International Journal of Legal Medicine最新文献

{"title":"Evaluation of the ForenSeq® Kintelligence Kit and the FORensic Capture Enrichment Panel for Unidentified and Missing Persons Casework.","authors":"Jessica L Watson, Kelly Grisedale, Dennis McNevin, Jodie Ward","doi":"10.1007/s00414-025-03492-4","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00414-025-03492-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Targeted amplicon sequencing (TAS) employs massively parallel sequencing technology to generate profiles comprised of several thousand single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to assist in identifying an individual and generating investigative leads. By targeting a range of SNP classes, profiles are able to be analysed to infer biological sex, externally visible characteristics, biogeographical ancestry, paternal lineage and relationships to other individuals. Such leads can be beneficial for human remains identification where antemortem data is not available for comparison. This study evaluated the performance and requirements of two in-house TAS pipelines: the ForenSeq® Kintelligence Kit and the FORensic Capture Enrichment (FORCE) panel. Both TAS pipelines demonstrated suitability for a range of samples typically encountered in missing persons cases, including buccal, bone, tooth and nail samples. There was a high degree of concordance between the TAS genotypes and the majority of the genetic intelligence produced was consistent with the self-declared information provided by DNA donors. This study highlights the requirements for each pipeline to be considered by forensic laboratories seeking to establish a forensic genomics capability for unidentified and missing persons casework.</p>","PeriodicalId":14071,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Legal Medicine","volume":" ","pages":"2047-2062"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12354613/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143795156","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The oriental latrine fly Chrysomya megacephala (Fabricius, 1794) (Diptera: Calliphoridae) as a new forensic indicator in SW Europe.","authors":"Anabel Martínez-Sánchez, Tania Ivorra, Leticia C Roberts, Salvador Giner, Luisa M Beringola, Pedro M Cano, Santos Rojo","doi":"10.1007/s00414-025-03489-z","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00414-025-03489-z","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The oriental latrine fly, Chrysomya megacephala (Fabricius, 1794), is a potential forensic indicator in Mediterranean countries due to its first report in southwestern Europe in 1998. It was first recorded in Alicante (southeastern Spain) and is expanding across the Iberian Peninsula. Until now, this synanthropic species of forensic importance had been captured in baited traps and on pig carcasses in Europe, but never on human corpses. After reviewing all cases studied at the Institute of Legal Medicine of Alicante and the National Institute of Toxicology and Forensic Sciences in Madrid, C. megacephala was recorded for the first time in seven Spanish cases. The identification of material collected during autopsies revealed its scarcity compared to other species in the sarcosaprophagous Diptera community. In all cases, C. megacephala larvae coexisted with thermophilous necrophagous blow fly Lucilia sericata. Other coexisting species included the calliphorids Calliphora vicina and Chrysomya albiceps, and the muscid Synthesiomyia nudiseta. Chrysomya megacephala was collected in various coastal localities in Spain, particularly along the southern and Mediterranean coasts. Most cases shared common characteristics, including the time of year (summer), domestic indoor habitats, and the decomposition stage (active decay). The relevance of these findings is discussed in relation to the importance of taxonomy in identifying this exotic species and its role as forensic entomological evidence in Europe. Given the impact of climate change, the species composition and biology of the sarcosaprophagous Diptera community, particularly in the Mediterranean basin, must be continuously studied and reviewed.</p>","PeriodicalId":14071,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Legal Medicine","volume":" ","pages":"2425-2437"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12354500/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144000814","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Assessing the accuracy of the third molar eruption as an indicator of adulthood: findings from a black South African sample using the Gambier method.","authors":"Nikolaos Angelakopoulos, Shatakshi Sharma, Sudheer Babu Balla, Galina Zolotenkova, Stefano De Luca","doi":"10.1007/s00414-025-03505-2","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00414-025-03505-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Age estimation is a critical aspect of forensic practice, often requiring straightforward, accurate, and precise dental methods employed by experts in various contexts where their expertise is needed. The third molar eruption analysis presents a practical approach. This study evaluates the Gambier et al. scoring system for assessing legal adulthood (18 years) through third molar observations in black South African subadults.</p><p><strong>Materials and methods: </strong>A retrospective analysis was conducted on 877 orthopantomograms (357 males and 520 females) of individuals aged 14 to 24 years.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The mean chronological age increased with the progression of stages (1 to 3) and phases (A to D) of the third molar eruption for both sexes. Our study revealed a strong association between advanced eruption phases and the likelihood of being 18 years or older. For instance, phase D (complete emergence in the occlusal plane) showed a high likelihood of individuals being 18 years or older, with 76% of males (32 out of 42) and 80.5% of females (66 out of 82) in this phase aged above 18.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>This technique, due to its ease of use, can provide useful preliminary information regarding the probable age of alleged minor asylum seekers. However, the results indicate that, in line with the minimum age principle, this method should be applied cautiously when determining adulthood, as the minimum age for both stage 3 of eruption and phase D is clearly below 18 years. Therefore, it should always be used alongside other validated methods recommended by international protocols and good practice guidelines to ensure reliability across different populations.</p>","PeriodicalId":14071,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Legal Medicine","volume":" ","pages":"2313-2322"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12354493/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144093823","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Rearing maggots of the blow fly Chrysomya megacephala (Fabricius, 1794) on tissues of rabbits treated with morphine hydrochloride caused shifts in their developmental time, with implications for postmortem interval estimation.","authors":"Abeer M Salem, El-Sayed H Shaurub, Yahya Al Naggar, Mustafa Soliman, Amr Mohamed, Eman E Zaher","doi":"10.1007/s00414-025-03509-y","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00414-025-03509-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Previous research has shown that the effects of different drugs on the growth rate of blow flies vary by species, which can influence the determination of the minimum post-mortem interval (PMImin​). In this study, we assessed how morphine affects the development, growth, and survival rate of Chrysomya megacephala (Fabricius, 1794), a forensically important blow fly species, and whether these effects are dose dependent. We also measured morphine concentrations in insect samples (3rd -instar larvae and puparial cases) and in various post-mortem tissues of rabbits (cardiac blood, skeletal muscle, and liver). Rabbits were administered two lethal doses of morphine hydrochloride (5 and 10 mg/kg), then sacrificed, and tissue samples were collected for toxicological analysis. At a controlled temperature of 37 °C, newly hatched larvae (1-2 h old) were placed on the rabbit carcasses and randomly sampled at 12 h regular interval (12-132 h) to determine larval development time, puparial development time, larval mortality, larval length, and larval weight. Changes in these insect parameters led to an underestimation of PMImin by up to 15.92 h if the presence of morphine was not considered. Moreover, morphine concentrations in all insect samples (180 and 223 ng/g in the 3rd instar larvae; 40 and 45 ng/g in the puparial cases after treatment with 5 and 10 mg/kg of morphine hydrochloride, respectively) and rabbit tissues (1129 and 2564 ng/g in the cardiac blood; 1777 and 2823 ng/g in the liver; 825 and 1070 ng/g in the skeletal muscles after treatment with 5 and 10 mg/kg of morphine hydrochloride, respectively) were measured using high-performance liquid chromatography system equipped with a binary pump and UV detector. Morphine can affect the development of different life cycle stages of Ch. megacephala, highlighting the importance of accounting for its presence when determining PMImin ​ in such conditions. The data obtained could aid in criminal investigations. Although a concentration-dependent effect has been discussed, the use of whole animal carcasses may lead to uneven distribution of the drug, and concentrations in the areas from which larvae are feeding may differ significantly due to ante-mortem processes in the body.</p>","PeriodicalId":14071,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Legal Medicine","volume":" ","pages":"2177-2188"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144110646","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The current state of forensic imaging - recommended radiological tools and international guidelines.","authors":"Fabrice Dedouit, Mathilde Ducloyer, Jamie Elifritz, Natalie L Adolphi, Grace Wong Yi-Li, Summer Decker, Jonathan Ford, Yanko Kolev, Michael Thali","doi":"10.1007/s00414-025-03465-7","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00414-025-03465-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The last few decades have seen the emergence of forensic imaging, both clinical and post-mortem. Year after year, the scientific community has refined the radiological tools that can be used for post-mortem and clinical forensic purposes. As a result, scientific societies have published recommendations that are essential for the daily work of forensic imaging. This third part of the review of the current state of forensic imaging describes these recommended radiological tools and also presents an overview of the various international guidelines dealing with post mortem imaging that can be found in the literature or that have been written by scientific societies.</p>","PeriodicalId":14071,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Legal Medicine","volume":" ","pages":"2219-2231"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12354491/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143700308","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Cranial sutures as an age indicator: verification of the method using postmortem CT acquisition material.","authors":"Marta Barszcz, Elżbieta Badach, Krzysztof Jerzy Woźniak","doi":"10.1007/s00414-025-03504-3","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00414-025-03504-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Age estimation at the time of death is an integral part of forensic examination whenever unidentified human remains are discovered. In the case of adult remains the methods of age estimation are based mostly on the extent of age-related degenerative changes. The most controversial method makes use of cranial suture assessment. The purpose of this study was to verify whether assessment of cranial suture closure may be considered a useful and reliable method in forensic estimation of age at death. Postmortem computed tomography (PMCT) acquisitions of 114 male skulls were evaluated. Multiplanar reconstruction (MPR) to visualize the progress of suture closure in cross-sections was used. The inner and outer surfaces of each skull were visualized with the volume rendering technique (VRT). The coronal, sagittal, and lambdoid sutures were assessed with a suture closure scale introduced by Broca. Cranial suture assessment has been generally used for estimating age ranges, such as \"younger/older\", \"under about 30 years of age\", \"over 50 years of age\". Moreover, lambdoid suture closure is unrelated to age, except for its ectocranial part L3 on the left side. These observations indicate no major importance of this age estimation method in forensic anthropology.</p>","PeriodicalId":14071,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Legal Medicine","volume":" ","pages":"2413-2424"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12354502/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144010048","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Fracture patterns in diaphyseal gunshot trauma: role of the bullet's impact point and angle.","authors":"Nathalie Schwab, Doreen Jost, Xavier Jordana, Jordi Monreal, Xavier Garrido, Pedro Brillas, Ignasi Galtés","doi":"10.1007/s00414-025-03488-0","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00414-025-03488-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Skeletal trauma assessment is an important task of forensic anthropologists and pathologists. This applies in particular to badly preserved bodies where the soft tissue cannot provide forensic evidence. Yet, the interpretation of ballistic long bone trauma can be difficult due to little conclusive data. Thus, this study explored the variability of diaphyseal fracture patterns dependent on the bullet's angle and point of impact. 20 femurs from body donors were embedded in Clear Ballistics Gel^® and divided into 4 experimental groups: 70° angled shot on the centre of the anterior shaft aspect; perpendicular shot on the centre of the lateral shaft aspect; perpendicular shot on the centre of the posterior shaft aspect; grazing shot from posterior on the margin of the medial shaft aspect. In each case, a 9-mm Luger full metal jacket projectile was shot at a distance of 2 m and an impact speed of 360 m/s. All fractures were examined macroscopically. For the trauma comparison, a fifth group (perpendicular shot on the centre of the anterior shaft aspect), previously analysed in an earlier study, was included. Although the groups revealed similar fracture characteristics, the results suggest the bullet's impact angle and location influence the fracture pattern. The most dissimilar fracture pattern was reproduced in the grazing shots, where only one defect hole was seen, instead of an entry and exit hole like in the other groups. The findings highlight the variability of ballistic fracture patterns in long bones and may serve as guidelines during the skeletal trauma assessment.</p>","PeriodicalId":14071,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Legal Medicine","volume":" ","pages":"2189-2206"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12354611/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143795158","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Literature reviews: typology and forensic applications.","authors":"Ademir Franco, Wahaj Anees, Débora Moreira, Cauane Blumenberg, Marcelo Napimoga, Luiz Renato Paranhos","doi":"10.1007/s00414-025-03514-1","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00414-025-03514-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Secondary research models, such as literature reviews, are designed to summarize existing primary data. Literature reviews serve distinct purposes depending on their methodology and scope. In forensic science, they have been widely used to recover historical information, facilitate bibliometric investigations, compile and compare analytical techniques, promote best practices, and support decision-making. This study presented a comprehensive description of common literature review types, namely (1) narrative, (2) integrative, (3) scoping, (4) systematic (with or without meta-analysis), (5) bibliometric, and (6) umbrella reviews, highlighting their specific characteristics and applications in forensic science. Forensic experts, students, instructors, and research authors and readers must be familiar with the typology and appropriate use of literature reviews to effectively select the most suitable approach for their studies and professional practice. In this context, the goal of academic research, as pursued in the present work, is to strengthen forensic knowledge, enhance theoretical rigor, and ultimately improve practices in the field through education in scientific research methodology.</p>","PeriodicalId":14071,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Legal Medicine","volume":" ","pages":"2503-2517"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144110627","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Automated identification of unknown decedents: matching postmortem CT images with clinical databases.","authors":"Andreas Heinrich, Michael Hubig, Ulf Teichgräber, Gita Mall","doi":"10.1007/s00414-025-03528-9","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00414-025-03528-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The maxillary sinus plays an important role in the forensic identification of unknown deceased individuals. This study aimed to evaluate whether matching postmortem computed tomography (CT) images from virtual autopsies with antemortem CT examinations from a clinical database enables reliable identification using computer vision (CV) techniques. From ten virtual autopsies, CT images of the maxillary sinus were selected for comparison against 853 antemortem CT examinations from 738 individuals. A total of 60,255 antemortem CT slices underwent image processing, CV feature extraction, and were stored in an antemortem CV database. The number of matching points between CV features of the postmortem image and the antemortem reference image served as an indicator of identification accuracy. The identification rate was 50% (5/10) at rank 1 (with the sought identity having the highest number of matching points), 80% (8/10) at rank 2, and 100% (10/10) at rank 7 among the 738 potential identities. Challenges were observed when the antemortem reference CT examination depicted only parts of the maxillary sinus or when injuries were present. Additionally, postmortem imaging should closely replicate antemortem imaging standards to maximize the number of CV matching points. In conclusion, the findings suggest that it is feasible to identify individuals using postmortem CT images from virtual autopsies in combination with a clinical database. However, postmortem imaging should ideally adhere to clinical imaging standards to achieve more CV matching points for the sought identity with the antemortem reference.</p>","PeriodicalId":14071,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Legal Medicine","volume":" ","pages":"2251-2262"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12354114/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144136134","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Exploratory study on source identification of saliva stain and its TsD inference based on the microbial relative and absolute abundance.","authors":"Xi Wang, Xi Yuan, Yifeng Lin, Qiong Lan, Shuyan Mei, Meiming Cai, Fanzhang Lei, Bonan Dong, Ming Zhao, Bofeng Zhu","doi":"10.1007/s00414-025-03456-8","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00414-025-03456-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In recent years, it has become a major research trend to obtain the microbial relative abundance in common body fluid stains at the crime scenes through 16S rRNA next generation sequencing to explore the effectiveness in forensic application. However, few scholars have combined the determination of tissue sources of body fluid stains with the inference of time since deposition (TsD) based on the relative and absolute abundance of microorganism in the same sample in a single study. Therefore, we preliminarily used the four abundant saliva-related bacteria to distinguish fresh saliva, saliva stains (exposure ≤60 days) from the four kinds of fresh body fluids and epidermal tissue, simultaneously assessed the temporal variation regularities in both microbial relative and absolute abundance in these saliva stains. Quantitative real-time PCR results demonstrated that fresh saliva samples and saliva stains exposed for up to 60 days still retained two or more abundant saliva-related bacteria, demonstrating sufficient discriminative power to identify saliva stain from other four kinds of body fluids and tissue. Microbial compositions and temporal analyses of 56 saliva samples revealed that many phyla and genera with abundance higher than 1% had different temporal variation regularities in relative and absolute abundance data, except for some genera such as Neisseria, etc. Beta diversity analysis indicated greater differences in absolute quantitative data among fresh saliva samples and saliva stains at different time points compared with relative quantitative data. The support vector machine (svm) model based on microbial relative or absolute abundance both have the prediction accuracy higher than 0.8 in classifying saliva stains deposited at 1 h, 1 day, and 7 to 60 days. This study combined the tissue origin identification and TsD inference of saliva stains, and the absolute quantitative technology was applied for the first time to the TsD inference of saliva stains. And the results indicated that using the absolute quantitative technology might be more suitable for early TsD inference (within 14 days) of saliva stains in this study, which helped to accurately infer the TsD of saliva stains, providing an important clue for forensic investigation.</p>","PeriodicalId":14071,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Legal Medicine","volume":" ","pages":"2063-2075"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143986667","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}