Postmortem Interval: A case of domestic indoor animal scavenging and mummification

Authors

  • Sandy Call

Abstract

Objective: As professional medicolegal death investigators and law enforcement officers, we are

frequently confronted with domestic animal scavenging at death scenes. Despite the frequency of

this phenomenon, there is very little research into the utility of analyzing domestic animal

scavenging in the current literature. As with many studies focused on outdoor scavenging

patterns, research of indoor patterns can be equally as informative to investigators in regard to

the post-mortem interval. This case study aims to provide insight into the position at death and

post-mortem interval using evidence of domestic canine scavenging. The author found that

indoor canine patterns do not follow the published knowledge of outdoor scavenging patterns

and aim to encourage future research into domestic scavenging patterns.

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Published

2023-12-11

Issue

Vol. 7 No. 3 (2023): Article

Section

Forensics

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