Descriptive study of autopsies in the Atlantic and Magdalena departments/Estudio descriptivo de las autopsias en los departamentos Atlántico y Magdalena

The present study is aimed to determine some epidemiological aspects related to homicides committed by hired killers with firearms. We conducted a data collection survey of historical records from the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences. The sample (n = 310) is composed of homicide victims in 2007 in the departments of Atlantico and Magdalena. We found that 93.5 % of the victims were male. Most of the victims (38.7 %) were found in the age range between 21 and 30 years old. A high percentage (32.9 %) of the victims were unmar- ried. The most common racial trait was the “mestizo” (94.2 %). A percentage of 48.4 % of the victims had a height between 161 and 170 cms. The days with higher incidence of killings were Mondays (19 %) and Fridays (18.4 %). The places where most of the murders happened were “in public” places with a percentage of 33.2 %. The most common number of bullet impacts was “2” with a 21.3 %. The most common body region impacted was on the head. Finally the paper presents the findings of the study.