Indoor postmortem animal interference by carnivores and rodents: report of two cases and review of the literature.

We present two cases of nearly total skeletization of the exposed face and neck due to indoor postmortem animal interference and a review of the literature. In the case of a 61-year-old man, inspection of the damaged soft tissue margins revealed serrated edges and parallel cutaneous lacerations caused by rats. In the case of a 40-year-old woman, postmortem examination revealed v-shaped and rhomboid-shaped tunneled wounds in the damaged soft tissue caused by a pit bull terrier. The autopsy in both cases identified natural causes of death. While the morphological feature of postmortem soft tissue artifacts caused by rodents can be ascribed to animal incisors, stab wound-like punctured wounds are characteristic of canine dentition of carnivorous origin. Additional morphological criteria for injuries of carnivorous origin are linear scratch-type abrasions from claws in the vicinity of the injuries. In cases of indoor postmortem animal interference damage is primarily caused to the exposed areas of the body, no self-defense injuries can be found on the deceased's body, only a small amount of blood or the total absence of bloodstains should be expected at the scene, an inquiry of pets living free in the house or wild animals having possible access to the scene should be conducted and rodent excrement found at the scene can give the investigator further information.