An autopsy case: Unusual characteristics of stab wounds inflicted by a survival knife

A woman was stabbed 10 times and killed. The suspect confessed that he had used a thick (0.7 cm), single-edged survival knife with a serrated spine. However, the bilateral ends of the stab wounds appeared sharp. To address this discrepancy, we used pig skin to examine whether the knife could have been used to make the thin stab wounds observed. The widths of the pig skin wounds were approximately half the width of the knife and the ends of some wounds appeared sharp, particularly when the knife was held at a right angle. It was concluded that the suspect could have killed the victim using the survival knife. Similar pig skin experiments could be useful for forensic pathologists to determine whether a weapon of interest might have been used to inflict certain injuries.