The Compare Feature of ChromaTOF — Its Use in Forensic Chemistry to Assist with the Determination of the Cause of Death

In cases of accidental death or suicide, the determination of the cause of death is of extreme importance. During a real investigation into such a death, it was suspected that the deceased had died as a result of the ingestion of an industrial cleaning solution. By comparing the stomach extract of the deceased with a sample of the industrial cleaner, it was possible to determine if this had indeed occurred. This note describes this analysis using GC-TOFMS.