Unusual injury pattern in a case of postmortem animal depredation by a domestic German shepherd

A case is presented of a 38-year-old woman with skeletization of the head, neck, and collar region and a circumscribed 26-cm x 19-cm defect on the left chest with sole removal of the heart through the opened pericardium but undamaged mediastinum and lungs. The injuries showed V-shaped puncture wounds and superficial claw-induced scratches adjacent to the wound margins that have been described as typical for postmortem animal depredation of carnivore origin and derived from postmortem animal damage by the woman's domestic German shepherd. The circumscribed destruction of the left chest with unusual opening of the pericardium is explained by the physiognomy of the muzzle of the German shepherd and differs from previous reports. Any case presented as postmortem animal mutilation should be viewed with skepticism and undergo a full autopsy.