title: Proposed classes of morphological autopsy findings for decomposed and skeletal remains in mass death investigations.
abstract: Analysis of mass death events, often involving partial or skeletal human remains, requires investigators to condense information on a large number of victims into a single report. Prosecution of war crimes typically requires that victims be categorized according to the injuries sustained. Reports recognizing only the presence or absence of trauma are misleading or misrepresentative. This study introduces a 4 class system for skeletal remains based on morphologic autopsy findings. Each class corresponds to the lethal potential of the trauma or pathologic conditions evident at autopsy, and the certainty with which cause of death can be determined. Data were extracted from 766 autopsy cases involving decomposed or skeletal remains from the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator in which cause and manner of death were ruled. Statistically significant associations between morphology class and the cause and manner of death, positive identification, and natural and non-natural deaths were evident in this study. Intraobserver and interobserver tests revealed excellent replicability and reliability in the assignment of morphology classes to individual cases. In addition to its mass death applications, this classification system offers potential research contributions to physical anthropologists and bioarchaeologists studying human populations in antiquity.
authors.affiliation: Office of the Medical Investigator and daggerDepartment of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. dkomar@salud.unm.edu
authors.forename: Debra
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Komar
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lathrop
authors.forename: Wendy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Potter
mesh_terms: D000059:Accidents / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002423:Cause of Death; D018732:Forensic Anthropology / Q000145:classification*; D049429:Forensic Pathology / Q000145:classification*; D006708:Homicide / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013405:Suicide / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000145:classification* / Q000473:pathology