Do bone elasticity and postmortem interval affect forensic fractographic analyses?

• NCJ Number: 306761
• Journal: Journal of Forensic Science Volume: 68 Issue: 3 Dated: May 2023 Pages: 757-767
• Author(s): Jessica Skinner; Natalie Langley; Malin Joseph; James Herrick; Robert Brown; Brian Waletzki; Peter Goguen; Loukham Shyamsunder; Subramaniam Rajan
• Date Published: May 2023
• Length: 10 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2020-75-CX-0015
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute of Justice (NIJ)
• Corporate Author: Mayo Clinic
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Presented at the 74th Annual Scientific Conference of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, February 21–25, 2022, in Seattle, WA, USA.

Annotation

This article details study into forensic fractographic features of bone to determine if elasticity and postmortem interval affect forensic fractographic analyses.

Abstract

Forensic fractographic features of bone reliably establish crack propagation in perimortem injuries. The authors investigated if similar fracture surface features characterize postmortem fractures. Experimentally induced peri- and postmortem fractures were used to assess if fractographic features vary as bone elasticity decreases during the postmortem interval (PMI). Thirty-seven unembalmed, defleshed human femoral shafts from males and females aged 33–81 years were fractured at varying PMIs with a drop test frame using a three-point bending setup and recorded with a high-speed camera. Vital statistics, cause of death, PMI length, temperature, humidity, collagen percentage, water loss, fracture energy, and fractography scores were recorded for each sample. Results showed that fractographic features associated with perimortem fractures were expressed in PMIs up to 40,600 accumulated degree hours (ADH), or 60 warm weather days. Hackle was the most consistently expressed feature, occurring in all fractures regardless of ADH. The most variable characteristics were wake features (78.4%) and arrest ridges (70.3%). Collagen percentage did not correlate strongly with ADH (r = −0.04, p = 0.81); however, there was a strong significant correlation between ADH and water loss (r = 0.74, p < 0.001). Multinomial logistic regression showed no association between fractographic feature expression and ADH or collagen percentage. In conclusion, forensic fractographic features reliably determine initiation and directionality of crack propagation in experimentally induced PMIs up to 40,600 ADH, demonstrating the utility of this method into the recent postmortem interval. This expression of reliable fractographic features throughout the early PMI intimates these characteristics may not be useful standalone features for discerning peri- versus postmortem fractures. (Published Abstract Provided)