Evaluation of the addiction history of a dead woman after exhumation and sectional hair testing

In Greece, sectional hair analysis, in addition to clinical examination, ha s been used as a valuable tool for the confirmation of a person's history o f drug use. The present report concerns the toxicologic analysis of the exh umed remains and hair samples of an 18-year-old woman. Postmortem toxicolog ic analysis of blood and urine confirmed recent opiate and cannabis use and indicated that death was associated with heroin abuse. Several months late r, the woman's family asked for exhumation and reexamination of the body, i nsisting that the cause of death was homicide. The investigating judge orde red exhumation and new medicolegal examination of the body. The investigati on of the drug profile along the hair shaft was undertaken by analyzing hai r sections 1 cm from the hair root for morphine, 6-monoacetylmorphine, hero in, and cannabinoids. The total lengths of the hair samples ranged from 8 t o 11 cm. The total morphine levels in the hair sections corresponding to th e 3-month period before death were significantly lower (1.5-2.85 ng/mg) tha n those of the 4- to 10-month period before death (7.4-14.8 ng/mg). An inte rpretation of these results may be occasional drug use (with considerable a ttenuation of use during the last 3 months before death). Decrease of toler ance to heroin caused by abstinence and relapse in use could have been the cause of death.