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Through fire and flames: post-burning survival and detection of dismemberment-related toolmarks in cremated cadavers

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Abstract

During a homicide investigation in which fire has been used to reduce the size of the cadaver and conceal the evidence of injuries, the identification of perimortem trauma presents a challenge, in particular in cases when the perpetrator has dismembered the body followed by burning the remains. It is therefore important to understand the effects which heat causes on fresh bone. The aim of this paper is to perform a pilot study on the survival ratio of toolmarks in different anatomical regions associated with dismemberment, and a descriptive analysis of the variables that may potentially influence the post-burning survival and detection. To achieve this, three donated embalmed cadavers were used to simulate a case in which an attempted dismemberment and burning had occurred. Fifty-five pre-burning injuries were manually induced: 30 using a machete to inflict chopping trauma, and 25 with a serrated bread knife to inflict sharp force trauma, on the thigh, knee, ankle and wrist. The cadavers were cremated in a furnace at Madrid’s Cementerio Sur and the burnt remains were analysed at the Laboratorio de Antropología y Odontología Forense of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Not all pre-burning injuries inflicted were visible after the cremation process; only 13% were detected in this experiment. Toolmarks can be masked, modified, destroyed or overlooked from the outset of the procedure due to several factors which influence the post-burning survival and detection of toolmarks and contribute to conceal the evidence of trauma. Additional research should be done to study further variables which affect the post-burning visibility of sharp force trauma.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to express our gratitude to the funerary services of Madrid, Spain (Servicios Funerarios de la Comunidad de Madrid) for supporting this project and for the technical assistance provided during the use of the cremation furnace, through the cooperation agreement signed in 2017 with the Universidad Complutense of Madrid, Spain. We would also like to thank the Forensic Anthropology and Odontology Lab members at Universidad Complutense de Madrid for their help during the sharp force trauma experiment and validation. Finally, we kindly thank Daniel García Rubio for his assistance in designing the tables and figures.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Medicina Legal Psiquiatría y Patología, Laboratorio de Antropología y Odontología Forense, Madrid, Spain

    Pilar Mata Tutor, Catherine Villoria Rojas, Alexandra Muñoz García, Inés Pérez Guzmán & María Benito Sánchez

  2. Cranfield Forensic Institute, Cranfield University, Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, Shrivenham, United Kingdom

    Nicholas Márquez-Grant

  3. Departamento de Prehistoria, Historia Antigua y Arqueología, Laboratorio de Arqueología, Madrid, Spain

    Inés Pérez Guzmán

Authors
  1. Pilar Mata Tutor
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  2. Nicholas Márquez-Grant
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  3. Catherine Villoria Rojas
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  4. Alexandra Muñoz García
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  5. Inés Pérez Guzmán
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  6. María Benito Sánchez
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Contributions

Pilar Mata Tutor: conceptualization; methodology; investigation; writing—original draft; writing—review and editing; visualization. Nicholas Márquez-Grant: supervision; writing—review and editing. Catherine Villoria Rojas: investigation. Inés Pérez Guzmán: investigation. Alexandra Muñoz: investigation. María Benito Sánchez: investigation, supervision, resources.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Pilar Mata Tutor.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

This experiment was carried out in accordance with the Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki) and falls within the scope of the Mortuary Health Act of the Autonomous Region of Madrid (Decree 124/1997, of October 9, 1997) [31].

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Highlights

• Three donated embalmed cadavers were used to simulate a case in which an attempted dismemberment and posterior burning had occurred.

• Only 13% of the injuries inflicted were visible after cremation.

• Toolmarks can be masked, modified, destroyed or overlooked throughout the process due to intrinsic and extrinsic factors.

• Sharp implements can lead to different post-burning survival of toolmarks depending on how the trauma was inflicted.

Supporting Junior Scientists

The first author (PMT) is under 35 years old

Electronic supplementary material

Annex 1

– Individual 1 during the burning process at 35 min (JPG 129 kb)

Annex 2

– Individual 2 during the burning process at 38 min (JPG 2528 kb)

Annex 3

– Individual 3 during the burning process at 75 min (JPG 2859 kb)

Annex 4

– Left: Induced sharp force trauma with the serrated knife (blue) and the machete (red) all shown in anatomical position. For more information of the precise injuries in individuals 1, 2 and 3 see Table 2. Right: Observed sharp force trauma with the serrated knife (blue) and the machete (red) all shown in anatomical position. For more information of the precise toolmarks in individuals 1, 2 and 3 see Table 8. (PNG 159 kb)

Annex 5

– Weight of anatomical regions (g) (DOCX 19 kb)

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Mata Tutor, P., Márquez-Grant, N., Villoria Rojas, C. et al. Through fire and flames: post-burning survival and detection of dismemberment-related toolmarks in cremated cadavers. Int J Legal Med 135, 801–815 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-020-02447-1

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