Citation

Cornetta S, Addante A, Zotti F, Dell'Erba A. J. Forensic Sci. 2009; 54(5): 1149-1151.

Affiliation

Section of Legal Medicine, University of Bari, Bari 70125, Italy. sandracornetta@gmail.com

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, American Society for Testing and Materials, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1556-4029.2009.01102.x

PMID

19686399

Abstract

The authors report a case of a transvestite found murdered near his automobile with several lacerated contused wounds to the face and cranial fractures. Autopsy revealed that the cause of death was a serious head trauma with subdural and subarachnoidal hemorrhages. In order to identify the crime weapon, a scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used which revealed metallic residue on the skin fragments with the same molecular composition of the car paint. As for survival time, antibody anti-beta-amyloid precursor protein (APP) was applied to brain fragments and brainstem tissue, allowing for axonal varicosities (which form 2 to 3 h following death) to be observed under the optic microscope. So, by using SEM we understood that the fatal cranial-encephalic lesions were the result of the victim's head being repeatedly struck against the car door while anti-betaAPP led to the understanding that the time elapsed between injury and death was less than 2 to 3 h.

Language: en