Death creates a bizarre scenery: a case report.
The bodies of two men in their early forties were found lying in a peculiar position in an apartment. Police and medical investigations suggested that both had, at the most, died 2 weeks earlier. One of the men was kneeling, holding on to the back of a chair-with his hand, and was bent over the second man lying on the floor. Both men were known as former addicts, but were assumed to be clean for a long period of time. The autopsy revealed that the two men died from an acute heroine intoxication in combination with alcohol. The man who lay on the floor additionally had chronic heart disease. It could be excluded that any other persons were involved in this case and that other causes of death had to be considered. The peculiar scene could be explained by the obvious order of death and as a consequence of mummification.
Institute of Legal Medicine, University of Giebetaen, Frankfurter Str 58, 35392 Germany. marcel.a.verhoff@forens.med.uni-giessen.de
Marcel A
MA
Verhoff
Harald F
HF
Schütz
Gabriele
G
Lasczkowski
D000328:Adult; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000150:complications; D017809:Fatal Outcome; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011180:Postmortem Changes; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000150:complications