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Case report
Department of Legal Medicine, Dokkyo Medical University, School of Medicine, 880 Kita-kobayashi, Mibu, Shimotsuga, Tochigi 321-0293, Japan
b
Department of Natural Science (Biology), Dokkyo Medical University, School of Medicine, Tochigi 321-0293, Japan
c
Chiba University Research Center for Pathogenic Fungi and Microbial Toxicoses, Chiba 260-8673, Japan
d
Department of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology, Dokkyo Medical University, School of Medicine, Tochigi 321-0293, Japan
Received 16 March 2006; received in revised form 10 April 2006; accepted 18 April 2006
Available online 22 June 2006
Abstract
We present a practical case in which the fungi have contributed to the estimation of postmortem interval of the cadaver. A 71-year-old man
wearing a shirt and pants was found dead at the bottom of an open well about 6 m below the ground in his garden. Externally the face was
dotted with colonies of white fungi, which was devoid of dipteran larvae and other insects. The fungi were identified as Penicillium sp. and
Aspergillus terrous. These fungi, widely inhabit in the life circumstances, can generally colonize 37 days after attaching on the subjects. The
appearance of the body surface, the state of decomposition of various organs, police information describing that the man had last been seen
12 days before discovery and the fungal evidence indicated that the man had been dead for about 10 days. We suggest that fungi can provide
an useful means of estimating the minimum interval since death when forensic entomology is not applicable. Although, no data about growth
rates of the fungi on human cadavers have been available, further researches should be needed to clarify the successive colonization of fungi
on human cadavers.
q 2006 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Fungi; Forensic entomology; Postmortem interval; Autopsy
1. Introduction
Although, forensic entomology is based on the analysis
of insects and other invertebrates, which colonize on the
cadavers, the fungi is also appeared on the surface of human
cadavers. Ishii et al. initially identified fungi found on a
mummified body and skeletal remains, and described that
more forensic cases are needed to develop fungi into
forensic tools [1]. Because forensic pathologists have
observed fungi mainly on decomposing human cadavers,
we believe that these organisms would become a useful
forensic tool for estimating the postmortem duration in
human cadavers that have decomposed over the long term.
However, we observed fungi on mildly decomposed human
cadaver, about 10 days after death. We present a practical
* Corresponding author. Tel.: C81 282 87 2135; fax: C81 282 86 7678.
E-mail address: hitosugi@dokkyomed.ac.jp (M. Hitosugi).
1344-6223/$ - see front matter q 2006 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.legalmed.2006.04.005
2. Case report
A 71-year-old man wearing a shirt and pants was found
dead at the bottom of an open well about 6 m below the
ground in his garden on 3rd May. The well was located in
Tochigi Prefecture, northeastern Japan (36.78N, 139.78E).
Police information revealed that he was last seen alive on
21st April. At discovery, he was in a kneeling position and
partly immersed in water to a depth of 30 cm (Fig. 1). A
broken flashlight was found near the body, which was
devoid of dipteran larvae and other insects. Climatologic
data obtained from a government weather station located a
short distance from the well showed that the mean ambient
temperature from the time of disappearance to discovery
241
3. Discussion
242
References
[1] Ishii K, Hitosugi M, Kido M, Yaguchi T, Nishimura K, Hosoya T,
Tokudome S. Analysis of fungi detected in human cadavers. Legal Med
2006;8:188190.