Journal of Forensic Research

Objective: To describe the demographic profile and distribution of injuries from autopsy cases due to fatal Road Traffic Accidents (RTA) in Fiji.
Methods: This is a retrospective autopsy based study consisting of 102 medico-legal autopsies performed by the Fiji Institute of Forensic Science, Fiji Police Force during the period of two calendar years from January 1st 2011 to December 31st 2012.
Results: Out of the 1454 medico-legal autopsies performed during the study period, 102 (7%) were due to fatal RTA. There were 72 (70.5%) males and 30 (29.5%) female fatalities with an overall male and female ratio of 2.3:1 and the 30 to 44 years age group showed highest number of victims of 30 (29.4%). The months of October in 2011 and August in 2012 took the maximum toll of road traffic deaths of 9 (8.8%) and 12 (11.6%) respectively. The highest number within the road user group were the passengers of 53 (51.9%) followed by the pedestrians and drivers of 32 (31.2%) and 16 (15.6%) respectively. Human behavioural errors or factors by all the road users of 95 (93.1%) was the highest contributing factor and pre-hospital mortality was most common, particularly road traffic death at
the scene (51.9%) and those whilst en route to hospital (29.4%). Highest number of injuries were head injuries of 67 (65.7%), followed by multiple injuries of 57 (55.6%), thoracic injuries of 56 (54.9%), abdominal injuries of 31 (30.3%), vertebral injuries 21 (20.5%) and major vessel injuries of 12 (11.7%). The most common mechanism of death was haemorrhagic shock of 90 (88.2%) followed by asphyxia of 7 (6.8%), arrhythmias of 3 (2.9%) and finally septic shock of 2 (1.9%).
Conclusion: This study emphasizes the need for better pre-hospital and hospital trauma management, improved traffic law enforcement, effective traffic related and health policy creation, and the establishment of a national traffic traumatic injury surveillance registry in Fiji.

The hair perforation is a prominent feature in several infected hairs. Different types of perforators are found in human hairs. Some of these are presented in the present study for the first time which may be proved as additional tool in hair diagnosis in forensic biology. Other structure and type of hairs, their chemical structures are also reviewed in order to consolidate important aspects of hair diagnosis.

Informed consent is commonly held to be a modern development that is linked with legal aftermaths. This paper presents the historical origins of this troublesome theme from 1753 to 1896. Hopefully, current adversarial attitudes would become minimal while surgical sagacity would fructify freely.

The goal of this research was to quantitatively measure the amount of salivary amylase in a sample by using UVVIS and the SALIgAE® reagent. The samples included serial dilutions of standard human salivary amylase, human saliva, as well as other body fluids from human and animals. These were added to the SALIgAE® reagent and the absorbances of the solutions were monitored by the UV-VIS at 403 nm every 30 seconds over a 10 minute period. The lowest concentration of salivary amylase detected by UV-VIS was 1 ppm (parts per million), or 0.0010 units of amylase, while the color of the reagent was clear upon visual observation at this dilution. The absorbance change and kinetics of the reaction between the amylase and the SALIgAE® reagent were determined to be proportional to the concentration of the salivary amylase in a dilution. This relationship can be used to quantify the amount of amylase from items of evidence.

Lightning is one of the most potent and extravagant natural phenomena. Deaths related to the striking of lightning occurs in persons functioning in open space like farming, golfing, fishing, swimming, boating, camping, or hiking. Here we present a case of 45 yr male who sustained lightening injuries in form of blast effect causing rupture of the tympanic membrane and mucosal and submucosal hemorrhage in the stomach and intestine. Such a phenomenon is very rare in lightening deaths and is not reported previously in literature to the best of our knowledge.

Sudden death while bathing is a major issue in elderly Japanese individuals. Despite its growing incidence, the exact processes underlying sudden death while bathing remain unknown. This study was designed to establish reliable diagnostic markers for drowning while bathing, as well as to assess the pathological conditions associated with sudden death while bathing, by analyzing the immunohistochemical intensity and localization of surfactant protein-A (SP-A), heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) and c-Fos protein in the lungs and central nervous system, including the cerebral cortex and hippocampus. We found that a distinct pattern of immunohistochemical expression of SP-A, HSP70 and c-Fos in the lung can be utilized to diagnose drowning. In most of these individuals, c-Fos protein was
absent from the central nervous system, providing insight into patterns of ischemia in the central nervous system, or a loss in consciousness while bathing. We also found that rapid hypothermia or a cold stimulus increased c-Fos expression in the hippocampus (CA4). Furthermore, our results suggest that HSP70 expression in the hippocampus (CA4) can be used to estimate the length of time between the initial occurrence of stress and death.

A case is described of a three year old girl who had been treated for urinary tract infections during a longer period. At one incident erythrocytes and spermatozoa were found in the girl’s urine. The mother explained that she had intercourse with her husband early in the morning, and that she used a menstrual cup. As she was emptying the cup during toilet visit with the girl, she had blood on her fingers. When the girl urinated, the urine also touched the mother’s fingers thus washing some of the blood including spermatozoa from the intercourse down into the urine sample. The forensic examination, including DNA-profiling of blood and semen, did not contradict this explanation. No other possible cause was found for this contamination with erythrocytes and semen in the girl’s urine. Child abuse was highly unlikely.

Western Ghats is one of the 18 hot spots of the world for biodiversity conservation and protection. Increasing human activities and tourism in forestry and changing life style of humans lead more difficult to solve criminal cases. Blow flies (Diptera: Calliphoridae) are important components of decomposition process of wild and human bodies in forest ecosystems. Biotic and abiotic factors of environment have direct impact on population dynamics of flora and fauna of forensic importance. The blow flies use carrion as a resource for propagation of their own progeny. Therefore, altitudinal diversity of forensic blow flies in Western Ghats has been reported. A total of 19 species of blow flies belonging to the genera Chrysomya, Lucilia and Calliphora have been reported. The genus Lucilia and Chrysomya were abundant at low altitude than higher altitudes of Western Ghats. In general, blow fly diversity
decreased with increase of altitudes and qualitative faunal diversity of blow flies were different at different study spots. The outcome of faunal turn over analysis clearly indicated that assemblage at 545 m and 585 m share almost 71.42% of their fauna in common. Also elevation of 900 m shares 70.70% of its assemblage with 585 m. Similarly, assemblage at 42 m and 22 m share about 40% of their fauna in common. The life cycle under laboratory (27 ± 1ºC, 70-80%, 12 hours photo period) ranged from 9-11 days in the species, C. erythrocephala and L. sericata.