Postmortem injuries inflicted by crawfish: Morphological and histological aspects

Duband, S.; Forest, F.; Clemenson, A.; Debout, M.; Péoc’h, M.

doi:10.1016/j.forsciint.2010.08.006

« Previous Next »Forensic Science International
Volume 206, Issue 1 , Pages e49-e51, 20 March 2011

Postmortem injuries inflicted by crawfish: Morphological and histological aspects

S. Duband
- Department of Forensic Medicine, Saint-Etienne University Hospital Center, Bellevue Hospital, 42055 St-Etienne, Cedex 2, France
- Department of Pathology, Saint-Etienne University Hospital Center, North Hospital, 42055 St-Etienne, Cedex 2, France
- Corresponding author at: Department of Forensic Pathology, Saint-Etienne University Hospital Center, North Hospital, 42055 Saint-Etienne Cedex 2, France. Tel.: +33 0 4 77 12 05 23; fax: +33 0 04 77 12 09 16.
F. Forest
- Department of Pathology, Saint-Etienne University Hospital Center, North Hospital, 42055 St-Etienne, Cedex 2, France
A. Clemenson
- Department of Pathology, Saint-Etienne University Hospital Center, North Hospital, 42055 St-Etienne, Cedex 2, France
M. Debout
- Department of Forensic Medicine, Saint-Etienne University Hospital Center, Bellevue Hospital, 42055 St-Etienne, Cedex 2, France
M. Péoc’h
- Department of Forensic Medicine, Saint-Etienne University Hospital Center, Bellevue Hospital, 42055 St-Etienne, Cedex 2, France
- Department of Pathology, Saint-Etienne University Hospital Center, North Hospital, 42055 St-Etienne, Cedex 2, France

Received 12 May 2010; received in revised form 21 July 2010; accepted 4 August 2010. published online 02 September 2010.

Abstract

A scavenging postmortem crawfish (Austropotamobius pallipes) is presented. A 60-year-old woman was found dead immersed in 2m of water in an artificial lack near a dam. The divers, on discovering the body, observed numerous crawfish near the face, the abdomen and the hands of the cadaver that disappeared at their approach. Her face showed extensive hemorrhagic lesions of the eyelids, lips and neck, initially attributed by the police investigators to a possible criminal assault. On autopsy, the face injuries were identified as a postmortem defect by animal scavenging. We present the macro- and microscopic aspects of these postmortem changes in relation to animal predation.