Letter to the editor: the successful identification of a scuba diver’s corpse after 26 years of submersion

Excerpt

Forensic investigation in the case of bodies recovered from water is still one of the most challenging tasks for forensic pathologists, due to the difficulties related to decomposition and currents’ effect that can move the corpse to great distances prolonging the time before pulling out. Such issues regard mainly on the identification and determination of postmortem interval and cause of death, especially in case of long submersion periods that can last many months or years. Even though the recovery of corpses in an aquatic context is quite common in forensic practice, little is known about decomposition processes underwater and about the best approach and procedures to adopt in these peculiar circumstances. Bodies’ bad preservation is thought to prevent the analysis for identification through DNA profiling, jeopardizing the entire investigation about death circumstances. In fact, the established methods commonly used for DNA extraction and sequencing in ancient specimens are not meant for personal identification, because they are unsuitable to provide DNA of enough quality and quantity to perform, i.e., short tandem repeat (STR) profiling [1]. In decomposed bodies, the identification could be performed only through DNA profiling and comparison with a next of kin, considering the advanced decomposition, causing the loss of entire body parts that make impossible visual recognition and radiographic and dental comparisons. The present letter aims to report the successful identification, through DNA extraction, amplification, profiling, and comparison with the missing man’s mother of a body belonging to a scuba diver, who disappeared into the waters of Garda Lake in 1992. In addition, the extensive forensic investigation carried out on the corpse provided useful information, never reported before, about the development of postmortem phenomena in a very peculiar aquatic environment. …