[Simulation of strangulation findings by postmortem rescue and transport measures]

Improper rescue or transportation of a corpse by gripping the neck or using a sling can cause traumatization that might erroneously suggest strangulation in subsequent autopsy. On the basis of 3 observations, postmortal damages which, at first sight, had seemed suspicious are presented and discussed. In the first case a drowned person's neck showed a dried skin line simulating a strangulation by ligature. The 2nd case dealt with a male person who had died ventricumbent in consequence of an apoplectic cerebral haemorrhage, and who had been lifted by embracing the neck shortly after death; at the post-mortem examination, massive blood extravasations were found in the cervical musculature. In the 3rd case, a strap was slung around the neck of a male epileptic--subsequently found to have served for carrying a saxophone. Both great hornes of the thyroid cartilage were fractured. Inquiry revealed that the undertakers had used the sling to hoist the corpse in which changes due to decomposition had already developed.