In some cases that you might be involved in as a Forensic Odonto-logist, no identification is necessary. In the following case we could with a high probability exclude a suicide as the cause of death by means of making a postmortem exam. Later on it became apparent that it was an assault and manslaughter.

It is early morning hours in one of Stockholm´s suburbs. An assistant nurse working in a nearby hospital is on her way home after a night's work. Suddenly she can see a female sitting in a window on the sixth floor in a high rise building with her leg still inside the flat. She seems to be fighting or wrestling with someone else inside the flat and finally she falls down and hits the ground hard. She dies in the ambulance on her way to the hospital some minutes later.

The exam of the apartment and with the male living in the flat gives the following information. The male, we can call him Svensson, is since some time living together with the dead female, Eva. Both of them are narcotic abusers and Eva prostitutes herself to finance their drug habits.

Svensson relates the following story to the Police about what has happened during the morning:

Eva comes home around 7.30 am and is a bit confused. She goes into hysterics and scratch Svensson in his face and she even scratches herself. To stop the bleeding from their faces and also to calm down Eva, Svensson says he gets an ice cube box from the freezer, to try to place it against her head and face. But as he says, during this she hits her head herself against the box, thus creating more damage to her face. After that she runs herself to the window and jumps out, in vain he says he tried to stop her.

During the examination of the flat, a large state of disorder was found. Much furniture had fall over, indicating that some fighting had taken place. In several places tracks of blood were found. On the floor in the bedroom two human teeth (a canine and an incisor) were found.

 The police now ask Forensic Odontologists for assistance. During the autopsy of Eva, we find that the teeth 22 and 23 are missing, the same teeth were the ones found in the bedroom. Several other teeth indicated a trauma to the jaws, which probably not can have been brought about during Eva´s downfall. Besides a luxation in 24 and 25, the surrounding marginal bone in this area had a fracture and also 21 was lingual luxated.

The lower jaw was divided in three fragments from fractures in area 34/35 and 37. This injury indicated that Eva had had a trauma to the left side of the jaws. When she fell down, she landed up in her back according to the witness.

Eva had apparently been exposed to considerable assault before she falls and later on Svensson confessed and was condemned for causing her death.