Zusammenfassung
Reliable determination of the postmortem interval (PMI), based on the evaluation of human skeletons or single bones, is often limited by a lack of specific methods. Therefore an attempt was made to develop a new method to narrow down the PMI based on analyses of the specific activity concentrations of the radionuclides Th-228 and Ra-228 in human bones. The scientific background of this method is ...
Zusammenfassung
Reliable determination of the postmortem interval (PMI), based on the evaluation of human skeletons or single bones, is often limited by a lack of specific methods. Therefore an attempt was made to develop a new method to narrow down the PMI based on analyses of the specific activity concentrations of the radionuclides Th-228 and Ra-228 in human bones. The scientific background of this method is explained. In samples of 38 human bones alpha-spectrometric analyses of the specific activity concentration of thorium and gamma-spectrometric analyses of the specific activity concentration of radium were performed. The activity ratios between Th-228 and Ra-228 were calculated. The performed analyses showed accordance with the few data published in the currently available literature. The theory that the presented method is useable for determination of a PMI between a period of about 2 months and 10 years was corroborated. Some analytical improvements are required to allow optimal use of this important forensic tool.
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