Korean J Leg Med.  2006 Oct;30(2):168-176.

A Case Study for the Reconstruction of Crime Scene by Computer Simulation

• Park SJ
• Lee BW
• Seo JS
• Shon SK
• Park HS
• Park JC
• Bag JC
• Kim SH
• Kang HM
• Chae SW

Abstract

Especially in design of automobile, there are many professional softwares based finite element or multi-body like Madymo, Pam-Crash, Ansys. These program have been released almost every car maker and university. Also in accident reconstruction fields, there are some softwares like PC-Crash, HVE was developed. Unfortunately these programs for accident reconstruction are so general and its input data are so limited, it is very difficult or even impossible to analyze some special cases. In this study, we reconstruct two crime scenes using Madymo program. Although this program was developed for design of car, we apply to crime scene reconstruction. First case is regarding traffic accident. A car was fell under 5m from the road and turn over and then move about 40m. Finally the driver eject from the car. Second case is regarding suicide by hanging. When the police investigate the crime scene at first time, they assume that this crime is a murder case but we carried out autopsy and investigated the crime scene again and analyzed by computer simulation and finally find out this crime is suicide case not murder.

Keyword

crime scene; reconstruction; madymo; human model

MeSH Terms

Accidents, Traffic
Automobiles
Autopsy
Computer Simulation*
Crime*
Homicide
Humans
Police
Suicide