Nonhuman remains and relics encountered by the medical examiner: Fulton County, Georgia, 2003-2004.
BACKGROUND
Medical examiner and coroner offices occasionally respond to "death scenes" which, after investigation, are found to involve nonhuman remains or other relics not requiring further investigation or certification of death. This report describes such cases encountered by the Fulton County medical examiner during 2003 and 2004.


METHODS
The electronic database used by the office contains check boxes to indicate whether a reported case involved nonhuman remains or other relics, in which case the name of the "deceased" is listed as "nonhuman remains" by selecting those words from a pull-down menu. Subject cases were identified during the 2-year period by searching the database for any case in which one of the boxes was checked or in which the name of the deceased was listed as nonhuman.


RESULTS
Four thousand five hundred fifty-four deaths were investigated during the 2-year period, and 23 cases (0.5%) involved nonhuman remains or relics. Thus, the observed rate was about 5 cases per 1000 death investigations. Nineteen cases involved nonhuman bones. One case involved 2 human fetuses that had been teaching specimens. The other 3 cases involved a nonhuman fetus, a large decomposing dog that had been wrapped and dumped in residential area, and a sheep heart found in a bag which was a medical teaching specimen.


CONCLUSIONS
Nonhuman remains and other relics are uncommonly seen in death investigation work and usually involve nonhuman bones, although a small variety of other atypical cases present themselves occasionally. Knowledge of these types of encounters is helpful so that the "unexpected" may become more "expected" and office policy and procedures tailored accordingly to facilitate case management.
Hanzlick
Randy
R
Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30312, USA. Randy.hanzlick@co.fulton.ga.us
Smith
Geoffrey
G
Guilbeau
Mark
M
D000818:Animals; D000829:Animals, Domestic; D001842:Bone and Bones; D003334:Coroners and Medical Examiners; D019992:Databases as Topic; D005333:Fetus; D005845:Georgia; D006801:Humans