Determining Cause of Death in Skeletonised Remains - A Case Report

In the examination of skeletal trauma, meticulous analysis of the skeletal remains is essential. In this paper we discuss a case where an autopsy was conducted on skeletonised remains of a body scattered in a grove. Some tell tale sign of injuries were present on the skull of the skeletonised remains, which indicated blunt and sharp force trauma sustained, but the samples taken at the site of injury sent to the forensic science laboratory for analysis turned out to be inconclusive. The focus of this paper is to highlight the fact that the fracture patterning in combination with fractured edge characteristics can be more useful for the assessment of perimortem skeletal trauma and that skeletal trauma is usually the only available source of information on cause and manner of death of skeletal remains.