‘Hiding in plain sight’ – mass disasters and murder

Abstract

The majority of homicides do not occur in mass disasters but are often solitary events. This enables medicolegal investigations to be targeted around the features of a specific case. Mass disasters may, however, result in a large numbers of bodies being brought in over relatively short periods of time. Such disasters may also occur in isolated locations with limited resources and facilities resulting in full autopsies not being undertaken, with faster processing of cases than is usual. For this reason it is possible that injuries due to inflicted trauma may not always be identified. Given the varied circumstances of mass disasters, ranging from the London Blitz of WWII to the 2004 South East Asian tsunami, the possibility of concealed homicides should always be considered.