[MinervaXXIV]

Case Report
The victim was a 39 year-old male farmer who was helping a colleague plant onions in a farm field. His friend was driving a tractor towing a trailer that contained the onions. The trailer was linked to the tractor by a tongue and a shaft drive connected to the power take-off of the tractor, allowing the dump bucket to be tilted backwards by means of a lever located at the front of the trailer.

As the victim was leaning forward to operate the lever, the free end of the scarf he was wearing was caught by the turning shaft and wrapped around it, as well as the collar of his shirt. The scarf then slid around and clamped the victim’s neck, resulting in a strangulation-related decapitation by continued tightening.

The shaft was quickly turned off by the driver after the accident. The head was found a short distance away on the ground while the decapitated body was crouched on the ground, hanging from the shaft by clothing (Figs. 1a, 1b and 2).

Fig. 1 Posture of the headless body as it was found after the accident (a front view, b back view)


Fig. 2 Victim’s head resting on the earthy ground of the farm field

A small amount of blood was found at the scene.‬ Clothing wrapped around the shaft was cut by the persons present at the scene to release the body from the shaft (Fig. 3).‬


Fig. 3 Close-up view of the shaft after removal of the clothes wrapped around it

At autopsy, the man was about 1.74 m tall (head included) and weighted 71 kg. There was a complete decapitation with a roughly vertical severance line located between the third and the fourth cervical vertebrae (Fig. 4).


Fig. 4 Top view of the decapitated body, with the horizontal severance line located between the third and the fourth cervical vertebrae

A fracture‬ of the spinous process of the third cervical vertebra and a loss of the second intervertebral disk were noted and confirmed by X-ray (Fig. 5).


Fig. 5 Lateral radiograph of the victim’s head showing fractures of the lower jaw bone (arrow) and of the spinous process of the third cervical vertebra (arrowhead)

Soil residues were present on the‬ base of the head. Wound examination revealed minimal adjacent tissue damage. The wound margins were clear-cut and bloodless, with a sharply demarcated circular band-like abrasion zone surrounding the site of transection on both the cranial and caudal wound edges.

There were numerous fractures of both the hyoid bone and the larynx. The hyoid bone was found attached to the head segment, whereas the larynx was still linked to the inferior part of the neck (except for the right superior horn of thyroid cartilage that had broken and had remained connected to the hyoid bone).
A comminuted fracture of the left part of the mandibular body was also noted. No other external marks of violence were identified, nor signs of asphyxia.

The internal examination revealed a right pneumothorax and evidence of blood aspiration in the upper and lower respiratory tract, with no significant pallor of the organs.

Histopathology of internal organs excluded any previous disease that would have contributed to the accident, while toxicological analysis performed on blood and urine was negative to any toxins, including alcohol.

Cause of death was decapitation and manner of death was determined to be accidental.

Moral of the story: scarf+machinery=☠️

[Tracy210t]

[Skeletoff]

The reason I come to this site is to remind myself of how fragile the human body is relative to machinery.

[morbidinterested]

Tragic story, fantastic post.

[Cathedral]

he's onion fertilizer. plow him under. bet a plump 'un 'll grow up outta that lustrous loam

[Riddla]

Damn, decapitated be sheer force

[Bratislava]

The head X-ray is a nice touch. Thanks for sharing.

[Karma]

Don’t wear a scarf near machinery. Poor bloke.

[Rigor]

Great post, love the xray image of the severed head!

[Watcher===]

Well shit.