True crime question--animal attacks mistaken for murder

I don't think this is *exactly* what you are looking for, but it is definitely an interesting death by animal.

When my brother-in-law was a reporter in Oregon he covered a story about a man that was killed and eaten by his pigs. There was quite a bit of speculation that foul play might have been involved, but that was ultimately dismissed and it was determined to be an accidental death. Of course, they didn't recover enough remains to be able to come up with a cause of death and their were no witnesses, so short of a confession....

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/01/14173510-70-year-old-oregon-farmer-eaten-by-his-hogs?lite

I know of a case or two that's not exactly what you asked but I'll mention as I'm not exactly sure what you're planning.

There are sometimes dead animals mistaken for people - often murdered people.

There was a case in CT where a house fire revealed what local cops thought was the body of an infant. An investigation followed - until they called in an expert who looked at the infants remains and mentioned the 'murder victim' was a rabbit.

I know of cops who were brought a skeletonized hand, found by a dog, who started an investigation until an expert decided it was a bear paw (they're very hard to tell from human hands, when skeletonized).

That happens. I can't think of a legitimate animal attack mistaken for murder, off the top of my head, past the same one you did, but I'll keep pondering.

This one is not proven, but I did read a theory that the victim's head injuries in the Michael Peterson case were actually caused by an owl attacking.

Sat Nam! (Literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

You might look into the case of Marcia Moore, a lady who went missing in the Boston area in the 1970s. Eventually, they found a skull that they proved by DNA was hers, but no one knows how she died--murder, accident or animal attack. It'll help locate the story to know that she was a well-known astrologer, and the subject of Yoga, Youth and Reincarnation by Jess Stern.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

I can't recall a case where an animal attack was mistaken for murder, but there have been many cases where animal attacks were considered murder. If yu sick a dog on someone, and teh dog kills them, that's murder. If you fail to control your dog, and it kills someone, that can be considered manslaughter. If you lock someone inside a horse stall, and the horse kills them, that's murder.

I strongly suspect there have been far more cases where someone used an animal attack to get away with murder, than cases of animal attack being mistaken as murder.

I've heard of cases where animals were thought to have been ritually killed by satanists but it turned out they'd died of natural causes then their eyeballs and other soft, accessible parts were eaten by ravens. You find the dead animal with the eyes and some other select parts removed...

some cases like this have been blamed on aliens too.

I also watched a documentary about people being killed by dingoes or feral dogs (can't remember which) in Australia, including adults, e.g. a lone backpacker. The lone backpacker had been missing for months (maybe years?) and was thought to have been murdered before his remains were found and it was established he'd been killed by dogs (or dingoes).

Sorry I can't remember any names or dates.

neandermagnon said:

I also watched a documentary about people being killed by dingoes or feral dogs (can't remember which) in Australia, including adults, e.g. a lone backpacker. The lone backpacker had been missing for months (maybe years?) and was thought to have been murdered before his remains were found and it was established he'd been killed by dogs (or dingoes).

Sorry I can't remember any names or dates.

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Sounds interesting. I wonder how it would be possible to determine that an adult had been killed by dingoes or feral dogs if their body had been in the bush for months, let alone years? I can't how to separate post mortem damage from a lethal attack. If anyone dies out there, everything's going to have a go, even the brush turkeys.

AFAIK, only two deaths have been attributed to dingoes: Azaria Chamberlain and a young lad on Fraser Island. In both cases there were witnesses. Recently most dingo attacks have taken place on Fraser I., where the animals are habituated to humans, but there were certainly issues at Uluru pre-Chamberlain. (In fact, they persisted for some time after that. One time I was there -- quite a while ago now -- I saw a couple sending their toddlers over to a campsite dingo to 'pat the dog'.)

I was hoping there might be a slashing-by-cassowary that had been mistaken for murder, but apparently not.

Helix said:

Sounds interesting. I wonder how it would be possible to determine that an adult had been killed by dingoes or feral dogs if their body had been in the bush for months, let alone years? I can't how to separate post mortem damage from a lethal attack.

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My understanding is that the presence or absence of blood staining generally reveals the time that injuries were inflicted. If the person is still alive when injured, they'll bleed. After death, the heart stops pumping, blood coagulates and injuries don't cause staining. So an expert would be able to tell whether a dingo ripped someone's arm off before or after their death.

Parametric said:

My understanding is that the presence or absence of blood staining generally reveals the time that injuries were inflicted. If the person is still alive when injured, they'll bleed. After death, the heart stops pumping, blood coagulates and injuries don't cause staining. So you should be able to tell whether a dingo has chewed someone's arm off before or after their death.

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Not months after death. They'd be pretty much skeletonised, unless they died in the NSW/Vic snowfields in winter.

If a dingo killed someone and then chomped on their remains, how could you possibly distinguish that from murder with post mortem interference from animals. There'd still be blood staining, because injury would be the cause of death. You could probably rule out animal attack if there were clear evidence of human intervention (ie knife marks, bullet marks on what remained), but in the absence of that, it'd be difficult, I'd have thought.

If a person was eaten by animals, there'd be marks on the bones from the animal's teeth.

Palaeoanthropologists have determined the cause of death in some skeletons of people who died tens or hundreds of thousands of years ago. There's one neanderthal skeleton dated to 70,000 years ago where scientists have determined that he was killed by a stone-tipped weapon being thrown at him (as opposed to being stabbed with it), striking his ribcage and probably piercing his lung, then he died of an infection from that wound about 2 weeks later.

You can find out a huge amount through bones. Even if only the skeleton remained, if the person was eaten by an animal, then there'd be marks on the bones from the animal's teeth. Human weapons make different kinds of marks (each weapon would make its own mark, assuming it had come in contact with any part of the skeleton) - additionally, there are ways to tell whether the injury happened before or after death.

Reach out to The Escapist, an RPG advocacy website run by Bill Walton. Some of the stuff you're looking for might fall into his neighborhood. He's been around for a while, and has some decent archives. He might be able to help.

This is definitely making me think of "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" by Edgar Allan Poe. Not that that was a real-life case, but it's a great story I remember loving in school.

veinglory said:

Hi all, I know we have some crime writers here so i hope you might remember cases fitting a specific scenario.

I am trying to identify any known cases where a death by animal attack was mistaken for murder (with or without conviction). I have run across these cases in the past but now cannot find them.

One case related to a dog attack on a young girl of which the parents were initially convicted, it was in the United States and probably happened about 15 years ago.

Any other cases would also be appreciated if you can recall them. the only one I am recalling right now is the infamous Azaria Chamberlain/Dingo case.

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The dog-case you're referring to is probably the Debbie Loveless/John Harvey Miller-case. (Convicted of murder of Debbie's 4-yo daughter April in November 1989, overturned in 1993.)