Reliability of cut mark analysis in human costal cartilage: The effects of blade penetration angle and intra- and inter-individual differences

Identification of tool class characteristics from cut marks in either bone or cartilage is a valuable source of data for the forensic scientist. Various animal models have been used in experimental studies for the analysis of individual and class characteristics. However, human tissue has seldom been used and it is likely to differ from that of non-humans in key aspects. This study wishes to assess how the knife's blade angle, and both intra- and inter-individual variation in cartilage samples affect the ability of costal cartilage to retain the original class characteristics of the knife, as measured microscopically by the distance between consecutive striations. The 120 cartilaginous samples used in this study originated from the ribcage of 6 male cadavers which were submitted to autopsy at the North Branch of the National Institute of Legal Medicine, in Portugal. Three different serrated knives were purchased from a large department store, and were used in the experimental cuts. Samples of costal cartilage from 2 individuals were assigned to each knife. Each individual provided 20 cartilage samples. Cartilage samples were manually cut using each of the three knives, following two motions: one straight up-and-down cutting motion and parallel and one perpendicular to the blade's teeth long axis forward cutting motion. Casts of the samples were made with Mikrosil®. Image capture and processing were performed with an Olympus stereomicroscope and its software. The blade's penetration angle and inter-individual variation were shown to affect the identification of the tool class characteristics from the striation pattern observed in a kerf wall, although this seems to be related only to the degree of calcification of the costal cartilage. Intra-individual variation does not seem to significantly affect the identification of the tool class characteristics from the striation pattern observed in a kerf wall, for the same knife following the same motion. Although this study did not quantify the degree of calcification of the cartilage, this seems to be an important source of great variation regarding the interpretation of striation pattern in cartilage.