The Investigation for Damage Patterns by Experimental Detonations of a Hand Grenade

Korean J Leg Med. 2010 Nov;34(2):108-15. Korean.

Departments of Forensic Medicine, Scientific Investigations Laboratory, Criminal Investigation Command, Ministry of National Defense, Seoul, Korea, ecc88@hanmail.net

Deaths caused by grenades hardly occur except for during wartime, and can be seen as a particular incident that can be observed only within the military or by acts of terrorism. However, there has never been any data which tried to analyze the damage patterns through mock grenade explosions. So far, the processes leading to deaths were merely inferred by reconstructing the situation with limited intelligence after the incidents have already occurred. Therefore, the authors believe that having mock grenade explosions in order to compare and study the observances with those of the actual incident will be helpful for a more precise and objective medical jurisprudence, and thus have summarized the damage patterned obtained on 8 butchered pigs, that were 6~8 months old, about 100 cm in length and 70~100 kg in weight by photographing with radioactive rays and running autopsies after detonating grenades on them. In conclusion, if there was extensive loss of body parts, the grenade probably exploded when in contact with the lost body parts. If fractures were found the grenade is likely to have detonated contacting or within 25 cm of distance with the body, and if there were no lacerations or loss of body parts the grenade probably exploded at a distance of at least 50 cm. If soot was prevalent on the deceased’s body, the grenade is likely to have exploded within a distance of 25 cm from the body at a free floating state, in which it was not in contact with the ground or the body. Lastly, if no soot was found, the grenade most probably detonated at a distance of 50 cm or more. The posture or the direction of the body cannot give precise clues of the victim’s state before theexplosion, and a hasty presupposition could be very dangerous in case of contact explosions especially.

Key words : explosive agent, bomb, suicide, homicide

Original article