A 49-year-old woman was found dead in her apartment after a fire in a residential building in Germany. The woman was being cared for by an acquaintance, who was the owner of the apartment. He brought her a meal every day, but she had not touched these for two days before the outbreak of fire. The police suspected arson by the homeowner because after detecting the fire, instead of contacting the local fire department, he called a police station in another federal state far away from the location of the fire.
Fig.1 4th degree burns on the head.
An autopsy at the Institute of Legal Medicine was performed on the woman’s body the day after the fire. The decedent’s weight and height were 94 kg and 163 cm respectively. The head and back of the body showed burns as high as 3rd and 4th degree. The legs and stomach were only slightly burned (1st degree) because of protection from several layers of thick clothing that she was wearing at the time. The presence of livor mortis could not be proven. Observations made during the autopsy suggested that the woman was not alive when the fire started. Interestingly, the organs showed signs of putrefaction. Both chemicotoxicological analysis and examination of blood alcohol level suggested that the woman had not taken any alcohol or drugs recently.
Fig.2 Very few burns were observed on the legs. A deep pressure ulcer projected onto the right anterior pelvic spine.
The cause of death was determined to be hypothermia, most likely due to gastrointestinal hemorrhage. Exposure to the fire occurred postmortem. It was therefore assumed that the woman died a few days before the outbreak of the fire. However, there were no indications that violence caused her death.
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