Studies in Identification and Reconstruction. No. 11
| Author | Sydney Smith |
| Date | 01 July 1941 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X4101400304 |
| Published date | 01 July 1941 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Studies in Identification and
Reconstruction.
No.
11
By SYDNEY
SMITH,
M.D.
Department
of Forensic Medicine, University of
Edinburgh
THE following case has a certain interest in connection
with identification inasmuch as there was a deliberate
attempt to deceive the authorities by substituting one body
for another in order to enable a charge of murder to be made.
It
concerns an Egyptian peasant who had two wives,
Zenab and another, Zenab being the older.
Under
Moslem
law, as you are no doubt aware, a person is allowed to marry
four wives, and thus plurality of wives is a potent source of
domestic unhappiness, and a serious cause of crime.
The
wives are usually jealous .of each other and of each other's
children, and serious quarrels in the family and between the
relatives of the different wives are a common occurrence.
Usually the most recent wife is the younger and more attrac-
tive, and this inevitably leads to the neglect of the older; but,
on the other hand, the older wife often wields more authority
and is more able to cause mischief.
In
this particular case the husband was on bad terms
with Zenab, and had been known to have quarrelled seriously
with her. On March 27th she disappeared, and her relatives,
especially her brother, Said, who, by the way, was completely
blind, suspected that she had been murdered by her husband
and the body secretly disposed of, and communicated his
suspicions to the police.
The
house of her husband was
searched
but
nothing was found, and a prolonged investigation
failed to throw any light on the whereabouts of the missing
woman or whether she had been killed or not.
Hearsay evidence was obtained that the husband had
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