Fungi can be a useful forensic tool.

Full 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 6m 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 3-7 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.

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Author information

Author/s: Hitosugi, Masahito (M); Ishii, Kiyoshi (K); Yaguchi, Takashi (T); Chigusa, Yuichi (Y); Kurosu, Akira (A); Kido, Masahito (M); Nagai, Toshiaki (T); Tokudome, Shogo (S);

Affiliation: Department of Legal Medicine, Dokkyo Medical University, School of Medicine, 880 Kita-kobayashi, Mibu, Shimotsuga, Tochigi 321-0293, Japan. hitosugi(-atsign-)dokkyomed.ac.jp

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Case Reports; Journal Article

Journal: Legal medicine (Tokyo, Japan) (Leg Med (Tokyo)), published in Ireland. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2006-Jul; vol 8 (issue 4) : pp 240-2

Dates: Created 2006/07/31; Completed 2006/12/20;

PMID: 16798051, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Aged
Aspergillus - isolation & purification
Forensic Anthropology
Humans

Humans
Male
Penicillium - isolation & purification
Postmortem Changes

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