Homicide with post mortem dismemberment of the victim with previous amputation of right lower limb: Case report and review of the literature

Introduction

The term ‘dismemberment’ describes the perpetrator’s fragmenting of the corpse or severing a part of a body.^1,2 Dismemberment is relatively rare; after killing the victim, the perpetrator uses sharp cutting tools (such as a saw, axe, knives, etc.) to sever the limbs and cut the body into small pieces. Recently, Porta et al. reported on the disarticulation of some body parts as an alternative method of dismemberment. ³

In literature, such criminal mutilation has been classified according to the aims and reasons for crime into four categories: ‘defensive mutilation’ where the motive is to get rid of the body and/or to make its identification more difficult; ‘aggressive mutilation’ when the killing and mutilation is brought about by outrage; ‘offensive mutilation’ where the dismemberment is the perpetrator's real purpose and where mutilation may start while the victim is still alive and continue after the killing, or it may be commenced after the killing; ‘necromaniac mutilation’ when the body parts are used by the perpetrator as an object for sexual pleasure.^1,4–6

Defensive mutilation is the most common form of mutilation^5,6 This classification implies that the victim of an offensive mutilation may have been conscious or unconscious or already dead when mutilation took place.

The most common reason for dismemberment is to make it easier to conceal the homicide and the victim where the perpetrators are unable to remove the corpse without attracting the attention of potential witnesses.

In most cases, dismemberment occurs in the same place as the murder with no prior planning, and the pathologist will advise on the cause of death, where it took place and the means used for dismemberment and the relationship between the perpetrator and the victim.

Case report

The body of a 50-year-old Caucasian man was found in the store of his country house lying prone on the floor with a pool of blood under his head and chest; the wall of the store was bloodstained; a large-volume wipe pattern was found on the floor between the victim and an oven (Figure 1). At the crime scene, a kitchen knife with a 23 cm single sharp-edge (Figure 2) blade, a pick, a gas-pipe with a safety valve, a wooden board, the victim's crutch and one shoe (the victim had previously had his right lower limb amputated) were recovered. A watch was under the victim's head; everything was bloodstained (Figures 1 and 2). The victim’s clothes were smeared with blood. On external examination, the corpse showed mutilation of the left upper limb on proximal humeral epiphysis and of left lower limb on proximal femoral epiphysis and the earlier amputation of the right lower limb. The dismembered body parts were found in an oven in the same store.

At autopsy, we observed multiple head injuries inflicted with a blunt object: lacerated and contusion wounds on the back of the neck and head (frontal and occipital region; right parietal region of scalp) with fractures of right and left parietal bones and subarachnoid haemorrhage. We also found lacerated and contused wounds on the left side of the face associated with facial fractures.

Macroscopic examination of the amputated limbs showed skin and muscles completely cut and fractures of bones (diaphysis femur and humerus) with no evidence of incision of the articular surface (Figures 3 and 4). A wound engraved, 50 cm long and 2 cm depth, was observed on the trunk (Figure 5). All the section surfaces were free from haemorrhagic infiltrate. We performed DNA analysis of blood samples collected at the crime scene and these demonstrated only the victim's blood. Microscopic examination of the section surface of skin showed no signs of vital reaction (Figure 6). The blood alcohol and toxicological screenings were negative.

Discussion

Mutilation of a dead body occurs all over the world. In the Federal Republic of Germany, Gerchow ⁷ reported an average of six to seven mutilation murders every year during a 10-year period in the 1960s and 1970s. In a study conducted in Sweden by Rajs et al., ⁴ the incidence of mutilation murders during the three decades 1961–1990 was 0.05 to 0.125 cases per million inhabitants per year. Dismembered victims are always victims of homicide.^1,3,4,6,8,9

Most dismemberments as reported by Konopka and Rajs^4,10 show defensive mutilation.

Most commonly, perpetrators use a very sharp cutting weapon (chain saw, knife, axe, woodworking saw, etc.) to cut the body into small pieces and often these will be^11,12,13 handy tools available at the crime scene, and the usual reason is to make it easier to dispose of the body. Sometimes the perpetrator will try to burn it or the body parts.^4,9,10 As reported by Schulz and Rajs, the main predisposing factors include poor integration in society and family, drug and/or alcohol abuse and mental illness.^4,6,9

In our case, death was caused by various injuries to the head and brain; the victim was attacked from behind with a blunt object, probably the wooden board found at the crime scene. Subsequently, the murderer dismembered the body where it lay in the victim's country house store. Microscopic examination of the drawn skin did not show signs of vital reaction, so we concluded that the victim's body was dismembered after death with the kitchen knife and the pick left near the corpse. The knife was used to cut the skin and muscles of the limbs and the pick to break the bones of the limbs. The presence of the incised wound on the posterior surface of the trunk, and the discovery of unburned amputated limbs in the oven, suggest that the perpetrator had intended to hide the victim’s corpse by burning parts of his body but had been interrupted. In our case, the perpetrator was not identified so we do not know his/her motive or the relationship between the perpetrator and the victim.