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Plastic waste sacks alter the rate of decomposition of dismembered bodies within

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Abstract

As a result of criminal activity, human bodies are sometimes dismembered and concealed within sealed, plastic waste sacks. Consequently, due to the inhibited ingress of insects and dismemberment, the rate of decomposition of the body parts within may be different to that of whole, exposed bodies. Correspondingly, once found, an estimation of the postmortem interval may be affected and lead to erroneous inferences. This study set out to determine whether insects were excluded and how rate of decomposition was affected inside such plastic sacks. The limbs, torsos and heads of 24 dismembered pigs were sealed using nylon cable ties within plastic garbage sacks, half of which were of a type claimed to repel insects. Using a body scoring scale to quantify decomposition, the body parts in the sacks were compared to those of ten exposed, whole pig carcasses. Insects were found to have entered both types of plastic sack. There was no difference in rate of decomposition in the two types of sack (F 1,65 = 1.78, p = 0.19), but this was considerably slower than those of whole carcasses (F 1,408 = 1453, p < 0.001), with heads showing the largest differences. As well as a slower decomposition, sacks resulted in formation of some adipocere tissue as a result of high humidity within. Based upon existing methods, postmortem intervals for body parts within sealed sacks would be significantly underestimated.

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Acknowledgements

Thanks to Peter Cross for all his help setting up and carrying out the experiment, Tal Simmons and the MSc anthropology student cohort for help and support, and Viv Heaton for commenting upon the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Forensic & Applied Sciences, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK

    Kassra Scholl

  2. Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, de Montfort University, The Gateway, Leicester, UK

    Colin Moffatt

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  1. Kassra Scholl
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Correspondence to Colin Moffatt.

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Scholl, K., Moffatt, C. Plastic waste sacks alter the rate of decomposition of dismembered bodies within. Int J Legal Med 131, 1141–1147 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-017-1535-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-017-1535-4

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