Postmortem Injuries on Illegal Migrants' Cadavers at the Eastern Land Borders of the European Union-Greece

Abstract

Among the basic questions and issues that a coroner usually faces during performing post-mortem examination and autopsy, and whose answer is crucial and imperative, is the distinction between anteand post-mortem injuries. The nature and form of these lesions vary widely. Post-mortem injuries may occur depending on the prevalent surrounding conditions at the death site due to passive movement (dragging) of the cadaver on a sharp surface (such as branches due to the river current or road pavement by a vehicle) or biting with tissue detachment by carnivores, rodents, fish or arthropods during exposure to the environment [1-4]. Hemorrhagic infiltration and swelling of the wound edges, macroscopically, as well as the accumulation of leukocytes and erythrocytes, microscopically, are the indications that characterize and distinguish antefrom post-mortem injuries. Tissue detachment in exposed or covered body parts with rough edges is typical of injuries caused by carnivores. Smaller sized lesions in exposed parts of the body with soft tissue detachment (mainly on the face) are indicative of postmortem lesions caused by rodents. Superficial injuries of varied forms, dispersedly distributed also in exposed body parts are post-mortem lesions typical of arthropods.