Forensics Quiz

This blog post is answering a quiz that was given to us in class. We are currently studying forensics in school and being able to determine causes of death from given scenarios. We were given a scenario last period, and now, need to hypothesize what happened to the victim.

The subject most likely died of internal bleeding due to a puncture through the heart. There were several major organs damaged during the accident. Some of these organs included the stomach, kidney, liver, lungs, and colon. These all could have suffered enough severe damage from the bullet and caused internal bleeding within the subject.

We know the victim was shot through the lateral side of his body with the bullet traveling through his torso. The bulled exited 5 cm. above the naval cavity in the umbilical region. This would match up with the suspected damaged organs.

There are other possible options for death, even though the internal bleeding through the heart was the most likely. The victim could have possibly survived the shot by having the bullet deflect within his body. From there, a possible head trauma could have occurred, damaging cerebral region which in turn would cause internal bleeding in the cranial cavity. Another possibility for the cause of death could have originated from the puncture in the lungs from the bullet. The lung would not be able to function properly, eventually collapsing, and being fatal to the victim.

Most likely out of these theories, the most likely cause of death was internal bleeding from the bullet passing through multiple major organs, but most importantly through the heart.