Homicide by Blunt Trauma Causing Basilar Skull Fracture in Drowned-suspected Corpse: A Case Report

Abstract

Drowning is one of the hardest homicides to prove. Proof, such as bodies, can be decomposed and washed away, and gathering forensics can be very challenging. Since it is common, police may assume drowning as an accident. Drowning and blunt force injuries are mode extremely combined in complex homicide. We report a difficult case of complex homicide by blunt trauma causing basilar skull fracture in a drowned-suspected corpse. A decomposing body was found in the river with no identifiable injuries visible as the body had decomposed on external examination. In an autopsy is also difficult to identify the cause of death because the internal organs are so badly decomposed. Further autopsy, we obtained the accidental finding that there was a fracture to the base of the skull which was suspected to be due to blunt force trauma. It is hard to know how to search for clues in homicide involving drowning as there is no definitive test to determine that a death was caused by drowning. We concluded that a complex homicide by blunt trauma and drowning that confuses between homicide and accidental death should be thoroughly investigated by autopsy. Even though the internal organs had already decayed and liquefied.