An unusual case of corpse concealment driven by emotional distress.


Journal

Legal medicine (Tokyo, Japan)
ISSN: 1873-4162
Titre abrégé: Leg Med (Tokyo)
Pays: Ireland
ID NLM: 100889186

Informations de publication

Date de publication:
21 Dec 2023
Historique:
received: 28 11 2023
accepted: 20 12 2023
medline: 7 1 2024
pubmed: 7 1 2024
entrez: 6 1 2024
Statut: aheadofprint

Résumé

Corpse concealment involves hiding a body for criminal purposes for many different reasons, such as destroy evidence of a murder or avoid the discovery of the victim. Although defendants could argue that they did not conceal the corpse with any criminal intent, but rather to spare themselves or others from emotional distress or to honor the wishes of the deceased. However, these arguments are often challenging to substantiate, and defendants may encounter significant legal obstacles when attempting to justify their actions. Herein, we report a case involving the concealment of a woman's corpse by her father. Autopsy and histological investigations were significantly limited due to the advanced decomposition of the body. Nevertheless, by integrating these data with radiological findings obtained from total body CT and micro-CT of the larynx-hyoid complex, hanging was deemed the cause of death. Additionally, the psychological evaluation of the father indicated that the act of concealment was motivated by emotions rather than criminal intent.

Identifiants

pubmed: 38183946
pii: S1344-6223(23)00189-X
doi: 10.1016/j.legalmed.2023.102379
pii:
doi:

Types de publication

Journal Article

Langues

eng

Sous-ensembles de citation

IM

Pagination

102379

Informations de copyright

Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Auteurs

Elena Giovannini (E)

Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, Unit of Legal Medicine, University of Bologna, Via Irnerio 49, 40126 Bologna, Italy. Electronic address: elena.giovannini8@studio.unibo.it.

Giorgia Franchetti (G)

Department of Cardiac, Thoracic, Vascular Sciences and Public Health, Unit of Legal, Medicine and Toxicology, University of Padova, Via Falloppio 50, Padova, Italy. Electronic address: giorgia.franchetti@studenti.unipd.it.

Marcello Ridolfi (M)

Pediatric and Adult CardioThoracic and Vascular, Oncohematologic and Emergency Radiology Unit. IRCCS Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Bologna, Italy. Electronic address: marcello.ridolfi@aosp.bo.it.

Domenico Berardi (D)

University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy. Electronic address: domenico.berardi@unibo.it.

Guido Pelletti (G)

Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, Unit of Legal Medicine, University of Bologna, Via Irnerio 49, 40126 Bologna, Italy. Electronic address: guido.pelletti2@unibo.it.

Alberto Gualandi (A)

Institute of Pathology, DAME, University Hospital of Udine, 33100 Udine, UD, Italy. Electronic address: a.gualandi@icloud.com.

Chiara Giraudo (C)

Department of Cardiac, Thoracic, Vascular Sciences and Public Health, Unit of Legal, Medicine and Toxicology, University of Padova, Via Falloppio 50, Padova, Italy. Electronic address: chiara.giraudo@unipd.it.

Giovanni Cecchetto (G)

Department of Cardiac, Thoracic, Vascular Sciences and Public Health, Unit of Legal, Medicine and Toxicology, University of Padova, Via Falloppio 50, Padova, Italy. Electronic address: giovanni.cecchetto.1@unipd.it.

Paolo Fais (P)

Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, Unit of Legal Medicine, University of Bologna, Via Irnerio 49, 40126 Bologna, Italy. Electronic address: paolo.fais@unibo.it.

Classifications MeSH