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Geocaching is a high-tech treasure-hunt game that uses GPS-enabled devices or smartphone apps to find cleverly hidden treasures marked by GPS coordinates that are shared online. Like any other outdoor activity, geocaching is associated with risks of falls, environmental injuries, asphyxia and natural events. Despite the apparent risk of serious injury and potential death, no relevant reports aiming to identify the characteristics of geocaching-related deaths have appeared in the medical literature to date. We report a case of an experienced geocacher who was found suspended from a bridge pillar with his climbing ropes and helmet straps twisted across his face and neck; he had apparently attempted to rappel from a 30-m-high railway bridge to find a geocache. A recording of the rappelling sequence from the camera found on the chest strap assisted in reconstructing what had actually happened. An autopsy confirmed that the cause of death was asphyxiation due to hanging, with the occlusion of the external airways and positional asphyxia serving as contributory factors. The salient features of this unusual case are discussed, and several forensic issues of geocaching are highlighted.

The concept of spontaneous combustion has huge appeal as an historical fiction but it has no scientific background. However, in some deaths involving fire, a body can burn away virtually completely with minimal thermal destruction to the neighboring environment. We report an extraordinary case of the self-immolation of an elderly woman who set herself on fire with suicidal intentions. The unusual appearance and location of the body closely resembled the phenomenon of so-called spontaneous human combustion because the upper parts of the body were almost totally destroyed by fire, while the legs and surrounding structures remained almost untouched by flames. The results of all investigations proved that the woman set fire to her body using a box of matches and accelerants (concentrated ethanol and a solid firelighter). Near-total combustion of her body subsequently occurred during the postmortem period. The development of alleged spontaneous human combustion requires the following: ignition (external heat source), fuel (molten human fat), a wick (e.g. charred and porous clothing, bedding, or ground), time, and an optimal microclimate for gradual burning.

Despite the availability of modern imaging and molecular tools, traditional autopsy, and laboratory findings remain the gold standard for the diagnosis of drowning. This article presents two cases of freshwater drowning in which hemolytic staining of the endocardium of the left heart chambers was observed at autopsy. One case was a suicidal drowning of an 84-year-old man, and the other case was an accidental drowning of an 86-year-old woman. In both cases, there was marked hemolytic staining of the endocardium of the left atrium and ventricle. The endocardium of the right heart chambers was clear and transparent in appearance. Hemolytic intimal staining of the aortic root was observed in one case. Gettler's test was positive in both cases. Hemolytic discoloration of the endocardium of the left heart chambers after freshwater drowning is analogous to hemolytic staining of the aortic root. Both staining patterns result from the hypo-osmolar hemolysis that occurs in the left heart chambers and systemic circulation after hypotonic fluid passes across the alveolocapillary membrane. Hemolytic discoloration of the endocardium of the left heart chambers at autopsy may support a diagnosis of freshwater drowning.