A shirtless super-fan paints his body blue and dies from hypothermia before anyone notices, but at least he met his maker while supporting his favorite team!
Filed under: Causes of Death, Death & Dying, Death Investigation on August 30th, 2010 | No Comments »
Some scientific publications suggest that EtG and EtS may be detectable for longer periods of time than ethanol.
Filed under: Death Care News, Death Investigation on August 11th, 2010 | No Comments »
The lawsuit contended doctors at Baystate Medical Center (BMC) performed an autopsy, removing several organs, without the required consent of next of kin.
Filed under: Death Care News, Death Investigation on July 31st, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Have you ever wondered if one earthquake or flood or heat wave was more deadly than another? Although Wikipedia is eschewed by many scholarly readers, some pages contain fascinating (and sometimes unconfirmed) information. Their “List of natural disasters by death toll” is one such page, and you can find a warning on that page that most numbers are estimates and often are in dispute.
Filed under: Causes of Death, Death & Dying, Death Investigation on October 13th, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Did you know that the 1918 flu pandemic, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), was the origin for all flu pandemics during the past century? Although the flu existed before 1918, scientists later discovered that the 1918 flu had ties to the H1N1 flu that exists today. None of the viral descendants from 1918, however, approaches the pathogenicity of the 1918 parent virus.
Filed under: Causes of Death, Death & Dying, Death Investigation on September 28th, 2009 | No Comments »
How can you tell if an autopsy was conducted on an ancestor? Or, if you plan to conduct research on health, environment and correlations, can you use autopsy records for your work? Autopsy records in hospitals, medical examiner and coroner’s offices are usually kept for decades or longer. While family members can request and expect to obtain a copy of the autopsy report many years later, it may be difficult to obtain some autopsy records depending upon what you plan to do with those records. Some states require that the next-of-kin family member make the request.
Filed under: Death & Dying, Death Investigation, Other Legal Matters on August 20th, 2009 | No Comments »
News is escalating in Rocky Mount, as CNN and other venues visit this eastern North Carolina town to determine whether a string of recent murders is the work of a serial killer. According to one story, local authorities announced last month that the FBI was helping investigate the series of murders that date back to 2005. The bodies of five black women with similar profiles have been found partially clothed and abandoned in remote locations outside the city during the past few years, prompting national media attention.
Filed under: Death & Dying, Death Care News, Death Investigation on August 14th, 2009 | 1 Comment »
On 19-20 July 1916, the Battle of Fromelles was fought in France during World War I. It was the first time that Australian Imperial Forces (AIF) saw action on the Western Front, and 5,533 Australian soldiers were killed, wounded or taken prisoner in an operation that the Australian War Memorial describes as the “worst 24 hours in Australia’s entire history.” To compound the misery, the Germans buried the bodies of the Australian dead in mass graves shortly after the battle.
Filed under: Cemeteries, Death & Dying, Death Care News, Death Investigation on August 10th, 2009 | No Comments »
Do you want to be preserved for eternity once you’ve died? One solution to this problem of eternal preservation was discovered by Dr. Bill Bass (creator of the Body Farm) in 2006, when J.P. Richardson, III asked Dr. Bass to examine the body of his father upon exhumation. Richardson’s father – Jiles Perry Richardson, Jr. – was known as the “Big Bopper,” or the musician/songwriter who died in the plane crash that also killed Buddy Holly and Richie Valens in 1959.
Filed under: Cemeteries, Death & Dying, Death Investigation, Traditions, Wills & Estate Planning on August 9th, 2009 | No Comments »
Are you a hunter, hiker, construction worker or gardener? Chances that you’ll find human remains while conducting any of these activities are small, but findings do occur. And, these findings seem to occur on a regular basis, if news articles are any indication. Usually, the bones won’t be in order, such as the ones shown in the photograph to the left. Most likely, the upper portion of a skull or a jawbone is the portion of the body that most people recognize, and this finding may lead the discoverers to take that skull to the police.
Filed under: Death & Dying, Death Care News, Death Investigation on August 3rd, 2009 | No Comments »