Death scene investigation and autopsy proceedings in identifying the victims of the terror attack on the Breitscheidplatz in Berlin 19th December 2016

Abstract

We describe and discuss the forensic mission after the terrorist attack on the Breitscheidplatz in Berlin on 19th December 2016, focusing on co-operation with police authorities, and the injury patterns of the deceased. Even after massive blunt trauma, severe injury patterns are often unrecognizable by visual inspection of the body ("Casper's sign"), which could instill false security among rescuers or, as happened on the Breitscheidplatz, may lead to distress or even trauma in rescue personnel when obviously primarily uninjured patients die suddenly.

Keywords: Blunt trauma; Casper’s sign; Death scene investigation; Disaster victim identification (DVI); Forensic autopsy.

Fig. 1

“Corridor” of the truck (from [1]) with overview of the positions of the deceased in the “corridor” and under the truck

Fig. 2

Dental reconstruction for identification purposes according to post-mortem computed tomography data

Fig. 3

Example of the injury patterns of the deceased obtained from the post-mortem computed tomography data showing severe chest and pelvic trauma after truck rollover/impact trauma

Fig. 4

Representative example of an injury pattern after truck rollover showing incomplete rollover trauma with massive left-sided crush injuries to the trunk. On the contralateral side, the displacement of the internal organs caused the right liver lobe to burst (from [1])