In all these cases, the object causing injury to the victim is of critical importance to the investigation.
Other weapons, tools, and objects like axes, machetes, screwdrivers, broken bottle necks, and swords can also be found. The most commonly used type of weapon is a single-edged, flat-bladed kitchen, pocket or folding knife. In addition, the aforementioned results were used to determine the orientation of the sword in relation to the cranial bone at the time of the respective impact.Ī majority of homicides and manslaughter cases are committed with sharp force. Furthermore, a mathematical approach in which the signatures of the marks from the skull bone and the test marks from the sword were compared by cross correlation confirms those findings. In addition, the marks and the test marks were scanned in 3D and examined in a visual on-screen comparison confirming the results from the light microscopic examination. One of the swords could be identified as the one responsible for the marks. Silicone casts of the marks were compared by light microscopy with casts of test marks of Japanese katana swords found at the crime scene. Three of those marks on the skull bone could be used for a forensic tool mark examination. The perpetrator attacked the victim with a sharp-edged weapon against the head, leaving several deep wounds on the back of the skull bone. This paper describes the variety of information that a tool mark analysis on human tissue can provide based on a case of multiple sharp violence.