Motorcycle fatalities constitute the majority of road traffic deaths in Malaysia. The aims of this study were to describe the pattern of fatal injuries among Klang Valley fatal motorcyclists and to describe the factors associated with fatal (vs non-fatal) injuries.
Recently, determination of skeletal age, defined as the assessment of bone age, has rapidly become an important task between forensic experts and radiologists. The Greulich-Pyle (GP) atlas is one of the most frequently used methods for the assessment of skeletal age around the world. After presentation of the GP approach for the estimation of the bone age, much research has been conducted to examine the usability of this method in various geographic or ethnic categories. This study investigates on a small-scale and compares the reliability of the GP atlas for assessment of the bone age for four ethnic groups - Asian, African/American, Caucasian and Hispanic - for a different range of ages.
Estimation of stature is an important step in developing a biological profile for human identification. It may provide a valuable indicator for an unknown individual in a population. The aim of this study was to analyse the relationship between stature and lower limb dimensions in the Malaysian population. The sample comprised 100 corpses, which included 69 males and 31 females between the age range of 20-90 years old. The parameters measured were stature, thigh length, lower leg length, leg length, foot length, foot height and foot breadth. Results showed that the mean values in males were significantly higher than those in females (p
Forensic entomological specimens collected from human decedents during crime scene investigations in Malaysia in the past 6 years (2005-2010) are reviewed. A total of 80 cases were recorded and 93 specimens were collected. From these specimens, 10 species of cyclorrphagic flies were identified, consisting of Chrysomya rufifacies (Macquart) -38 specimens (40.86%), Chrysomya megacephala (Fabricius) -36 specimens (38.70%), Chrysomya villeneuvi (Patton) -2 specimens (2.15%), Chrysomya nigripes (Aubertin) -2 specimens (2.15%), Chrysomya pinguis (Walker) -1 specimen (1.08%), Hermetia illucens (Linnaeus) -1 specimen (1.08%), Hemipyrellia liguriens (Wiedemann) -5 specimens (5.37%), Synthesiomyia nudiseta (Wulp) -1 specimen (1.08%), Megaselia scalaris (Loew)-1 specimen (1.08%) and Sarcophaga ruficornis (Fabricius) -4 specimens (4.30%). In two specimens (2.15%), the maggots were not identifiable. Ch. megacephala and Ch. rufifacies were the commonest species found in human decedents from three different ecological habitats. S. nudiseta is an uncommon species found only on human cadavers from indoors. A total of 75 cases (93.75%) had a single fly infestation and 5 cases (6.25%) had double fly infestation. In conclusion, although large numbers of fly species were found on human decedents, the predominant species are still those of Chrysomya.
We present a case of skeletonised human remains. In the present case report, a body was exhumed from the ground above a cemetery. On exhumation, the body was partially-skeletonised with adipocere formation on the upper part of the body. Autopsy of the body showed two bullets in the right thigh muscle and lumbar vertebrae between L4 and L5. Postmortem changes and destruction of soft tissue made it impossible to determine direction of fire through the body, even in a careful complete autopsy.
We hereby present a case of planned complex suicide. In this case study, we report a teen-aged girl who committed suicide by strangulating herself, and subsequently fell from the 13th floor of a housing apartment. The planned complex suicide was substantiated by the presence of a suicide note and a photograph captured in a mobile handset. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first case involving self-strangulation and fall from height, in which the photograph was stored in the handset. This is to further emphasize that objects like mobile handsets can be important in determining the cause and manner of death. The available evidence at the site of incident should be explored meticulously in order to arrive at a proper conclusion.
Domestic maid violence is an assault and coercive behaviour, which mainly includes physical, psychological and at times sexual too, by employer or household members of employer against a person hired as a domestic help. Maid abuse is well known but poorly documented in scientific literature. This is an important global issue. In this article, two illustrated cases of maid abuse are discussed. Their employers allegedly subjected both the victims to physical and psychological trauma. The physical examination of the victims showed poor state of clothing, nutrition, and presence of injuries of different duration. The bruises were irregular to patterned, and were inflicted by beating. Both cases had eczematous contact dermatitis over palms and soles, paronechia, and sub-ungal fungal infection due to unprotected working in wet conditions. In both cases, external ears were deformed like cauliflowers due to repeated trauma. All cases had multiple injuries of varying duration. In this paper, medico-legal and social issues related to maid abuse are also discussed in detail. A possible solution to minimise maid abuse is also suggested. This paper highlights and document maid abuse.
A teenager college student was fatally injured by burst tyre air pressure while waiting on a public bus stand to catch a bus to reach her college at Kuala Lumpur. She accidentally came near the wheel while boarding when tube and tyre got burst .The air pressure had blown the girl in the air and she subsequently fell on a rough surface. The iron-locking rim of the wheel acted as a missile and hit the girl. She died on her way to the hospital. A medico-legal autopsy was performed which showed extensive injuries in the cranial and chest cavity. Head had large scalp laceration with diffuse separation and gaping from in the vault region; skull bones were fractured. Chest cavity had extensive rib fractures, lacerated lungs and haemo-thorax while externally there was no obvious injury. It requires intensive care management and screening of the victims. Tyre-blast injuries are not so common. This case exposes the hazard due to burst tyre.
A case is presented where confusion arose about skin lesions and whether they were diabetic or electrical in origin. The deceased was a known diabetic and hypertensive man. A middle-aged person in early fifties was found unconscious in the cell and judicial autopsy was performed. He was facing trial for capital punishment of being allegedly involved in drug trafficking and money laundering. He had few marks over his fingers and foot which were considered to be electric marks produced in electric torture. also had fracture of skull and ischemic necrosis of right side of cerebrum; and contrecoup lesions. Findings are documented with photographs of the lesions. The article also depicts photographs of the scene where the victim had fallen and sustained skull fracture.
A case is presented of a fatal environmental accidental injuries of lightning. A pedestrian was struck by lightning. The macroscopic and microscopic lightning injuries are reviewed.
Condom-murder is term used to describe a homicide where a person has been killed due to his recreational sexual behaviour and the killing has strong links with the recovered condom/contraceptive material on the scene or was in personal possession of victim. It can provide immediate clue about perpetrator. We present six cases of a similar nature. Four males and two females had condoms in their vicinity at crime scene. All incidents occurred at different timings and different places but there was striking similarity in method of killing. In four cases hands were tied on the back in three cases; similarly legs were also tied in three cases. In three cases strong electric cords were used. The presence of condoms give clue for investigation, possibility of DNA identification, about type of sexual behaviour as recreational and commercial method in these cases.
This is a case report of 16-year-old adolescent school boy who died due to unusual calcification of coronary arteries. He died while cycling with his friends. While cycling fast he fell. He was brought dead to hospital. At times unsuspected cardiac lesions cause sudden death during extraneous physical activities in healthy persons. Sudden death in adolescents is not very common. It is an unusual case as apparently healthy adolescent boy actively participating in sports had stony hard coronary arteries. The coronaries showed advanced calcification and early bone formation. The myocardial septum had extensive fibrosis. The pathogenesis and other possible similar conditions are also discussed in the report.
In this article, five cases with pearls in penile skin are discussed. These cases were viewed from multiple angles as number, colour, position of pearls, socio-economic status, occupation, sexual behaviour, and the background of the individuals. The number of pearls varied from one to five in these cases. The penile skin examination revealed old healed scar marks indicating that probably some had even more pearls. Three persons were directly or indirectly associated with drugs. One of the victim was HIV positive. Two of the cases were of homicide; one died in police custody; one died due to ischemic heart disease; and one had died in accident. The article also discusses the common beliefs behind this practice with review of the literature.
This is a case report of an environmental accident due to lightning where one school boy sustained current, blast, and flame effects of it. A bolt of lightning directly struck the pole of a football ground and the scatter struck the child. In addition to burn injuries, he showed an exit wound of lightning in left foot. The exit wound of lightning current is a very rare finding. The body of victim had flame and heat effect of atmospheric electricity on head and neck, face, and trunk. In this incidence of lightning other team mates of the victim were safe. The patient survived the attack.
The main aim of this study is to determine the causes and the epidemiological aspects of sudden natural deaths. Data were collected from 545 sudden natural autopsies in UMMC, Kuala Lumpur over a five-year period, from 1st January 2000 to 31st December 2004. There were 475 males and 70 females. The largest number of sudden natural deaths was in the age group of 41-50 years. 35.8%, 30.5% and 11.7% of the patients were Chinese, Indian and Malay, respectively. A majority of the patients were married (59.8%) and came from the semiskilled-unskilled group (30.6%). The monthly distribution was almost constant. Cardiovascular diseases were the most important cause contributing 64.9% in sudden natural deaths.
Death by hanging is believed to be a painless method of committing suicide. In most cases the noose has a knot and on this basis only it can be labeled as atypical or typical hanging. A 35 year Chinese man committed suicide by hanging with a ligature material made of electric wire where there was no knot present on the noose.
The purpose of this study was to record and evaluate the causes and the magnitude of the fatal burn injuries retrospectively. An analysis of autopsy records revealed 19.4% cases of burn injuries amongst the total autopsies done over 10years period (1993-2002) in the mortuary of the department of Forensic Medicine of Kasturba medical College, Manipal. The majority of deaths (78.5%) occurred between 11 and 40years of age group with preponderance of females (74.8%). The flame burns were seen in 94.1% of the victims followed by scalds and electrical burns in 2.8% and 2.5% cases, respectively. The majority of burn incidents were accidental (75.8%) in nature followed by suicidal (11.5%) and homicidal (3.1%) deaths. The percentage of burn (TBSA) over 40% were observed in most of the cases (92.5%). The majority of deaths occurred within a week (69.87%) and most the victims died because of septicemia (50.9%).
This is a case of a male in his late 30s who died due to acute myocardial ischemia. His penis was bandaged. The penis was inflamed and had infected abrasions. The possible relevances of such an incidental finding and its contribution to sudden death is explored. The case report shows photographs of the bandage in situ and its components, inflammation of frenulum, injury to the shaft, and the generalized inflamed and mildly swollen penis. These changes were considered to be caused by bites. The micro-photographic findings in the case were of acute myocardial ischemia, pulmonary oedema, and fatty liver.
We assessed the resemblance of lip print patterns between parents and biological offspring in families of 31 Malay students as well as the distribution of different types of lip print in the study group. Only a few studies have successfully established the inheritance pattern of lip prints. Such studies can be population specific and need to be conducted in various populations. No such study have been conducted in Malay population in Malaysia, according to our knowledge. Present study was carried out to ascertain whether there is any inherence pattern in lip prints and thereby to investigate the potential role of lip prints in personal identification. We found 58.06% resemblance of lip print patterns between the parents and their biological offspring in our study. The influence of heredity in lip print pattern is still a new concept and there is lack of concrete evidence. The data from our study shows that there is potential influence of inheritance in the lip print patterns among the family members. Further researches involving larger samples size are suggested to derive more reliable and accurate results. The most common lip print pattern among the study group is type I (29.84%) followed by type II (23.12%), type III (22.45%), type I' (13.44%), type IV (9.54%) and type V (1.61%). Racial variations in lip print patterns and their prevalence may serve as an aid in forensic identification and crime scene investigation. The results of this pilot study will help in establishing guidelines for future researches on lip print analysis in Malaysia.
The third molar development (TMD) has been widely utilized as one of the radiographic method for dental age estimation. By using the same radiograph of the same individual, third molar eruption (TME) information can be incorporated to the TMD regression model. This study aims to evaluate the performance of dental age estimation in individual method models and the combined model (TMD and TME) based on the classic regressions of multiple linear and principal component analysis. A sample of 705 digital panoramic radiographs of Malay sub-adults aged between 14.1 and 23.8 years was collected. The techniques described by Gleiser and Hunt (modified by Kohler) and Olze were employed to stage the TMD and TME, respectively. The data was divided to develop three respective models based on the two regressions of multiple linear and principal component analysis. The trained models were then validated on the test sample and the accuracy of age prediction was compared between each model. The coefficient of determination (R²) and root mean square error (RMSE) were calculated. In both genders, adjusted R² yielded an increment in the linear regressions of combined model as compared to the individual models. The overall decrease in RMSE was detected in combined model as compared to TMD (0.03-0.06) and TME (0.2-0.8). In principal component regression, low value of adjusted R(2) and high RMSE except in male were exhibited in combined model. Dental age estimation is better predicted using combined model in multiple linear regression models.