Abstract
The presence of autopsy marks in human skeletal remains indicates a medicolegal procedure related to ascertaining the cause and manner of death. We present here four cases where signs of autopsy were observed in the remains recovered from mass graves and cemeteries of prisoners from the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), victims of extrajudicial executions, and of death in prison, respectively. With respect to the former, historical evidence indicate that during the first weeks after the coup, official removal of cadavers and autopsy procedures were carried out to the first victims of extrajudicial killings, whose corpses were found abandoned in the road. Once the civil war was established and systematic extrajudicial killings were systematic, official military orders were issued to stop standard forensic proceedings. Therefore, autopsy marks observed in the remains exhumed from mass graves located in cemeteries may be indicative of an earlier chronology of the killings, and this information proved to be relevant for the identification process in one of the cases presented. In a cemetery of political prisoners, autopsy signs were also observed in two skeletal remains and in the official records of two prisoners, a corroboration of information also relevant for the identification process. These findings indicate that autopsy marks can be found in the remains of victims of human rights violations exhumed from cemeteries. Skeletal and archival information could be useful for the identification process in other cases of large-scale violence, where the first victims of extrajudicial executions were buried unidentified in cemeteries after autopsy procedures.
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Notes
This information comes from Dr. Claudia Garrido (Special Unit of Forensic Identification, Forensic Service of Chile) and from the senior author (F.E.), who has been called as an international forensic expert by the Chilean Government to collaborate in diverse cases related to the identification and determination of the cause and manner of death of victims of the Pinochet's dictatorship.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the families for the trust deposited in our team and the patience along the identification process. We also would like to thank Manuel Monge for his help in the archival research in the case of La Carcavilla. Dr. Claudia Garrido kindly agreed to share her experience in the Chilean case. This research is part of the project financed by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness CSO2012-32709.
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Ríos, L., Martínez, B., García-Rubio, A. et al. Marks of autopsy and identification of victims of human rights violations exhumed from cemeteries: the case of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). Int J Legal Med 128, 889–895 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-013-0896-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-013-0896-6