The perfect crime: myth or reality?

Am J Forensic Med Pathol. 1998 Sep;19(3):290-3. doi: 10.1097/00000433-199809000-00019.

Abstract

The primum movens of a forensic autopsy is to track down the crime. The perfect crime can be defined as one which will never be suspected and/or one for which the criminal will never be arrested. We have reported several cases that have been adjudicated or are being adjudicated, and we show how actual homicides could have been taken for accidental deaths, suicides, or even natural deaths.

Publication types

  • Case Reports

MeSH terms

  • Accidents, Traffic
  • Adult
  • Asphyxia / etiology
  • Asphyxia / pathology
  • Burns / pathology
  • Crime*
  • Diagnosis, Differential
  • Drowning / pathology
  • Female
  • Firearms
  • Forensic Medicine / methods*
  • Homicide
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Poisoning / pathology
  • Suicide
  • Wounds, Gunshot / pathology