge and experience. Here we are reporting such case; a well built, 26 years old married but separated, mentally stressed female living with her mother and brother since 3 years, was found in bathroom in a charred condition on 03/01/2012 around 0630 hours. As per inquest, manner of death is suicidal. The autopsy findings did not reveal exact cause of death but raised the suspicion of homicide. So the present case report will make everyone to think over not only importance of cause and manner of death in case of charred body but also to reinforce the investigating authority for thorough investigation in favor of justice to the victim.