Complete decapitation by a self-constructed guillotine in a burned body - complex suicide or postmortem burning?
Burned body
Complex suicide
Decapitation
Guillotine
Supravital reaction
Journal
International journal of legal medicine
ISSN: 1437-1596
Titre abrégé: Int J Legal Med
Pays: Germany
ID NLM: 9101456
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
Jan 2021
Jan 2021
Historique:
received:
21
04
2020
accepted:
20
05
2020
pubmed:
1
6
2020
medline:
3
9
2021
entrez:
1
6
2020
Statut:
ppublish
Résumé
We report a suicide case of complete decapitation using a self-constructed guillotine. A 45-year-old man, whose body was severely burned, was found dead. The head was completely separated from the middle level of the neck, and a sharp blade with a steel frame was placed between the head and neck. The severance plane passed between the C4 and C5 vertebrae. Vital reactions such as hemorrhage could not be confirmed at the decapitated skin edge because the body was severely burned. Both common carotid arteries were sharply transected. Subendocardial hemorrhage was detected in the left ventricle. Only a little blood, but no soot, was detected in the respiratory tract, including the trachea and bilateral bronchi. Subarachnoid hemorrhage was noted at the edge of the cervical spinal cord. The saturation level of CO-Hb was 5.7% in the left cardiac blood, 5.9% in the right cardiac blood, and 5.8% in the peripheral blood from the femoral vein. Cervical transection was diagnosed as the cause of death. We believe that he was unintentionally burned by spread fire from an automobile after decapitation by a self-constructed guillotine.
Identifiants
pubmed: 32474665
doi: 10.1007/s00414-020-02323-y
pii: 10.1007/s00414-020-02323-y
doi:
Substances chimiques
Carboxyhemoglobin
9061-29-4
Types de publication
Case Reports
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
301-305Références
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