APPLICATION OF FORENSIC ENGINEERING FOR THE RECONSTRUCTION OF MANNER OF DEATH: A NAUTICAL “ACCIDENT”

In forensic pathology it is sometimes necessary to reconstruct the manner in which a victim fell or was hit, stabbed or shot in order to verify the compatibility between the pattern of distribution of lesions and the dynamics of the lethal event so as to acquire information which may help in diagnosing between homicide, accident or suicide. More and more, in these cases, forensic engineering comes in aid to the forensic pathologist. This shows the importance of forensic engineering in the reconstruction of events; the case concerns an unmarried couple on a boating trip. One morning the man woke up to find his partner overboard in the water tied at the waist by a security rope. He later reported that she must have fallen in the water during the night, when it had been her turn to steer and check on the boat. The woman underwent post mortem examination, which showed typical signs of drowning, such as foam in the airways, overinflated lungs, water in the stomach. Authorities initially classified the death as accidental. The woman’s family, on the other hand, grew suspicious that the partner was responsible for the death since he had recently been made the only beneficiary of her will. Their accusations led to the exhumation of the corpse and a new autopsy was performed, which higlighted typical signs of blunt trauma, such as bruises distribuited to the head, right thorax, right hand and shoulder, back, and linear abrasions on the abdomen. Microscopic analysis of the lungs showed signs of drowning as well, such as oedema and expansion of the alveoli. Unfortunately no diatoms could be found (only fragmentary). The cause of death was identified as mechanical asphyxia by drowning. Although the cutaneous signs of blunt trauma observed during the post mortem examination could not justify death by a traumatic cause, they could have been the signs of an aggression which may have determined the fall of the victim into the water. The main question was: could a simple fall from that boat justify the pattern of lesions (anterior and posteriore), or did they indicate an aggression? Initial experiments were performed with a dummy: a boat of the same model was used: different manners of of precipitation in different positions were then simulated, which provided the first general data concerning the mechanisms of the fall; a more precise analysis was then conducted by a computer simulating software, in order to obtain more reliable data concerning the physical characteristics of the boat and dumy model and the mutual interaction between the dummy and the boat. After the recording of every physical characteristic which may have had an importance in the reference system and the virtual reconstruction of the enviroment, different simulations of the fall were reconstructed. The position of skin lesions were considered as points of contact between the body and the boat during the fall. Three different hypothesis of falling were then considered and simulated: in the first case, the victim was facing the sea, in the second she had the sea to her right, and in the third she had the sea behind. In the first case, the simulation was concordant with all the lesions described but for the bruise on the back; in the second case the fall could explain only the lesion on the right hand. The third type of fall could explain all lesions. Results showed therefore that the pattern of lesions could be consistent with an accidental fall, and may not have necessarily been caused by an aggression. This experience strengthens the importance of forensic engineering in the reconstruction of events.