TY - JOUR
T1 - Assessment of skeletal changes after post-mortem exposure to fire as an indicator of decomposition stage
AU - Keough, N.
AU - L'Abbé, E. N.
AU - Steyn, M.
AU - Pretorius, S.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was funded by the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa (through M Steyn). Any opinions, findings and conclusions expressed in the article are those of the authors and therefore the NRF does not accept any liability in regard thereto. Thank you to Roelf Coertze, Melvin Trollope and the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences (UP) for supplying the pigs and the premises to conduct this study. Thank you to all staff at the Department of Anatomy for their continued support; M Bosman, G Lewis, AM Du Plessis, JH Meiring, C Venter, A van Schoor. A special thanks to J Myburgh for assistance in establishing the body farm, burning and collecting the remains.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd.
PY - 2015/1/1
Y1 - 2015/1/1
N2 - Forensic anthropologists are tasked with interpreting the sequence of events from death to the discovery of a body. Burned bone often evokes questions as to the timing of burning events. The purpose of this study was to assess the progression of thermal damage on bones with advancement in decomposition. Twenty-five pigs in various stages of decomposition (fresh, early, advanced, early and late skeletonisation) were exposed to fire for 30. min. The scored heat-related features on bone included colour change (unaltered, charred, calcined), brown and heat borders, heat lines, delineation, greasy bone, joint shielding, predictable and minimal cracking, delamination and heat-induced fractures. Colour changes were scored according to a ranked percentage scale (0-3) and the remaining traits as absent or present (0/1). Kappa statistics was used to evaluate intra- and inter-observer error. Transition analysis was used to formulate probability mass functions [. P(. X=. ji)] to predict decomposition stage from the scored features of thermal destruction. Nine traits displayed potential to predict decomposition stage from burned remains. An increase in calcined and charred bone occurred synchronously with advancement of decomposition with subsequent decrease in unaltered surfaces. Greasy bone appeared more often in the early/fresh stages (fleshed bone). Heat borders, heat lines, delineation, joint shielding, predictable and minimal cracking are associated with advanced decomposition, when bone remains wet but lacks extensive soft tissue protection. Brown burn/borders, delamination and other heat-induced fractures are associated with early and late skeletonisation, showing that organic composition of bone and percentage of flesh present affect the manner in which it burns. No statistically significant difference was noted among observers for the majority of the traits, indicating that they can be scored reliably. Based on the data analysis, the pattern of heat-induced changes may assist in estimating decomposition stage from unknown, burned remains.
AB - Forensic anthropologists are tasked with interpreting the sequence of events from death to the discovery of a body. Burned bone often evokes questions as to the timing of burning events. The purpose of this study was to assess the progression of thermal damage on bones with advancement in decomposition. Twenty-five pigs in various stages of decomposition (fresh, early, advanced, early and late skeletonisation) were exposed to fire for 30. min. The scored heat-related features on bone included colour change (unaltered, charred, calcined), brown and heat borders, heat lines, delineation, greasy bone, joint shielding, predictable and minimal cracking, delamination and heat-induced fractures. Colour changes were scored according to a ranked percentage scale (0-3) and the remaining traits as absent or present (0/1). Kappa statistics was used to evaluate intra- and inter-observer error. Transition analysis was used to formulate probability mass functions [. P(. X=. ji)] to predict decomposition stage from the scored features of thermal destruction. Nine traits displayed potential to predict decomposition stage from burned remains. An increase in calcined and charred bone occurred synchronously with advancement of decomposition with subsequent decrease in unaltered surfaces. Greasy bone appeared more often in the early/fresh stages (fleshed bone). Heat borders, heat lines, delineation, joint shielding, predictable and minimal cracking are associated with advanced decomposition, when bone remains wet but lacks extensive soft tissue protection. Brown burn/borders, delamination and other heat-induced fractures are associated with early and late skeletonisation, showing that organic composition of bone and percentage of flesh present affect the manner in which it burns. No statistically significant difference was noted among observers for the majority of the traits, indicating that they can be scored reliably. Based on the data analysis, the pattern of heat-induced changes may assist in estimating decomposition stage from unknown, burned remains.
KW - Burned bone
KW - Heat-induced changes
KW - Patterned thermal destruction
KW - Taphonomy
KW - Transition analysis
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/84918816949
U2 - 10.1016/j.forsciint.2014.10.042
DO - 10.1016/j.forsciint.2014.10.042
M3 - Article
C2 - 25460103
AN - SCOPUS:84918816949
SN - 0379-0738
VL - 246
SP - 17
EP - 24
JO - Forensic Science International
JF - Forensic Science International
ER -