Diagnosing death by drowning in fresh water using blood strontium as an indicator

The interpretation of the level of strontium (Sr) in blood has been demonstrated to be useful in the diagnosis of death by drowning occurred in sea water, but its use in fresh water drownings is not so evident because of the low Sr concentration present in most of fresh water media. In this paper, we show a survey of the results obtained in the casework analysis of Sr in ventricular blood used in the diagnosis of drowning in 144 bodies found immersed in fresh water over a period of 10 years. Thirty-two percent of the immersion cases examined could be diagnosed as drownings with a reasonable degree of confidence. It is thought that this percentage of positive diagnoses could be largely improved in the case of blood samples taken a few hours after death.