[Possibilities for toxicologic evidence in adipocere formation and postmortem interval of several years]

It is reported on a 31-year-old man, whose dead body was found together with numerous packets of poisons and medicaments in a forest after a post-mortem period of nearly 3 years. Despite advanced skeletization and complete transformation of the still existing residual soft tissues to adipocere, highly toxic concentrations of two heavy metals (cadmium: 0.30 mg/kg; thallium: 0.91 mg/kg) and minor levels of three organic substances (phenobarbitone: 0.32 mg/kg; nordazepam: 0.14 mg/kg; salicylic acid: 0.04 mg/kg) were detected in adipoceratous samples. Even if it is not possible to derive similar blood levels from post-mortem values, the cause and manner of death (suicidal intoxication) could be clarified with the necessary degree of certainty. Few comparable literature reports either deal with exhumations or non-toxic concentrations of substances in morphologically better preserved adipoceratous bodies. Our case demonstrates that toxicological analyses may contribute to the clarification of the cause of death even if advanced adipocere formation with a longer post-mortem interval is present.