Cut-throats can be of homicidal, suicidal or accidental origin. In cases of death from a cut-throat, distinguishing the cause is one of the important functions in crime investigation. The features that differentiate suicidal and homicidal cut-throat injuries are the presence of hesitation cuts, depth of wound, signs of struggle, edges of the wound, etc. In the case of a suicidal cut-throat, it is not uncommon to find hesitation cuts but in a homicidal cut-throat, it is uncommon. We present a case of a homicidal cut-throat injury but with hesitation cuts and tailing over the neck, unlike the classical description of homicidal cut-throat injury. This resulted from a curved, sharp and moderately heavy weapon.

Here we report for the first time the SARS-CoV-2 detection in autolysed samples from an exhumed decomposed body post-thirty six days after death. Both naso-oropharyngeal swabs and visceral samples from the lung, intestine, liver, and kidney were collected from the body exhumed post-fifteen days after burial, stored in viral transport medium and in saturated salt solution respectively. Naso-oropharyngeal swabs showed the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 genome as identified by the amplification of viral E, N, RdRP, or ORF1ab genes by RT-PCR. Subsequent examination of tissues reveal the detection of the virus genome in the intestine and liver, while no detection in the kidney and lung. These results signify the genome stability and implicate the virus survival in decomposed swab samples and in tissues and thereafter in storage solution. Further results also indicate spatial distribution of the virus in tissues during the early stage of infection in the subject with no respiratory distress. Considering the presence of cool, humid, and moist location surrounded by the paddy fields, the presence of virus genome might also indicate that SARS-CoV-2 can persist for more than seven days on the surface of dead bodies similar to the Ebola virus, confirming that transmission from deceased subjects is possible for an extended period after death. These results further reaffirm the robustness of the RT-PCR aiding in the detection of viruses or their genome in decomposed samples when other methods of detection could not be useful. Key Words: SARS-CoV-2, Virus survival, Genome stability, Autolysis, RT-PCR.

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