Some features of forensic medical assessment of punch-cut skin injuries caused by a tourist knife

Injuries from tourist and hunting knives are rare in forensic practice. The design of the blades of tourist and hunting knives have a significant impact on the morphological picture of stab wounds, which can cause difficulties to experts in resolving some issues.

At the time of the forensic examination of the corpse, the expert established that the man at home had been stabbed twice in the chest and stomach with one knife. Medical and forensic study showed that the wound on the chest was caused by a flat piercing-cutting instrument such as a knife, the blade of which in its mark-forming parts had a tip, one cutting blade, and a U-shaped butt in cross-section with clearly defined ribs, and the wound on the stomach was caused by a flat piercing-cutting weapon, the blade of which in its mark-forming parts had a tip and two cutting blades. Thus, the wounds were caused by different knives. However, after the investigator provided the probable instrument of injury (a tourist knife), it became clear that both injuries may have been caused by the same object.

The present case shows that in the absence of information about the traumatic stabbing and cutting object and use of only the data of forensic medical examination of the corpse and results of medical and forensic examination of the morphology of skin wounds, erroneous judgments are possible. Therefore, caution should be exercised when considering the possibility of wounding by one or more knives.