Citation

Pollak S, Vycudilik W. Arch. Kriminol. 1986; 178(1-2): 25-34.

Vernacular Title

Arzneimittel als Identifizierungsmerkmal. Nachweis von Melperon (Buronil) in

Copyright

(Copyright © 1986, Verlag Schmidt-Romhild)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

2876693

Abstract

The body of a 76-year old female pensioner was recovered from the Danube as adipoceratous torso after the person had been missing for almost two years. Identification first of all based on comparing postmortem and radiological findings which revealed correspondence of numerous features. The missing woman had been receiving long-term drug therapy of melperone (active substance of the neuroleptic Buronil) in doses of 25 mg three times daily. Combined gas chromatography and mass spectrometry succeeded in detecting the characteristic mass fragment of melperone in the adipoceratously transformed bone marrow of the water-logged corpse; in the remaining soft tissues outside the bones the concentration was below detection range. The reported case exemplifies that demonstration of low drug levels resulting from therapeutic ingestion can contribute to the identification of extensively decomposed bodies and to the correct relating of severed parts.

Language: de