RESUMO
Crime scene investigation should be carried out using a critical forensic approach by an expert team. This provides essential tools in the research and collection of evidence and samples which must be integrated with the autopsy and the police officers' investigations. This paper aims to highlight the importance of a multidisciplinary approach to crime scene investigation and describes a very interesting criminal case. As demonstrated by this case, the evidence obtained from the crime scene analysis sheds light on difficult cases, such as murders staged as suicides or accidents.
Assuntos
Ciências Forenses/métodos , Homicídio , Autopsia/métodos , Causas de Morte , Vítimas de Crime , Humanos , Veículos AutomotoresRESUMO
The admissibility of human "odor mortis" discrimination in courts depends on the lack of comprehension of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) during the human decay process and of the lack in standardized procedures in training cadaver dogs. Blood was collected from four young people who died from traffic accidents and analyzed using HS-SPME/GC-MS at different decompositional stages. Two dogs, professionally trained, were tested to exactly locate blood samples, for each time point of the experiment. We found a long list of VOCs which varied from fresh to decomposed blood samples, showing differences in specific compounds. Dog performance showed a positive predictive value between 98.96% and 100% for DOG A, and between 99.47% and 100% for DOG B. Our findings demonstrated that decomposing human blood is a good source of VOCs and a good target for canine training.
Assuntos
Análise Química do Sangue , Cães/fisiologia , Odorantes , Mudanças Depois da Morte , Olfato/fisiologia , Compostos Orgânicos Voláteis/análise , Adulto , Animais , Feminino , Ciências Forenses , Cromatografia Gasosa-Espectrometria de Massas , Humanos , Masculino , Valor Preditivo dos Testes , Microextração em Fase Sólida , Adulto JovemRESUMO
Sudden infant death due to dengue virus infection is very rare. An 8-month-old male infant was found unresponsive during a nap in his nursery school. We emphasize the usefulness of dengue viral antigens as a postmortem diagnostic technique to demonstrate the presence of virus in human tissue specimens by immunohistochemistry and Western blotting.
