Taking out a buried corpse from the grave for postmortem examination is called "Exhumation". Exhumation is a very important procedure, which is not performed frequently during criminal investigation or prosecution in Turkey. Forensic reasons that require this procedure include burial without a burial license, new evidence obtained after burial and suspicion of murder, identification of the deceased person or insufficient initial autopsy results. The aim of this study is to evaluate the exhumation procedures for criminal investigations and prosecutions carried out in İzmir, Turkey between 2011 and 2018 in terms of compliance with legal and judicial anthropological principles. In this context, the exhumation records of the cases whose autopsies were performed by the Morgue Department of Izmir Branch of the Forensic Medicine were evaluated. In our study, there were 66 cases; 42 male (63,6%) and 24 female (36,4%). The mean postmortem period was 364,93 days. The highest rate of exhumation reasons was "burials without dead examination-autopsy and inhumation license" with 45,5% (n=30). The bodies were completely skeletonized in 4 (6.1%) cases. It is a team work to remove the corpses and collect the necessary evidence in the process of exhumation. Although each case has its own characteristics, we believe that it is necessary to apply some common principles and to benefit from the knowledge and experience of experts in different fields according to the need, and that the views, suggestions and contributions of forensic anthropology experts will add great value to the investigations.