Forensic Investigation Of The Missing In Kosovo: Gunshot Injury In A Skeletonized Body With Adipocere Formation

An international forensic team in Kosovo continues the investigations of human remains that are found in graves after the Western Balkans conflicts. Every body of human being has the right to receive care, identification and determination of manner and cause of death and at the end a decorous burial-place. A body was found in Vushtrri/Vučitrn Municipality partially skeletonized and with different degree of post-mortem changes, mostly with adipocere formation. There were holes in the anterior and posterior part of the left side of a winter coat and of a cardigan (lumbar region); on the green jacket only a hole in the anterior part of the left side was clearly visible, because of mud clots covering mostly the posterior side. Ribs and both scapulae presented taphonomic changes; multiple fractures of the face bones, probably post-mortem, were also present. At autopsy the fracture of the 12th rib (posterior side, 7.5cm from the vertebra) was found and in its surroundings some soft tissues were present almost with adipocere formation covering the bones. A gentle removal of tissues has permitted to identify a round injury in the soft tissues covering the rib fracture (diameter of about 1cm); opening the aorta in its length permitted to observe another round injury of the left part at the thoraco-abdominal passage with a diameter of about 1cm and fine irregular margins. The forensic anthropological evaluation identified a dark haired male body with an estimated stature of 172cm (+/- 3.3.cm) and an estimated age range of 28-38 years. Forensic examination and autopsy of a decomposed and skeletonized body could be very challenging, but a meticulous forensic approach in the dissection of the soft tissues covered with adipocere has consented to discover in this case important elements to reconstruct manner and cause of death. The holes in the left side of the clothing covering the trunk, the fractured 12th rib (posterior side), the injury of the aorta on the left side, are converging elements for identifying a single gunshot wounds of the trunk. The shooting direction was from the posterior to the anterior part, slightly oblique from lateral to medial. Until now a DNA personal identification of the body was not possible and DNA samples from the left femur are still waiting a comparison analyses because of a lack of information about possible identity.