How long after a death can an autopsy for cause of death still be likely found? My brother allegedly committed suicide by hanging 32 years ago. Now it comes out that my brother's wife was convicted of the murder of her first husband. My brother was his second wife.
Do you recall a few episodes back of Dr. G and the "choking" game and how the burn was straight around the neck? She stated that if it was hanging that resulted in the death, the burn around the neck would be on an angle. I have a copy of the autopsy for my brother and it states that the burn was from the top of his thyroid and around the bottom of the nape. Also, there were no neck fractures and the spinal cord was not cut/broken.
From neighbors of the farm where my brother lived, I learned that at the time of my brother's death, she was having an affair with the person that did the autopsy.
Five years after my brother's death, this same woman married a person who was in prison for "double-life" because he had murdered a state policeman.
My brother was a large man - 6 foot and 190 pounds. His wife weighed about 120 pounds. Therefore, if she murdered him and then hung him up to cover the cause of death, she could not have done it alone. I have no idea of how she could have done it - render him helpless - and then hang him. Gun shot? Poison? Strangle him? etc.
So my bottom line question is that after being buried for 32 years, would there be enough left on the body/skeleton to determine true cause of death? What about the "burn" - would enough skin be present to still show it (parallel or on angle)?
I also have learned that the body actually decomposes faster in an air-tight casket. My brother was buried in an air-tight casket.
Addendum to my previous post. I don't know how I missed it, but reading the autopsy report again it states there were no "scars, tattoos, or identifying features on the surface of the body" and "The penis has been circumcised."
Well my brother had a large tattoo in the upper portion of his right arm. Also, he WAS NOT circumcised.
With this in the autopsy report, it appears that the autopsy WAS NOT done on my brother.
