[Forensic Life] Cause of Death That the Public Can Accept

[Asia Economy] He lived alone for a long time until his late 40s. While working on a construction site in a small provincial city, he met a woman in her 30s who worked as a caf? waitress. She said she wanted to settle down now. He persistently insisted that they live together, saying he was truly sincere and a good person. The happiness of newlyweds only stayed briefly. Whenever he drank alcohol, he started to hit her. She, lamenting her unfortunate life, began drinking every day. Their relationship worsened. That day too, he came home drunk, feeling a bit hungry, but did not properly prepare a meal, and when money in his wallet was missing, he slapped her cheek. She left the house.

The next day at dawn, he called 119 (emergency services). He tearfully said that his wife, who was sleeping beside him, was not breathing. The responding 119 confirmed her death. The police questioned the man. He testified that he slapped her once, and she immediately left the house, and he did not know what happened afterward.

The autopsy revealed the cause of death as traumatic brain injury due to cerebral hemorrhage with extensive bleeding under the scalp. The prosecution arrested and indicted him for assault leading to death. The man denied the crime, claiming that the woman had drunk alcohol, came home, and fell, injuring her head. He presented a bruise on her right shoulder as evidence of the fall. Although there was a bruise on the woman’s right shoulder, it was an old bruise, not recent. Instead, fresh bleeding visible under the skin was found on the face, chest, abdomen, right leg, and the back of the head. The bruises on the face, chest, and abdomen were formed before death due to blows, and the bruise on the right leg was estimated to be finger-shaped, suggesting someone had gripped it strongly.

Reconstruction of the incident based on the body suggested that the man grabbed the woman’s leg strongly, causing her to fall and injure her head, and while she was down, he repeatedly struck her face, chest, and abdomen. Faced with scientific inference, the man confessed the truth: after slapping her cheek, he grabbed the fleeing woman’s leg strongly with his hand, threw her to the floor, and continued to assault her.

The greatest goal forensic medicine can offer to investigative agencies is the reconstruction of the incident. Inference can be made based on scientific evidence, that is, the traces left on the body. In our society, the term ‘suspicious deaths (疑問死)’ has been defined only as deaths suspected to have occurred due to direct or indirect unlawful exercise of public authority, especially after harsh political eras. However, the term suspicious deaths should be defined as all deaths where the circumstances are unclear. The last service a state can provide to its citizens is clear truth or confirmation of facts about death. Every time a large-scale disaster occurs, the public’s inability to accept and their anger stem from the state’s failure to meet the public’s desire for accurate and objective reconstruction of the circumstances of death. Hiding or distorting even small facts breeds uncontrollable distrust.

The final report on the mass shooting incident at Georgia Tech in the United States presents the tragic murder case with scientific evidence so clearly that there is no doubt about the situation. It is detailed enough to know the incident from start to finish. Only when the state accurately understands why and how citizens died can it implement policies to prevent and delay such events properly. As a forensic scientist, I earnestly hope that a national system capable of scientifically and objectively reconstructing unclear deaths will be established.

Yuseongho, Forensic Scientist