Department of Legal and Occupational Medicine, Toxicology and Public Health, University of Padova, Via Falloppio 50, Padova, Italy.
DIMEC, Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
Int J Legal Med. 2021 Jan;135(1):193-205. doi: 10.1007/s00414-020-02313-0. Epub 2020 May 30.
The concealment of the body following a homicide undermines different moments of the forensic and medico-legal investigations. The aim of the present study is to provide an overview of the literature and the forensic casuistry of the Institute of Legal Medicine of Padova for analyzing and discussing diverse methodological approaches for the forensic pathologist dealing with covered-up homicides.
A literature review, updated until September 2019, was performed, and a literature pool of forensic cases was built. In-house cases were included by conducting a retrospective analysis of the forensic caseworks of Padova of the last 20 years. Data regarding epidemiology, methodology of assessment, methods of concealment, and answers to medico-legal issues were extracted for both data sets.
Seventy-eight papers were included in the literature review (78.2% being case reports or case series, 17% retrospective studies, and 6% experimental studies or reviews). Literature and in-house data sets consisted of 145 and 13 cases, respectively. Death scene investigation, radiology, toxicology, and additional analyses were performed in 20-54% of literature and 62-77% of in-house cases. Cover-up by multiple methods prevailed. Death was caused by head trauma in about 40% of cases (both data sets), strangulation in 21% of literature, and 7% of in-house cases, and was undetermined in 17% of literature and 7% of in-house cases.
The methodology of ascertainment should be case-specific and based on a multidisciplinary and multimodal evaluation of all data, including those gained through novel radiological and/or analytical techniques.
杀人后隐藏尸体破坏了法医和法医学调查的不同阶段。本研究旨在提供文献综述和帕多瓦法医学研究所的法医案例，以分析和讨论法医病理学家处理隐藏杀人案件的不同方法。
进行了文献回顾，更新至 2019 年 9 月，并建立了法医案例库。通过对帕多瓦过去 20 年的法医案例进行回顾性分析，纳入了内部案例。从两个数据集提取了流行病学、评估方法学、隐蔽方法和对法医问题的回答的数据。
文献综述纳入了 78 篇论文（78.2%为案例报告或案例系列，17%为回顾性研究，6%为实验研究或综述）。文献和内部数据集分别包含 145 例和 13 例。20-54%的文献和 62-77%的内部案例进行了现场调查、影像学、毒理学和其他分析。多种方法的掩盖占主导地位。头部创伤导致死亡约占病例的 40%（两个数据集），文献中 21%的死亡是由于勒死，内部案例中 7%的死亡是由于勒死，文献中 17%的死亡原因未确定，内部案例中 7%的死亡原因未确定。
确定方法应针对具体情况，并基于对所有数据的多学科和多模式评估，包括通过新的影像学和/或分析技术获得的数据。
