An apparently jawless cadaver: A case of post-mortem slippage

Passer-by witnesses reported a human cadaver in woodland associated with an agricultural college to police in Northern Ireland. The cadaver comprised reasonably preserved feet, legs and pelvis, with poorly preserved arms and torso, lying with the torso down-slope abutting a fallen tree. A search of the area around the torso, and for some 20 m around, failed to find the cranium and mandible. The mandible was found, embedded inside the chest cavity. The cranium was found some 30 m away. The victim was later identified as a 24-year old drug addict who had absconded from a local hospital. Mapping of the area led us to speculate that he had tripped and fallen down-slope: other reasons for the body location were also considered. After death, the cadaver had further slipped down-slope forcing the mandible into the chest cavity: slippage of human remains is well-known in forensic and archaeological literature but not well documented. Knowledge of this process of cadaver ‘slip’ may save wasted police resources in future similar environments where the mandible, and possible other nearby bones appear missing yet are inside the body.