title: Murder by Poisons: Cases in Taiwan, 1999-2008.
abstract: This review summarizes the findings from a retrospective study of 17,390 forensic autopsy cases of medicolegal investigations in Taiwan during the 1999-2008 period. Among this total, 1,874 cases involved illicit drugs and 750 involved household toxic chemicals. Rarely seen toxic substances, such as cyanide, corrosive poisons, ether, etc., were found in 6.4%percent; of homicide poisoning cases. Profiling the suspects' backgrounds may play a key role in correlating unique chemicals with the suspects' homicidal behavior.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Institute of Forensic Medicine, Ministry of Justice, Taiwan. kpshaw596@gmail.com.
authors.forename: K-P
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Shaw
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Institute of Forensic Medicine, Ministry of Justice, Taiwan.
authors.forename: H-T
authors.initials: HT
authors.lastname: Chen
keywords: Homicide; illicit drugs; murder by poison; profile of murderer; toxic chemicals