Postmortem mutilation in a case of natural death

Forensic Sci Med Pathol. 2025 Apr 22. doi: 10.1007/s12024-025-01013-8. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

This is a case report of a postmortem dismemberment (removal of the head) of a 44-year-old man (the perpetrator was 39-years-old) who died of natural causes (massive pneumonia). The case was neither a defensive nor an offensive mutilation but could be properly termed a “communication” dismemberment. The assumption that a victim of dismemberment is always a victim of homicide is not true in this case. To our knowledge, this is one of the very rare cases in which a perpetrator who has nothing to do with the death dismembered a body. Gerchow’s question about whether there has ever been a case in which someone who had nothing to do with the death dismembered a body can be answered with a “yes.”

PMID:40263211 | DOI:10.1007/s12024-025-01013-8